BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kratter" data-source="post: 3506788" data-attributes="member: 50001">NielsIn the US at least, collecting birds is already heavily regulated.  To collect in the US you need permits from the federal US Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Commissions (completely different permits and  processes). These agencies are composed of wildlife biologists who are tasked with ensuring long term survival of populations.  If there are listed species (endangered/threatened, migratory bird under the US Migratory Bird Treaty Act), these may require separate permits.   For most of us, especially universities, collecting is also regulated by institutional committees that set policies for animal cares (IUPACs); these committees consider ethical issues.  Permission to collect also depends on the land owner. If a federal or state property (e.g., US National Forest), this is usually from the wildlife biologists of the property. These often involve applications that require justification for the collection.   To possess a collection of bird specimens in the US, one needs federal (USFWS, and USDA) and state permits, as well as institutional permits (e.g., environmental health and safety).  If you have imported tissues specimens in your collection, you need to have your lab permitted as a BioSafety II facility. Regulation of bird importation has become a logistic nightmare in the US, and we are now required to use expensive customs brokers.  Any imported specimens listed by CITES, require institutional CITES permits.  That is just the US end of the regulation.  All of these permits are expensive (totaling at least $1000/year).If you are collecting in foreign countries, then you must also follow all of that country's laws and regulations (which often mirror the US in complexity).  This usually involves long stays in expensive capital cities.  These are the present realities of modern bird collecting.  It involves lot of staff time, staff, and funds to just complete the permit processing, and does not include any costs of  field work.  It involves assessment of justifications for collecting at many levels. As I have pointed out before, the museum collectors in the US are trained biologists with a great concern for the welfare of bird populations. Most of us have graduate degrees, and we have completed higher level courses in population biology, population genetics, conservation biology, biogeography, evolution, behavior, etc.  As a result, we have had the sort of training required to best assess how collecting may affect bird populations.  Lastly, we also have to appease and provide justification to the general public (e.g., Bird Forum). Andy</blockquote>

Verification