Inam lands

 The Importance of Preservation in Environmental Conservation

1. Introduction

The biophysical environment is both a source and a sink for the used goods surrounding people and many other species. This makes it a very valuable asset. Yet to be managed and sustained, its value must be known and appreciated. Because of the environment's biophysical properties, its value is easily overlooked, misunderstood, or underestimated. Widespread in environmental conservation literature and as a goal of many environmental conservation organizations is another type of environment, one that is valuable because of what it can produce for a human patron. This type of environment, one of natural resource or ecosystem, is also a valuable asset, but a very different type of asset. Its value is easily recognized for it is the object of economic transactions. Here, its value relates to the transaction's profit, rate of return, cost, or benefit, and it can be evaluated by traditional financial and economic criteria. Research and programs of environment functions as providing value for human stakeholders in this latter manner. Most often it is used for food, fiber, mineral, or energy supplies, water resources, protection from hazardous events, miscellaneous materials, or waste locations. Scientific and professional presentations and discussions of conservation issues often assert that the objective of environmental conservation is also the preservation of environmental values. This goal is well articulated in the stated objectives and basic constitutions of many conservation organizations and agencies. What is meant by preservation? Why preserve? How to preserve? In comparison to the existence of preservation goals, there is very little formal treatment of these questions, particularly when compared to the present-day flood of economic approaches to evaluating the management of the environment for the variety of materials and attributes it can provide.

2. The Concept of Preservation

The complex web of connections that exist between human beings and nonhuman nature makes it possible for human flourishing to occur in a thriving and balanced biotic community. Recently, a distinction suggested by the work of the authors previously cited has been made between those ecosystems or parts of ecosystems which are managed in such a way that they retain a condition sufficiently close to their natural state as to allow the occurrence of biological communities representative of their original type (preserved areas) and those ecosystems or parts of them which have been significantly altered through human intervention and consequently require a very different method of management if particular human purposes are to be fulfilled. This second category of ecosystems communicates the features of the original natural system from which they have been derived only if great care is taken in managing the system, great amounts of non-renewable resources are committed to the system, and strict control is exercised over undesired biological, chemical, and physical reactions. Despite the complexity of the environmental problems faced and their roots, the polarization of the preservation of nature as an end in itself (an aesthetic, moral, and political aim) from the enhancement, maintenance, and management of nature for human well-being closes the issue in a dichotomy between intrinsic and instrumental value. This distinction induces a priority of ethical reasons for not spoiling.

2.1. Definition and Principles

What does it mean to say that we must respect the inherent value of certain natural entities? Why should we preserve valuable parts of the environment or require that these entities be managed in a particular way? The answers to these two questions are the subject of preservationist theories of environmental ethics. The term "inherent value" is frequently used in preservationist discussions, suggesting that certain natural entities have a worth that is independent of human interests. I stipulate that value is inherent in an object if that object has worth in itself or for its own sake; value is inherent in a natural object if it has worth in itself and not merely as a function of its capacity to produce benefits for other objects. From this perspective, then, if an object has inherent value, we are morally required to respect and protect it. Nor are we free to relax our moral responsibilities with respect to the objects having such value for the purpose of promoting some larger good if the means we use to promote that good are incompatible with the maintenance of the objects themselves. On this view, then, as a matter of ethical principle, certain natural entities are said to be ends in themselves, they have inherent worth, or, in philosophic terms, intrinsic value.

3. Preservation Practices and Techniques

While preservation is a somewhat abstract concept, it translates into specific practices, policies, and techniques that people can use to protect things they cherish. From saving open space to making sure that wetlands and their many processes do not disappear, the Level II effort personifies the notion of maintenance. Preservation is practiced when technicians, for example, propagate and hold forests in reserve for the marked and periodic wildlife species that need undisturbed quiet to rear and nurse their young. It runs head-on into many conventional attitudes of "progress" at a Level II. While preservation succeeds in some cases, it is a fact that precedent has supported private ownership and use of the natural resources, along with such traditional uses as commercial harvesting threatened species, all benefits. The techniques utilized to move up to a Level II management regime enable the type and range of benefits to be evaluated in a context of their actual costs. Since preservation practices determine a pace of resource use, maximum sustainable development, global provincial plans developed can be based on how much the community can retain under conditions; they also ride herd on value-free business propositions that disregard the long-term if countenanced to suggest to the public. Such mechanisms correct pricing strategies, institute practices, or even direct government to bankroll the desired level of realized costs as society actually has to bear them. Only public tallying and collection efforts have demonstrated that resources that today are in great demand are very scarce. By instituting so-called "polluter pays" laws, society can recover that part of its lost resource value from those who demand or degrade the resource while on the promise of tapping into more readily provided benefits.

