A healthy environment as a fundamental human right and a natural environment from the perspective of anthropocentric, biocentric or ecocentric paradigms

Abstract

The protection and conservation of a healthy environment is a fundamental human right and an obligation for everyone. The aggressions to the environment practiced by human beings have caused damage to different species of life, to human health and to the ecosystem as a whole. The ineffectiveness of many of the proposals for environmental protection is probably associated with the utilitarian view that human beings have regarding other living beings and the natural environment – a distorted view linked to the anthropocentric paradigm. Scholars have proposed the adoption of the biocentric paradigm - which considers that all non-human living beings have an intrinsic value independent of human expectations, or the ecocentric paradigm - which considers the interdependence between all living beings and the natural environment as fundamental for the survival of life on the planet. Through the methodology of integrative review, the author analyzes the concepts presented by scholars in studies on the environment, and the central paradigms in their discussions, which mostly point to the need for evolution towards the biocentric or ecocentric paradigms.