Stephen Craig, Wade Joy
Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative, Western College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
Fundy Aqua Services Inc., Nanoose Bay, BC, Canada.
Front Vet Sci. 2018 Sep 24;5:227. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2018.00227. eCollection 2018.
Wildlife conservation lacks a well-accepted ethical foundation for population welfare. In this paper we propose a definition of wildlife population welfare and use a case study to suggest its value for species recovery planning. We define wildlife population welfare as coherence between the species' adapted capacities and the realities of its current environment. We present a case study of the Cowichan Lake lamprey (), a parasitic fish species endemic to three connected lakes in British Columbia, Canada. Individual-level welfare concerns were insufficient to inspire actions to protect this threatened species. The key threats to Cowichan Lake lamprey can be linked to anthropogenic changes and global threats such as climate change. Due to prevailing uncertainties and the inability to eliminate critical threats, the species recovery plan was focussed on securing critical environmental and social assets to meet evolved adaptations of lamprey while considering the needs of other species, including people. This assets focussed approach was well suited to developing consensus for action to enable a harm reduction perspective that recognizes that many of the threats cannot be eliminated but actions could be taken to enable the population to succeed by protecting critical environmental resources. This was consistent with our population welfare perspective which focusses on assets rather than deficits to help identify shared priorities for species recovery, conservation obligations, and social expectations.
野生动物保护缺乏一个被广泛接受的关于种群福祉的伦理基础。在本文中，我们提出了野生动物种群福祉的定义，并通过一个案例研究来表明其在物种恢复规划中的价值。我们将野生动物种群福祉定义为物种的适应能力与其当前环境现实之间的一致性。我们呈现了考伊琴湖七鳃鳗的案例研究，考伊琴湖七鳃鳗是一种寄生鱼类，特产于加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省三个相连的湖泊。个体层面的福祉考量不足以激发保护这种濒危物种的行动。考伊琴湖七鳃鳗面临的主要威胁可归因于人为变化和诸如气候变化等全球威胁。由于普遍存在的不确定性以及无法消除关键威胁，该物种恢复计划的重点是确保关键的环境和社会资产，以满足七鳃鳗进化后的适应性，同时考虑包括人类在内的其他物种的需求。这种以资产为重点的方法非常适合就行动达成共识，以形成一种减少危害的观点，即认识到许多威胁无法消除，但可以采取行动通过保护关键环境资源使种群得以成功。这与我们的种群福祉观点一致，该观点侧重于资产而非不足，以帮助确定物种恢复、保护义务和社会期望的共同优先事项。
