> > What we need to do is find a workable compromise that will allow the
> > world to see what the global situation is, how it is changing, and allow
> > informed decisions to be made - without creating a situation that could
> > be unreasonably exploited.
> > Here again, we come back to the issue of trust. No positive progress
> > can ever be made without a reasonable balance of trust.
>
> I am not entirely convinced by this call for trust, since it seems
> to be a one-way request (ie. hobbyists asking to be entrusted with
> locality data). What do the hobbyists offer to conservationists?
> (Please don't say the hobbyists can show them how to grow the plants!
> Nor that hobby collections are a conservation reservoir.) I suppose
> that plant hobyists could be weaned into becoming conservationists, or
> at least conservation-minded. In fact, I bet that many conservationists
> DO start that way! But I don't see how spreading a lot of habitat data
> among the public can accelerate the process. This is probably worth
> more discussion in another thread...
>
Ah yes, Let's pass a mandate and then exempt ourselves. Sorry folks, I
am just too much of an anarchist, or maybe just an iconoclast, to buy
this. No offense intended (really no offense) to those who disagree.
:) I must say something that the botanists and other academics may howl
about, -here goes- botanists, conservationists (whoever these self
appointed people are) and government officials have no more or less
right to knowledge or information about a CP site than anyone else,
included the general public or those who have been labeled "hobbyists."
I'll even go further off the deep end; botanists, academic researchers,
and governement officials (Dear Lord save us from this group!) have no
more or less right to own CP's than any other member of the general
public. As a licensed professional and in academics, I am really peaved
with groups who regularly try to credential themselves as having
privileges that are then taken away from the general public. I simply
do not agree with the privileged club set
Rereading what I just wrote, I have to add that this all IMHO, and I
know there will be many who disagree with me, but I just had to get it
off my chest.
Tom in Fl