[Taxacom] [TAXACOM] Why Taxonomy does NOT matter

[Bob Mesibov]

Getting back to Fabian's original post, we'd probably all agree that the reasons for the lack of growth in support for taxonomy have more to do with public policy issues than scientific ones. But what are those public policy issues?

IMO, taxonomy is tied in public discourse to

(1) 'public health', 'medical research'
(2) 'biosecurity', 'food security'
(3) 'conservation', 'protecting the environment'

The first 2 are what might be called applied taxonomy and there will always be some support for it - but only as much as is needed to solve specific problems. The 3rd has been the packhorse which has carried the heavy idea that we need to discover and document life on Earth in order to better conserve Nature. Much of the public yatter about biodiversity started at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992.

But conservation policy makers realised very early on that taxonomy is largely irrelevant to conserving Nature. More than anything else they needed lines (polygons) on maps which could be starting points for political discussions about withdrawing land or water from human use. To draw those maps they didn't need full taxonomic inventories. The policy makers asked 'What's left to conserve?', 'Of these X areas, which should get out highest priority for conservation?', 'Which reservation proposal will be least politically painful to implement and cost least to manage?', 'Which introduced species do we have a hope of controlling?'

Above and beyond all the discussion is the unavoidable fact that People Come First in all public policy, and there are 25% more people now than there were in 1992. Item (3) above is being squeezed out of the picture. Reserves are ephemeral in a world where the human demand for land, water and other resources is constantly growing. (1) and (2) are looming larger, but it can and has been argued that you don't need taxonomy for applied taxonomy, you just need a library of sequences.

In short, I don't think the promised or hinted support for taxonomy didn't materialise at a public policy level because the idea was dumb, or because people were afraid of what might be discovered. I think support hasn't appeared because taxonomy isn't relevant to the Big Agenda, which is growing people endlessly at the expense of the natural world. You can find thousands of instances of the claim 'people come first' at every level of public policy making.
-- 
Dr Robert Mesibov
Honorary Research Associate
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, and
School of Zoology, University of Tasmania
Home contact: PO Box 101, Penguin, Tasmania, Australia 7316
Ph: (03) 64371195; 61 3 64371195
Webpage: http://www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/?articleID=570