The (Non)Sense of Nature Preservation: A Dutch Case

Does it make sense to talk about preserving nature in the managed and long-trodden Dutch landscape?"  North American ethicist Phil Cafaro brought this question along on his first trip to the Netherlands.  The municipality of Brummen invited him to join the NSRPP Environmental Ethics Group for a field trip and discussion about the (non)sense of nature preservation on a scant 8500 hectares with three Natura 2000 zones. 

Program

12.00     Optional lunch (Concordia Brummen, 'going Dutch')

13.00     Welcome by Louke van Wensveen (Brummen Town Hall)

13.30     Field trip with forest ranger to the 'Empesche en Tondesche heide (Natuurmonumenten)

15.30     Discussion with Phil Cafaro ('Den Asch' Farm, Cortenoeverseweg 94)

16.30     Closing Remarks

Phil Cafaro is an environmental virtue ethicist and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University.  He is the author of Thoreau's Living Ethics: Walden and the Pursuit of Virtue (University of Georgia Press, 2004). Together with Ron Sandler he edited the well-received primer Environmental Virtue Ethics (Rowman and Littlefield, 2005).

Harald van den Akker is a forest ranger for Natuurmonumenten.

Louke van Wensveen is an environmental virtue ethicist and alderwoman for sustainable development in the municipality of Brummen.  She is the auteur of Dirty Virtues (Prometheus Books, 2000).

The Environmental Ethics Group of the Netherlands School for Research in Practical Philosophy was founded on May 25 2010 to further collaborative work among environmental ethicists and philosophers in the Netherlands and Flanders.