Changing Values

When the General Assembly of German agriculturalists and foresters passed a resolution in 1868 urging the government of Austria-Hungary to enter into treaties with other countries for the protection of animals useful to agriculture or forestry, their primary concern was to prevent the depletion of insectivorous birds – their vital allies in the perpetual battle against insect pests. The General Assembly was strictly utilitarian in its approach and, at the same time as urging protection for these birds, had no hesitation in condemning grain-eating birds, fish-eating birds and birds of prey which they considered harmful and worthy of destruction. Its members would have been astonished to learn that birds of prey are now among the most strictly protected of all birds and that treaties now demand the conservation of amphibians, reptiles, insects and plants as well as the more obviously beneficial animals. This change in the values attributed to wildlife is perhaps the most striking feature in the development of international wildlife law. Until recently, wildlife treaties concentrated entirely on species of direct value to man, either because they consumed agricultural pests or because they were a source of food, sport, oil or clothing. Now the emphasis is more on the role species play in the ecosystems in which they occur and on the need to prevent any species, however unglamorous or of little apparent importance, from becoming extinct through agencies within man's control.