Biodiversity and Environmental Ethics from a Qur’anic Perspective

Iran occupies a vast area of land with a diverse climatic conditions andtopography, hence a wide array of biological and socio-cultural diversity.The long historical background of the farming communities associated withdomestication of plants and animals and therefore evolution of farmingsystems for a period of several thousand years has built a strong collaborationwith sustainable natural resource management. The ethics embodied inproper resource management, respects for the nature and living elementsand viewing the soil and water as fundamentals for life, have been thebasis of believes for sustainable land management, hence creating a strongecological dimensions to the nature. However, this was displaced by themodern food production systems characterized by high external inputs andlow biodiversity in the last century. In this new century characterized bysweeping and fundamental change, posing new opportunities and risks, amajor new challenge facing us all is the sequrity and sustainability of theearth (Amin, 2003).