Introduction to Preservation
Is there a better day to start a wildlife preservation photography site than International Wildlife Day? The goal of this site is to raise awareness of preservation efforts and specifically why they are so important, now more than ever. So, what IS preservation? Time for some background history!
Preservation is focused on the protection of natural resources and wildlife from use.
It is likely you have heard of the term conservation and you might be asking yourself if this is the same, and while the terms are very closely tied to one another there are some vast differences. It is true that they both regard the use of natural resources and wildlife, however there is an inherent difference of the way that these ideologies approach the subject. Essentially, conservation seeks to provide proper use of nature and its resources, preservation seeks to prevent the use of the resources altogether and does not view nature as resources to be exploited.
These terms came into use during the birth of the American environmental movement in the early 20th century. During this period a triad of factions came to be with opposing views on the management of natural resources. The three were the Laissez-faire, the conservationists, and the preservationists. The Laissez-faire ideology maintained that anyone should be able to do whatever they want on and with the land that they privately own. The conservationists, largely led by the future U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt, realized the terrible waste and inefficiency of the way resources were currently managed as well as understood that more must be done to protect some species from extinction due to the lack of regulation surrounding hunting. Finally, the preservationists were of the mindset that while they agreed with the conservationists on regulation they felt that the policies were not strong enough and sought to wholly protect the interests of natural world as they felt that conservationist policies still focused on the natural world as a source of material and economic income. These two final factions went on to form the way conservation and preservation are discussed to this day. While both undoubtedly have a place in the modern world, with its resources growing ever more slim, the focus here is to discuss preservation efforts, highlight successes, recognize failures, and make the natural world more inclusive by imparting a sense of belonging to it. The more we feel a connection to the natural world around us the more we will strive to protect it from exploitation.
While there is undoubtedly endless more pages I could write on the subject I feel that this is a good overview for an introduction into the subject so as to not be too much information in a given time. I am excited to share more soon and am working on the first project currently.
Notes
Albright, Horace M., and Robert Cahn. The Birth of the National Park Service: The Founding Years, 1913–33. Salt Lake City: Howe Brothers, 1985.
Benjamin Redekop, "Embodying the Story: The Conservation Leadership of Theodore Roosevelt" in Leadership (2015). DOI: 10.1177/1742715014546875. online
