Moral-Material Ontologies of Nature Conservation: Exploring the Discord between Ecological Restoration and Novel Ecosystems

1 Moral-Material Ontologies of Nature Conservation: Exploring the Discord between Ecological Restoration and Novel Ecosystems MICK LENNON Recent years have witnessed growing concern on how we should conduct conservation activities in a world of human-altered biophysical conditions. The ‘novel ecosystems’ perspective has emerged as a way to meet this challenge. However, its focus on accepting ‘new natures’ as the ‘new normal’ has drawn much criticism from those wedded to conventional forms of conservation such as ‘ecological restoration’. This paper: (1) provides a much needed review of this dispute; (2) formulates and deploys an original analytical framework that draws on Thomas Kuhn’s ‘theoretical history’ of science and Charles Taylor’s moral philosophy to extricate the entangled moral and material ontologies of nature that conflate facts with values in the world-building activities of disputants; and (3) identifies and examines the processes underlying these world-building activities. The paper closes by offering an initial suggestion on how to explore options for resolving this highly contentious debate.