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The Ethics of Assisted Colonization in the Age of Anthropogenic Climate Change

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Abstract

This paper examines an issue that is becoming increasingly relevant as the pressures of a warming planet, changing climate and changing ecosystems ramp up. The broad context for the paper is the intragenerational, intergenerational, and interspecies equity implications of changing the climate and the value orientations of adapting to such change. In addition, the need to stabilize the planetary climate by urgent mitigation of change factors is a foundational ethical assumption. In order to avoid further animal and plant extinctions, or at the very least, their increased vulnerability to becoming rare and endangered; the systematic assisted colonization of “at risk” species is being seriously considered by scientists and managers of biodiversity. The more practical aspects of assisted colonization have been covered in the conservation biology literature; however, the ethical implications of such actions have not been extensively examined. Our discussion of the value issues, using a novel case study approach, will rectify the limited ethical analysis of the issue of assisted colonization of species in the face of climate change pressures. Beyond sustainability ethics, both animal and environmental ethical approaches will be used and intrinsic versus instrumental value orientations in the literature shall form the basis of our discussion. After the application of all the ethical approaches to the case studies, we conclude that without mitigation and the prospect of a future stable climate, assisted colonization will be involved in an inherently unethical process and a “move and lose it” outcome. With mitigation, there is wide-ranging ethical support for assisted colonization.

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Notes

  1. Richardson et al. (2009) define managed relocation "as an intervention technique aimed at reducing negative effects of climate change on defined biological units such as populations, species, or ecosystems. It involves the intentional movement of biological units from current areas of occupancy to locations where the probability of future persistence is predicted to be higher." The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has adopted the term "assisted colonization" to describe the same process of "transporting species to a new range that is predicted to be favourable for persistence under future climate scenarios" (Loss et al. 2011). This paper will use the term “assisted colonization” to describe one of the many “neo-acclimatisation” conservation strategies being considered as a result of climate change.

  2. Assuming that former resident species have not already moved out of their home territory in search of more favorable locations as climate has changed.

  3. As argued by Sandler (2009), the issue of intrinsic value within formal environmental philosophy remains one where there is room for legitimate disagreement. We suggest that there is an inherent weakness in valuer-dependent accounts of intrinsic value where a species’ inherent value is contextually defined by humans. The shifting cultural contexts in which humans value often makes it difficult, if not impossible to distinguish between valuing a species “for what it is” and valuing for its instrumental use. The role of the commercial media in shaping and defining “what species are” is now a major determinant of public conceptions of the value of species. It then becomes important to retain the dictionary definition of “intrinsic” value as an essential, inherent and indivisible value. That is, there are no degrees of intrinsic value and no conservation trade-offs possible between different species based on their intrinsic value.

  4. As with the possum, we do not advocate the relocation of polar bears, but seek to highlight the implications of different ethical positions. The idea of polar bears in the Antarctic is a classic illustration of why any form of neo-acclimatization, of any creature (great or small) should have the most stringent ethical scrutiny.   

  5. As has been done with protecting rare and endangered species such as the Bilby from carnivores in mainland Australia.

  6. The role of humans in this evolutionary pathway also requires careful consideration. Should humans who are historically a vital component of Arctic ecosystems be offered relocation to the Antarctic as well?

  7. By “stable” we mean a future state that continues to support extant life on Earth and its potential to continue to evolve over long-term time scales.

  8. Once humans impose a major change to the path of evolution (for example, a 4–6 rise in global temperature) and put species at risk of extinction, arguments against AC based on preservationist principles of not disturbing species, respecting the value of pristine wilderness or pure ‘wildness’ become increasingly irrelevant.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the National Climate Change Adaptation Facility (NCCARF) for funding the genesis of this paper at a multi-disciplinary assisted colonization workshop in York, Western Australia in 2010. Also the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Murdoch University, South Street, Murdoch, WA, 6150, Australia

    G. A. Albrecht

  2. WWF International, 235 Jones Street, Ultimo, NSW, 2007, Australia

    C. Brooke

  3. Australian Centre for Indigenous Knowledges and Education, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, NT, 0909, Australia

    D. H. Bennett

  4. Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Ellengowan Drive, Casuarina, NT, 0909, Australia

    S. T. Garnett

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  1. G. A. Albrecht
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  2. C. Brooke
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Correspondence to G. A. Albrecht.

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Albrecht, G.A., Brooke, C., Bennett, D.H. et al. The Ethics of Assisted Colonization in the Age of Anthropogenic Climate Change. J Agric Environ Ethics 26, 827–845 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10806-012-9411-1

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