ATBI where?!

[mesibov]

Dear Taxacom,

It hurts me deeply to hear that an ATBI is being done in a National Park
(Great Smoky Mountains) or in a country (Costa Rica) with an enlightened
conservation policy and lots of reserved land.

Biodiversity is disappearing a lot slower in National Parks than in
forests being converted to farms and in grasslands and woodlands being
gobbled up urban sprawl. While you're on your hands and knees collecting
in the Great Smokies, species you've never seen and never will see are
becoming extinct behind your back, in the densely populated lowlands.

If you want to document biodiversity, do it FIRST in those places on the
planet  that won't be here in 10 years time. When you finish that job,
THEN do the national parks, which will still be around. That's why we
created them: they're biodiversity reserves. The rest of the landscape
is where biodiversity is vanishing, and that's where collectors are
needed.

OK, maybe you're not interested in sampling that last tiny wetland on
the edge of the suburb. You'd prefer collecting in a nice, intact
ecosystem. How about the one that's about to be hit by the tropical
loggers? The one that's about to be flooded by the big dam project? The
one that's about to be burned by peasant farmers displaced from their
homes by war, ethnic violence or government-sponsored resettlement
programs?

Too hard? Fine. How about organising some money, then, for other people
to collect in front of the bulldozer?

For more on biodiversity salvage, see

www.science.uts.edu.au/sasb/mesibov.html

--
Dr Robert Mesibov
Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
(03) 6437 1195; international 61 3 6437 1195