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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Valéry Schollaert" data-source="post: 2899586" data-attributes="member: 75148">Probably my comments will sounds weird to some, but for me all those talks on which I didn't participate mainly because I'm too busy in the field (otherwise I like them) are just showing what I'm trying to prove since years.Conservation should NOT be done species by species or taxon by taxon. If we think long term, and nature conservation is non sens if not long term, we need to:- Protect (not touching) remains of natural habitats that are now so rare- Adapt our activities in term of wasting, energy, pollution, agriculture, indutrial production, etc in a way that plants and animals can survive in our artifial habitats, whatever the species involved.When a problem occurs -let's say a crow is overabundant such the House Crow in Dar-es-Salaam-, we need to understand the reason(s) whatever the crow is a introduced species or not, a localised endemic or a widespread species. The reason is obviously coming from us: in this case, our waste , unsorted, not exploited (such compost) nor managed properly, is the cause. The crows are giving us a symptom of a problem we should solve. Killing the crows is non sens (and a crime), while dumping all our plastics, chemicals and organic waste together is another crime against nature. This is to be changed.It is an easy case, but instead of spending our time to know if Green-winged and Common Teals should be lumped of split, we'd better study the consequences of our activities and conclude how can we improve and decrease the negative impacts of them. Not sure political power will follow our recommendations, but it is worth trying, because it is the only real way. This point of view is now spreading in French-speaking countries with books like "<a href="http://www.sangdelaterre.fr/la-nature-malade-de-la-gestion---jean-claude-genot_135_8.html" target="_blank">La nature malade de la gestion</a>" (means Nature sick of management) - I don't know if there is some equivalent in English.I like very much taxonomy, having fun listing, splitting and lumping, but this should not be the base of our conservation strategies. We'd better think in term of global ecosystems and general management of our activities, productions and population, etc.Health of nature can be compare to health of someone. If I have stomach ache, I'd better try to find out what in my food is the cause of it instead of taking a medicine to decrease the pain. Unfortunately, in both nature "management" and "health", we are still doing a lot of those fake, superficial treatments.  Good for the financial income of some people, but bad for health and environment... :CCheers</blockquote>

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