Conservation Through Sustainable Use
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CASE STUDIES
Conservation Through Sustainable Use The Wild Kangaroo Harvest Plan Rob Irvine
Received: 2 September 2012 / Accepted: 5 September 2012 / Published online: 10 November 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2012
Call for Responses The case outlined below provides the basis for the “In That Case” section in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry (JBI). We invite interested readers to provide responses to the case for possible publication. Responses should be approximately 500–700 words in length (though longer manuscripts will be considered) and submitted as soon as possible. The editors will select the responses to be published and reserve the right to edit contributions to avoid repetition. Editorial changes will be cleared with authors before going to press. Responses should be submitted via Editorial Manager.
The Case An independent authority made up of leading climate change specialists, conservationists, public health specialists, and wildlife management biologists released a detailed set of proposals to policymakers on how to improve damaged ecosystems and promote soil conservation in semi-arid regions in Australia.
R. Irvine (*) Centre for Values, Ethics and Law in Medicine, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia e-mail: [email protected]
In its report, the Committee on Sustainable Agriculture and Environment1 proposes specific policy measures that will result in the partial destocking of cattle and sheep in the arid rangeland in favour of more commercial harvesting of kangaroos from wild populations. The report’s authors highlight specific opportunities under present environmental protection and biodiversity legislation for developments in the kangaroo industry.
Environmental Benefits At the heart of this proposal are the environmental impacts upon local landscapes, ecosystems, and wildlife flora and fauna caused by livestock farming. The committee calls for the reduction in grazing pressure in favour of increased harvesting of kangaroos as a “mitigation measure against ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions” (Ben-Ami et al. 2010, 3). The report states that the commercial harvest of kangaroos is a model of ecological sustainable use of wildlife.2 Wild kangaroo populations are described as having an especially “light ecological footprint” (BenThis “committee” is fictitious and is used here to facilitate discussion of the issues presented in this case. 2 The population estimate for kangaroos within the commercial harvest areas in 2011 was 25,158,026 (Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities 2011). 1
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Ami et al. 2010, 5). The utilization of kangaroo populations for consumptive use, we are told, would enhance habitat for wildlife and conserve or improve biodiversity in both plant and animal communities involved. The committee cites research that shows that, unlike domestic livestock, kangaroos contribute to the maintenance of large-scale open habitats for fauna and flora. Kangaro
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