3.1. Protected Areas

The preservation of large parks and reserves is combined with the technique of gathering biological data. Historical preservation in cultural heritage desirably keeps stories and legends that are valuable passed down to descendants as important events. In parallel, conservation of wild fauna and flora, including insect, fish, and plant species unique to each region, is referred to as global preservation. It is indispensable that the ecosystem is functioning properly in order to keep genetic potentials permanent. Biodiversity maintenance is necessary for people to live a comfortable life and must be included in stable ecosystem preservation. Human-controlled water temperature and bait input could enable the river to keep the catch abundant. Arable land maintains the troops without any additional input, if it does not change into wasteland. Green forests purify the atmosphere, reduce wind erosion, and the timber and non-timber stock is collected. Creating bog and wetland preserves soil and water. These acts indicate the ecosystem functions. Reserving various habitats in order to preserve wild fauna and flora in situ describes an active process that humans control. Additional input, watering of flowers and trees, is not helpful. Fishing and hunting controls the populations of certain species. Parks weeded by human hand are human data gathering grounds. The existence of parking lots in a park is unavoidable.

4. Benefits of Preservation

But preservation of the natural environment enhances these benefits and often gains even greater economic pay-offs over the long run. In recent years, for instance, there have been widespread proposals for the construction of new highways. Although some of these new highways are needed, the difficult social question is where to draw the line on road capacity. This is difficult because once built, a road becomes a magnet for additional development and it will create its own demand for more road. Ultimately, it will crash into the congestion barrier. Highways anchor and concentrate growth patterns. When first built, they may benefit particular areas, but in the long run, they tend to become more of a burden. Seen in this context, the societal benefits derived from open space preservation become immediate and substantial. When open space is preserved, some forms of development are discouraged or at least shifted elsewhere. The remaining open space serves local uses such as flood control and water supply without requiring expensive engineering remedies. Riverside open space and farmland visual features and habitat functions have been preserved and the value of developed property is enhanced. Nearby communities, as a result, are made more desirable places to live. Costs to society, in the long run, often reflect economies in sewer and water service and significant reduction in the first cost of highway expansion.

5. Challenges and Solutions

The means of preserving built heritage are complex, as every monument and site is unique. It has a direct relation with the surroundings, which are also unique. Their loss or degradation will put great damage on heritage and cultural memory, i.e. the values of authenticity and integrity. Appropriation and use of the buildings and conservation work on them are necessary conditions for preservation. These activities will give a sustainable economic sense to the heritage, and the buildings and sites can be integrated into a larger context for social, educational, and cultural sense. Used for their initial purpose or being adapted to new functions, cultural heritage is often the social center of a village, a city, or a region. The number of abandoned buildings or even deserted historic villages is still relatively high today in Italy. There are many motives for this, and the fact that the maintenance of these old monuments and sites is often financially and humanly difficult, that available local technical knowledge and materials do not always answer to the high requirements of historical heritage and its surroundings. Furthermore, there often exists no time anymore for traditional care because these buildings and archaeological remains obstruct urban and economic development. But often, before making decisions about adapting buildings to new functions, no heritage impact evaluation or archaeological examination is made. With the negative consequence that urban and territorial development will be difficult, using the traditional building techniques, historical materials, and knowledge that is necessary.

6. Conclusion

Conservation activity is commonly just considered to be protecting species and habitats from negative human influences, including habitat destruction. But conservation also means caring for living conditions in order to protect whole ecosystems and ecological processes. By enabling the survival of meadows with adequate living conditions, conservation also ensures the survival of plants and animal species living in these biotopes. The core of natural preservation is conservation. Only by suitably conserving the given conditions will it be possible to protect the organisms and species living in an area - our environmental assets. Environmental policy is mainly focused on environmental protection and preservation. Sadly, nature conservation and environmental preservation are not given the deserved importance. That's why hardly any of society's financial or moral resources are spent on providing suitable living conditions for natural and semi-natural biotopes and guaranteeing their survival over time. It is of the utmost importance that these goals be achieved, but first all relevant stakeholders must understand and appreciate just what needs conservation and who needs to conserve it. Ideally, these stakeholders should also be entitled to participate in some of the policies so that, far from resulting in a vague or cumbersome undertaking, conservation might instead help to foster active participation in different cultural alternatives.