Sentience, Harmony and the Value of Nature

• Published in: Animals (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 1; p. 38
• Main Author: Yeates, James William
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 22.12.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Affect (Psychology); Alliances; Animal care; Animal welfare; Animals; Behavior; Biodiversity; Collaboration; Ecosystems; Environmental assessment; Environmental impact assessment; harmony with nature; Human influences; Mental health; sentience; United Nations; value of nature; harmony with nature; biodiversity; value of nature; United Nations; sentience
• ISSN: 2076-2615; 2076-2615
• DOI: 10.3390/ani13010038

Concern for nature and for animal sentience are important public and political moral concerns. Using frameworks such as Harmony for Nature and One Health and the recent IPBES report on the Diverse Values of Nature, this paper considers how the two issues interrelate, in terms of our concepts of sentience and nature, and sentience-based values' importance in relation to nature-based values. Animals' sentience is part of nature, and part of its diversity, harmony, health and value. Sentient animals' feelings represent animals' evaluations of nature that go beyond valuing nature for solely for market-based and anthropocentric interests. Sentience is therefore relevant for measurement, leveraging and embedding sentience-based values in environmental concerns, including in environmental impact assessments, science-based UN policy-making, interdisciplinary and interagency collaboration, and to strengthen transformative and system-based action for nature.