What level taxa to protect?

[Bruce Walsh]

After a number of very useful postings on under what conditions can
collecting pose a risk, which very by and large both very civil and very
informative, I'd like to open up another potential can of worms.

While it is clear that a distinct species is fine to list, and even a
distinct subspecies, what criteria should be used for deciding whether to
list a population?   There are certainly a lot of bad subspecies and a lot of
very good species that we do not at all recognize as such.  What criteria
should we use for deciding that a population is sufficiently distinct for
listing?

I have some thoughts on this issue, but which to hear others.

Peace

Bruce