Collecting anything and future nature interest

[Chris Durden]

At 03:18 PM 1999:06:30 GMT, you wrote:


. . . . . . .. . . . . 
   We can all argue amongst ourselves and watch
>while a new housing estate is built over another colony of endangered
>species.
>
> By the way... I live in an area of Hampshire near where one of the largest
>colonies of English Marsh Fritillaries once lived..... all now buried under
>a new housing estate in the mid 1980's. So last years full protection was a
>bit late in my view...still better late than never!! As you may (Or may
>not?) know the marsh fritillary is one of the easiest butterflies in the
>world to breed..... I rest my case!
>Ready to pop out again? 
>Nigel 
>
>

  Remember this is an international people problem. Protect habitat not
species. If they have habitat the species will survive, even enough of them
that a surplus may be harvested.
  The only way we can protect habitat is at the expense of our own economy.
The housing estate on the marsh shows that this is an economic problem.
Ecologic management of species will not help if business exploitation
overrides all else. We have no more wilderness. There is an economic
interest in all "vacant" land. I know of no viable solution although there
are a number of very different experiments going on, the outcomes of which
we shall not know for quite a while. A strong government can legislate a
piece of land off limits to development. When a weak government cannot do
this an economic incentive can be found to encourage the inhabitants to
protect a habitat. Under status quo both these approaches may work in some
places. We are not under status quo. People are reproducing, building new
villages, running out of local resources, starving, being saved from
epidemics by modern medicine. In the human growth locations of the world I
see no long term prospects for survival of habitat, unless people can be
persuaded to cut back growth in order to improve the quality of life (their
own individual lives). This is a long way from realistic economics but
remember we are talking butterflies here - and they are a symbol of the
quality of life.
...........Chris Durden, Austin, TX