The problem of deciding

There's one final question that we've skirted throughout these discussions that I want to mention, not answer, as a prelude to one of the questions I want to rais in our final class discussion on Wednesday: Who gets to make the decisions about conservation policy?

• If I am committed to democracy and individual rights, I must also be committed to the right of others to choose differently from me, even when they make what I think is the wrong choice.

• If I am also committed to conserving biological diversity, I must either be convinced that I can persuade others of the rightness of my views so that the policies I favor will be democratically adopted, be willing to accept a democratic decision allowing policies that will harm conservation values I hold dear, or be willing to believe that my opinion matters more than the opinion of those who don't value biodiversity as highly as I do and make policies for them that's in their own best interest.

That's the dilemma. I choose democracy. Which do you choose?