In July of 2007 I was given permission by the Board of
Governors of the Society for Conservation
Biology (SCB) to form an exploratory committee to look into the
relationships between conservation and religion. A handful of society members rapidly grew to
several hundred and we were granted Working Group status by the SCB (http://www.conbio.org/groups/working-groups/religion-and-conservation-biology). Over the
years the Working Group has involved itself in a number of tasks. Most recently
those tasks have focused on a religious practice called mercy release and on
the use of elephant ivory for religious objects. I have served on the Advisory Committee for
both efforts.
Fang sheng is a practice by Buddhists and Daoists for releasing
captive wildlife as an act of compassion. According to SCB’s Religion and
conservation Research collaborative, this type of animal release causes “…adverse
effects on biodiversity including the spread of invasive species, genetic
swamping, extreme animal suffering, competition, vulnerability to predation,
disease, and human health concerns.” The
problem isn’t even very complex. Animals
are trapped with the usual high mortality, they are kept captive with the usual
high mortality, they are inappropriately released (with the usual high
mortality) with expectable impacts on existing wild populations. All of this takes place in the name of mercy
and some form of spiritual redemption. Again, it doesn’t take great intellect to
figure out that there is nothing good going on here…and not much mercy. As usual, the animal traffickers involved in
Fang shen are the only ones making good
on the deal.
For additional information on Fang sheng and SCB efforts to
reduce the practice see http://www.conbio.org/science-policy/policy/religion-and-conservation-biology-working-group-policy-position-on-the-rele.
(Image courtesy of Buddhist Channel through Google Images.)
Continued in the next
posting.
