However, easier said than done, the hard truth is that we individual are not motivated enough to sacrifice for our environment. In the “Stone Age” biases, human prioritize self over collective interest (Vugt, Griskevicius, & Schultz, 2014), hence we will have the tendency to prioritize our comfort over environmental effort. For instance, the hot weather in Singapore entices us to turn on the air condition that will be environmental unfriendly. However, for self-interest, we would still turn it on as our comfort surpasses our will to help the nature.

According to Skinner, intrinsic human short-term egoism makes incentives the best strategy to resolve environmental problem. Hence, giving incentives to people who do good for the environment will make collective interest to something more personal as they benefit from it. On this topic, we realise how indispensable and crucial the government plays in the role of conservation. We should know how influential and powerful the government is and here are a few example of how they can make use of it.

1. Cash rebate for family who hit within a quota the government set in terms of utility bill.

Retrieved from http://spiritualmusclehead.wordpress.com/2013/12/04/what-should-we-give/money-face/

2. Tax rebate for company that uses green method in their production

3. Punishment / Fine
“Fine” also known as “summon” in Singapore is very prominent when you do something wrong. Government should continue using such method to deter human as they will feel the pinch after committing it.

Due to human being economically driven, we undervalue the benefit of nature and put greater emphasis on the product we can get from it. This can be seen by examples explained previously like deforestation and overfishing. Hence, if human can get incentive out of their action, this will increase their likelihood of performing such task.

According to Wibowo and Byron (1999), misdirected policies and failure of government to function effectively also resulted in unintended deforestation. From this, we can see the pivotal role of government in enforcing conservation and how a wrong decision can be detrimental as well. With the correct imposition of policies and laws, it will deter human from inflicting harm to nature as it will be reciprocate. Similarly, Garrett Hardin also pointed out that governmental approach would be the most effective approach for egoistic human. Hence, governmental approach can help to motivate individual to engage in conservation.