This was the question posed on Tuesday at a University of Bath I-SEE seminar by Gordon McGlone, an ecologist who spent his career working with the Wildlife Trusts and now runs a consultancy ‘Thinking Naturally’. Gordon was CEO of Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust until January 2013 and now advises The Wildlife Trusts nationally on bovine TB and Badgers.
Here’s the Abstract …
The pilot badger culls in Gloucestershire and Somerset have pushed a long running debate firmly into the public arena; how much is nature worth and who actually decides how the natural world is exploited? The Eurasian Badger Meles has assumed totemic status for both sides of the argument. According to standpoint, the Badger debate is regarded as either embodying an ignorant urban meddling in the economics and culture of the countryside or a callous exploitation of a wild creature being made to suffer needlessly for intensive financially-driven agricultural systems. Gordon will be considering the question How much is a badger really worth? from several perspectives; ecosystem services, cultural affection, agricultural economics and the politics of town versus countryside.
Now, this engaging talk wasn't really about the worth of badgers, although the amount of money needed to completely fail to eradicate TB did feature strongly. It was really about human — nature interaction, and landscape scale conservation. It was about bone-headed politicians too fearful of the consequences to face down the National Farmers Union (NFU), one of the UK's most effective pressure groups.
I learned a lot, about ...
ZSL's work on Bovine TB
Brian May's Team Badger, which has no conservation or land owner members.
Tim Hounsome's bio blog – and
Chris Cheeseman, the Badger expert.
At the end, someone wondered if fans of badgers would feel the same way if, instead of being charismatic, panda-like creatures, they looked like rats. I wonder, and rather fancy not. More likely we'd be jointing the NFU and calling for extermination.
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