Environmental ethics of primate conservation

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This question seems to suppose that you have a background in ethical theory, which is not provided in your article. As a brief introduction, there three basic ethical positions: a duty ethics of principles; a utilitarian ethics of consequences; and a virtue ethics of skills. Under the duty ethics of principles, actions are judged independently of their consequences. Thus, someone who is trying to provide for his family is not guilty if he unwittingly causes the extinction of an animal. Under the utilitarian view, consequences are used to judge the rightness of actions. Virtue ethics looks the development of positive character traits, such as generosity or kindness, as the basis for what is right or wrong.

As a brief ethical overview, I would say that the idea of preventing extinction comes from a utilitarian position. The ultimate outcome of killing primates is wrong, so killing them is wrong. The treatment of primates as intelligent creatures with rights would stem from a duty ethics positions. It is fundamentally wrong to abuse these animals, even if it yields information that could be used to help people. Virtue ethics does not play a role, although there is some implication that those who engage in bushmeat trade are wrong because they are greedy. The conflict that emerges is that our utilitarian position conflicts with the duty ethics of those who use bushmeat for food. They see the use of animals to provide for their families as a fundamental duty.

You can go into even greater detail if you wish. For example, those who believe nature is fundamentally good, and that its goodness does not derive from human beings' perceptions of it, are called objective nonanthropocentrism. Contrasted with this is weak anthropocentrism, which states that all value is determined by the degree of satisfaction of humans' considered preferences.

The reason we look at ethical positions is because we cannot expect people to take responsibility for actions that lie outside their ethical framework. So, we would not expect a hunter to see killing an ape as wrong if ...