Human society is and has been dependent on biodiversity.
Biological resources feed and clothe us and provide houses, medicines and spiritual nourishment. However, increased and unsustainable utilisation of wildlife and wildlife products, as well as loss of habitat and other pressures, have led to the extinction of species and a loss of biological diversity. Increasingly, society is looking to the law to provide a framework to regulate the sustainable use of the natural environment. The aim of this unit is to provide a thorough grounding in the moral and legal issues in relation to biological diversity. The unit will examine dominant Western moral and legal attitudes to the natural environment.