NCS proponents also implicitly assume that ethical stances are resistant to change and thus conservation must refashion its message to better appeal to those who are apathetic or opposed to the goals of protecting species and ecosystems.
However, innumerable social and environmental justice campaigns have shown that ethical views
can be swayed, often very rapidly.
Indeed, most successful efforts to win public support for a cause have focused on influencing notions of right and wrong, even if they are combined with multiple other motivations.
Slavery was not outlawed in the USA solely because abolition favored the interests of northern manufacturers over southern plantation owners [49]; nor is the lack of complete success in
eliminating slavery worldwide – to this day – a reason to conclude that the moral justification against this practice has ‘failed’ or should be replaced with an economic efficiency argument. Recent campaigns over other human-rights issues (e.g., same-sex marriage), animal welfare, and conservation itself all show that beliefs and priorities are powerful motivators and that they can be altered, often with great speed.