wise use of mires and peatlands - Peatland Ecology Research Group

FRAMEWORK FOR WISE USE16171See §§ 5.3 and 5.4. These additional boundaries,or rules, would involve the adaptation of thegeneral anthropocentric considerations andprinciples to include non-human entities withintrinsic value in the objects/subjects of Tables5/1 and 5/2, the general considerations 1 and 2and of the guidance principles 4, 6, 8, 10 and 14.72E.g. limits on our population, habits ofconsumption, and technologies of foodproduction as current practices in these areas arebased on attributing only instrumental values toorganisms.73Cf. Stone 1988. In the anthropocentric realmthis also applies to mentally disabled and unbornhuman beings.74I.e. the “rule of nonmaleficence” of Taylor 1986.75I.e. the “rule of non-interference” of Taylor 1986,implying a “hands off” policy. Depending on thetype of non-anthropocentric approach, theseentities may include individual organisms, species,or whole ecosystems. A constraint is anycondition that hinders or prevents the normalactivity and development of the entity inquestion.76In contrast to active, prescriptive duties; cf. Table4/3.77That entities suffer and die does not itself callfor corrective action when human beings havehad nothing to do with the cause of that sufferingand death. Suffering and death are integral aspectsof nature.78Methods to accomplish this would include (1)permanent habitat allocation: the permanentsetting aside of wilderness areas where otherentities may behave “according to their own will”,independent of any human objectives and freefrom human interference; (2) commonconservation: the sharing of resources while theyare being used by both human beings and nonhumanentities; (3) environmental integration:the integration of human constructions andactivities into natural surroundings in a way thatavoids serious ecosystem disturbance andenvironmental degradation; (4) rotation: givingother entities their chance at deriving benefitsfrom a particular area of the Earth, after humanbeings have also benefited from that area for alimited period of time. By occupying the area atdifferent time periods, both human beings andnon-human entities can meet basic needs. (Taylor1986).