Why should governments or individuals invest time and resources in conserving biodiversity? A popular answer is that biodiversity has both instrumental value for humans and intrinsic value in its own right. Defending Biodiversity critically evaluates familiar arguments for these claims and finds that, at best, they provide good reasons for conserving particular species or regions. However, they fail to provide a strong justification for conserving biodiversity per se. Hence, either environmentalists must develop more compelling arguments for conserving biodiversity or else they should modify their agenda. This short precis is an overview of the central findings of our book.

中文翻译：

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保护生物多样性的要点

为什么政府或个人要投入时间和资源来保护生物多样性？一个普遍的答案是，生物多样性本身对人类具有工具价值和内在价值。Defending Biodiversity 批判性地评估了这些主张的熟悉论点，并发现它们至多为保护特定物种或地区提供了充分的理由。然而，它们未能为保护生物多样性本身提供强有力的理由。因此，要么环保主义者必须为保护生物多样性提出更有说服力的论据，要么他们应该修改他们的议程。这篇简短的摘要概述了我们这本书的核心发现。