In the concluding chapter of Rambunctious Garden, Emma Marris sends us off into the world with a new perspective. Having gone through the multiple and conflicting issues surrounding conservation through out the previous chapters, Marris presents her clear-cut idea of what concepts to take away from the book and which initiatives to support and follow. She does this by laying out a set of seven goals to be taken into consideration by the human population Marris’ seven goals are direct. However, they also come with their pros and cons- as did many of the other issues in Rambunctious Garden, leaving us to somewhat fend for ourselves when searching for her resounding message.
Marris’ list of goals goes as follows; Protect The Rights Of Other Species, Protect Charismatic Megafauna, Slow The Rate Of Extinctions, Protect Genetic Diversity, Define and Defend Biodiversity, Maximize Ecosystem Services, and Protect The Spiritual And Aesthetic Experience of Nature. A few of the these concepts that stood out more to me were the last three having to do with biodiversity, ecological services and the aesthetics of nature. In my opinion these three summed up natures true overall value to us as a dominant species as well as to our ecosystems and the other species that reside within them. However, each of these goals has its trade off and not one is more important than another.
When speaking on biodiversity Marris mentions how defending biodiversity would allow us to defend a multitude of other ideologies such as species diversity, genetic diversity and population diversity. This broad almost indefinability of the term has its pro as well as its cons. Protection of biodiversity gives way to protecting ecosystems and their interconnections rather than just trying to save a particular species. However, because biodiversity is so undefined, the lines between which species are allowed in one system versus another are no so clear, leaving us to wonder why we should protect an ecosystem’s biodiversity that is forever changing.
Marris’ goal #6 to maximize ecosystem services, I felt to be the most relatable to the humans of this anthropogenic era. Many people inherently feel that although nature may be valuable in its existence, humans are somehow entitled to reap the benefits of its services. This is why suggesting the conservation of an ecosystem to preserve a tangibly valuable resource and/ or ecological service would be most effective in gaining support. Marris also explains that despite some selfish reasons for jumping on board, by preserving ecological services, we also as a result preserve biodiversity as well as a host of other environmental causes.
Lastly, Marris appeals to our sense of aesthetics and deriving pleasure from nature by asserting that we protect nature as a whole, just to experience it. Although this point seems vague and somewhat illegitimate because there I no way to quantify the pleasure derived from experiencing or interacting with nature, I agree with its validity. Ultimately if we do not seek to actively conserve what we enjoy, it will be gone or severely diminished. With all of this said, I really enjoyed how Emma Marris ended her list of goals. With all this said and done, Marris implores us to just embrace the change in nature, whether we want to make major conservational changes or to embrace the natural cycles slowly making their own mark on the landscape. Following her aforementioned goals or pursuing a more specific tract of settling a smaller environmental issue Marris wants us to embrace what has become our rambunctious garden in hopes that we learn to appreciate nature more along the way.
