I'm terrible at asking questions so this may just come across as a pointless diatribe, but here we go anyway.

I asked a question about this on c/askchapo earlier, but I felt like I needed to follow it up with a proper post, because it's something I've been thinking about for a very long time. It's actually one of the things that began my radicalisation when I was a teenager.

The OG post was as follows:

What's the use value of a wildlife/nature park/reserve?

I’ve been thinking about this recently.

I still have trouble with the concepts of use and exchange value so this might be a silly question, but humour me (someone had to ask, right?)

Link: https://hexbear.net/post/207148

My edit/ new post:

Edit: to follow up, whilst many people have pointed out that nature is not a commodity, I can assure you that to neoliberal governments, it is most definitely something to be bought and sold. The land on which a forest stands would generate far more wealth as a wheat field or housing development than a woodland, and they know it. As one of my old college lecturers put it, "a woodland that pays is a woodland that stays."

Additionally, one of the defences of the Amazon rainforest I hear is that "who knows what scientific advancements have yet to be discovered?" This clearly boils it down to "it's still useful to us, so we should keep it around." The problem here is that not all environments are as diverse as the amazon; by this metric therefore, the big belt of conifer forests that runs just below the Arctic circle isn't as worthy or our protection. That's why no-one kicks up as much of a fuss when climate change causes huge fires in these woods (and it does) compared to the Amazon.

The idea that nature is worth conserving on the principle that it has a right to exist is never seen. When I mention "left-wing conservation", this is what I'm talking about.

I suppose my follow up is, do you agree that the direction of environmental conservation is flawed? Any other thoughts? I know some people here actually work in Ecology, so it would be nice to have their perspectives. If you could recommend some books on this subject, that would be cool as well.