Environmental resource management - EPCO

Ethical Aspects of ERM• Anthropocentrism-• Anthropocentrism, ―an inclination to evaluate reality exclusively in terms of humanvalues‖, is an ethic reflected in the major interpretations of Western religions and thedominant economic paradigms of the industrialised world.• Anthropocentrism supports an understanding of nature as existing solely for the benefit ofman and as a commodity to be used for the good of humanity and improved human qualityof life.• Anthropocentric ERM is not the conservation of the environment solely for theenvironment's sake, but rather the conservation of the environment, and ecosystemstructure, for human sake.• Ecocentrism –• Ecocentrists believe in the intrinsic value of nature while maintaining an understanding that―human beings must use and even exploit nature to survive and live‖.• It is this fine ethical line that ecocentrists navigate between ―fair use and downright abuse‖.• At an extreme end of the ethical scale, ecocentrism includes philosophies suchas ecofeminism and deep ecology which evolved as a reaction to the dominantanthropocentric paradigms.• ―In its current form, it is an attempt to synthesize many old and some new philosophicalattitudes about the relationship between nature and human activity, with particularemphasis on ethical, social, and spiritual aspects that have been downplayed in the dominanteconomic worldview‖.