The ‘Global Duties – Local Burdens Problem’ of Just Biodiversity Conservation: Two Perspectives on Land and Place-Based Values

This paper illustrates a theoretical gap that arises in the relationship between theorizing global justice and local biodiversity conservation practices: the ‘global duties – local burdens problem’. This problem arises if one’s account of just-burden sharing (who is attributed the responsibility to carry the burdens of biodiversity protection) and the geographic realities (who would be burdened by conservation measures in practice) do not match up. That involves two difficulties: (1) a conceptual problem arising from the incongruity between the currency of justice in the global-abstract and the local-particular; and (2) a moral concern about the cultural costs at stake.