Exploring the Contemporary Relevance of Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethics in Environmental Conservation

Abstract

There is little doubt that Aldo Leopold (1887–1948) was the person who had the greatest impact on the creation of an economic environmental ethics. Science is the basis of his environmental ethics. In reality, ecology as we know it today was created during his lifetime, and it would not be overstating the case to claim that he was the first to advocate for a fundamental rethinking of ethics in the context of science. The essay ‘Land Ethic’ in this book is a methodical explanation of an eco-centric ethics from his collection of essays, which was published posthumously as A Sand Country Almanac (1949). This essay makes an attempt to examine Aldo Leopold’s environmental management principles. Because Aldo Leopold views the environment as an organic totality with values latent in ideas like integrity and stability, health, and well-being, this book praises his “land ethic.” This paper, however, critiqued Aldo Leopold’s “Land Ethics” because it believed that his understanding of the organic model of ecological systems was flawed. This is due to the possibility of species within an ecosystem existing independently of the organism. The ‘land ethic’ of Aldo Leopold is therefore not comprehensive enough.