Page 69 - BBC Wildlife Volume 36 #10
P. 69
VIEWPOINT
MY WAY OF THINKING
MARK CARWARDINE
The broadcaster and campaigner is bemused by the high value we place on
protecting art and architecture compared with conserving wildlife and wild places.
ow much money money? The problem is that everyone deemed to be worth nearly two and a
do we need to save accepts – without question – the half times the total annual income of
the world’s most importance of protecting old paintings, the RSPB – and no one bats an eyelid.
threatened species say, or old buildings. But they don’t Another recent purchase – albeit
and protect the most accept the importance of protecting a smaller one – was a little more ironic.
Himportant wildlife wildlife or wild places, which are In June, an anonymous collector paid
sites? I’ll give you a clue: it’s roughly treated as a luxury. Whenever and £7.2 million for the world’s most
the same as the amount paid out in wherever nature expensive book – equivalent to one-
bonuses to bankers in the UK, the comes under threat, S A single third of the entire annual income of
United States and Canada last year. there is always the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. The
Or, to put it another way, roughly the a battle to persuade painting cost title? Birds of America by John James
same as Americans spend on fizzy the perpetrators 2.5 times the Audubon. Just imagine how that
drinks every year. and decision-makers money could have helped to protect
A few years ago, experts from that badgers, great total annual the actual birds of America.
conservation and research groups crested newts or income of I’m not suggesting that we should
around the world came up with a wildflower meadows save wildlife but not art or architecture.
robust assessment of the cost of are worth protecting. the RSPB. T We should save both. (Though as my
conservation. They estimated that Last year, someone great friend, the wildlife artist David
it would cost £3.7 billion each year in Saudi Arabia paid Shepherd, used to say: “We could
(at current exchange rates) to save about £350 million for Leonardo da always rebuild the Taj Majal, but
threatened species from extinction, Vinci’s masterpiece Salvator Mundi. we won’t be able to rebuild a tiger”.)
and £59 billion per year to protect the The price is insane, of course, The money is clearly out there. We
most important wild places. Though and it’s a reflection of the massive just need to find more imaginative
these figures are eye-wateringly disproportion of wealth around the and persuasive ways of getting our
daunting to us as individuals, in globe, but what’s interesting is that hands on it.
global terms they are trivial. no one questioned the basic principle That figure of £62.7 billion for
Conservation is actually rather of preserving a painting. In our weird annual conservation costs is merely
cheap. The estimated cost, totalling and warped world, a single painting is a target. We are nowhere near
£62.7 billion, is a drop in the heavily spending that kind of dosh. Current
polluted, overfished ocean. And just conservation expenditure must rise
Audubon’s Birds of
think what we get for our money: by an order of magnitude if we are to
America sold for over
immeasurable beauty, pleasure for £7 million – how much have any hope of protecting the natural
billions of people, and a moral obligation conservation work world. And the real irony is that, if we
fulfilled. Oh, and don’t forget the could that fund? fail to do that, there’s a good chance
‘ecosystem services’ provided by nature we will actually lose our life support
(such as pollinating crops and removing system – and then the bankers won’t
greenhouse gases from the atmosphere), get any bonuses at all.
which form the basis of our entire life
support system. That’s quite important. MARK CARWARDINE is a frustrated
The cost of conservation is dwarfed
and frank conservationist.
Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters by all of the benefits we get back from or shoot him down in flames, email
nature. Besides, it’s not a ‘cost’ at all –
WHAT DO YOU THINK? If you
it’s an investment.
want to support Mark in his views
Why, therefore, is it so frustratingly
difficult to raise anything like enough
BBC Wildlife
October 2018 wildlifeletters@immediate.co.uk 69
