Fwd: RE: MIAMI BLUE BUTTERFLY RESTORATION PROJECT

John Grehan jrg13 at psu.edu
Sun Feb 3 03:01:50 EST 2002


>Absolutely not.  I did not list the US only because fewer specimens are
>collected illegally by US citizens since the early '90's.  In reality,
>probably 70% of the Mexican specimens deposited in institutions outside of
>Mexico are in US institutions, so the US is the biggest exploiter in
>recent decades.

I guess I do not see how this situation is relates to the current 
collecting permit
as it does not bring these former specimens back. I presume the reference 
to the 70%
includes all specimens, not just the types. If that is the case again I do 
not see
how the deposition of all those specimens is that critical for research 
within the
country itself. I can well understand the problem of access to types, but 
for the
rest, if types are readily available there is nothing to prevent one in 
one's own
country collecting plenty of specimens. Maybe 90% of all specimens collected
in New Zealand, for example, are located outside the country, but the only 
specimens
that are a problem for New Zealander's are the types. New Zealand is no 
less "exploited"
than Mexico, but fortunately there is no blanket permit system for 
collecting (there is
the view, however, that any specimens resulting in a type should go to New 
Zealand).

>My point is that almost nobody has deposited Mexican specimens in Mexican
>institutions, save some individuals associated with the
>Mexican institutions that house collections. I think Mexico's laws
>regulating the collection of Lepidoptera are really just an effort to keep
>some specimens in Mexican collections, and try to reverse the trend of
>every last specimen ending up in foreign collections.

It seems to me a strange sort of way of dealing with the situation. You 
seem to be
saying that Mexicans are not inclined to collect and therefore it was 
necessary for them
to impose this permit system (in other words, depend on foreigners to do 
the collecting).
If this is the case why not just encourage those Mexicans who do
collect to collect more? If there are any Mexicans on this list perhaps they
could comment on the situation as I am a bit puzzled by it all (having not 
grown
up in North America I am profoundly ignorant of such matters).

John Grehan


 
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