As a naturalist of the age of fifty something I can say for sure that to effectively conserve nature/biodiversity we will need to have centers within each, local region. These centers can be formal organizations or loosely coordinated. They are privately funded. They can be a loose group of individuals that work together to conserve biodiversity in the local region or they could be a biological research station, or private reserve, or a house that lets people stay for free. Here is the vision: a place for naturalists to work, similar to the Youth Hostel system or the YMCA where naturalists can count on there being one in ALL REGIONS and where folks can camp, stay, etc. and do their work. There are many out there right now but there needs to be at least one in every local region and I would suggest within each geomorphological region. Here is an example of geomorphological regions https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/3fc273fccab8499083960daf7f1207a7
Picture this. A naturalist couple who worked their entire lives in the health care industry retire. They buy a wonderful piece of natural habitat and get a conservation easement to conserve it in perpetuity. They build small cottages for visiting scientists and research facilities. They conduct their own management and research and contribute their finding into a database just for that geomorphological region. After years a biodiversity institution is formed there and this lasts forever and helps to conserve the biodiversity there.
Costa Rica seems to have something like this. In my undergrad days, my class traveled to several regions of Costa Rica, and usually stayed at Biological Stations. I don’t know about the private funding part, though.
Thanks Jason. Very cool. It is needed. As a biologist now age 53 I know that to really conserve biodiversity we need to have a heavy private effort. Government, as you know is a compromise between those who would fully fund conservation and those who would zero fund it. We need to make up what is needed in the private sector. That is best done on an intense, local level. We need even more than one organization per local area I have found. The groups can assist public and private land managers manage for biodiversity, which entails mapping, monitoring, research, and management.
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