- Sun Apr 26, 2015 12:46 am
#228786
I don't see anything wrong with his overall morality. I say this because I have seen the research projects grad students and professors have done in the plant biology department at my university. Its usually a complete disaster, includes false conclusions, they have no clue what they are doing, endangered plants go to waste, etc.
Sometimes hobbyist collection is a good thing in my eyes if the "professional" world is doing nothing. I'm sure the conservation effort is great for VFTs at Redher garden and other conservation sites, but I see other studies done i.e. about endangered land snail conservation that are filled with downright stupid methodology. In fact, researchers asked me if I had any ideas on how to improve their failing captive breeding attempts, but this is data I'd like to ideally publish myself...I'm not going to hand over a completed species management plan and let them slap their name on it. On the other hand I have no official credentials to carry out an experiment, so I even if i succeeded a lot of people would criticize the project and deem it something like "irresponsible". It's kind of funny.
There's not really an easy answer because I think sometimes someone who is technically "unqualified" can do a lot of good and will benefit a species by collecting it from the wild, and returning offspring... but then again there has to be a law in place or else every novice will claim they know what they're doing, and there will be no plants left.
Sometimes hobbyist collection is a good thing in my eyes if the "professional" world is doing nothing. I'm sure the conservation effort is great for VFTs at Redher garden and other conservation sites, but I see other studies done i.e. about endangered land snail conservation that are filled with downright stupid methodology. In fact, researchers asked me if I had any ideas on how to improve their failing captive breeding attempts, but this is data I'd like to ideally publish myself...I'm not going to hand over a completed species management plan and let them slap their name on it. On the other hand I have no official credentials to carry out an experiment, so I even if i succeeded a lot of people would criticize the project and deem it something like "irresponsible". It's kind of funny.
There's not really an easy answer because I think sometimes someone who is technically "unqualified" can do a lot of good and will benefit a species by collecting it from the wild, and returning offspring... but then again there has to be a law in place or else every novice will claim they know what they're doing, and there will be no plants left.