SPIX in a BOX...

[Kifaru Bwana]

Yes, worrying times indeed for Brazil, democracy and conservation here.

Haha, indeed !

Well despite some of my mistrust and suspicion of the organization in question I do think it is at least quite fitting / ironic that as a German naturalist (though I am thinking that a Prussian would be a more accurate term) scientifically discovered the species that Germans may well succeed in restoring the species back to the wild after its disappearance.

Touche!

 

[Kifaru Bwana]

Yes , true , Brazil does have an enormous number of vulnerable, endangered and critically endangered species other than the spix macaw. I also have no doubt that there is a lot of egotism involved in this project (there always is in any conservation intervention and often in toxic quantities). This is going to be the case for both the Brazilians and the Germans and I am sure both are guilty of doing this.

Regarding the perennial issue of fighting over money / funding and publicity I dont know how familiar you are with the way things work in conservation but in my experience this is a situation hardly limited to Brazil (though it is undeniably a huge problem here). You will basically find the same interpersonal issues of people fighting over finite and limited funding and media attention absolutely everywhere in the world. Here's a thought, maybe governments should be throwing as much funding at conserving species and ecosystems as they are currently at trying to beat the coronavirus ?

Again, there needs to be a paradigm shift within conservation that moves away from perpetuating a vicious and nihilistic cycle of cuthroat competition and towards a much greater emphasis on collaboration. I've said many times on this forum that I believe that this is an enormous existential problem within the field of conservation (perhaps the biggest one in my opinion) and one that only ends up preventing goals from being reached and ultimately negatively impacts the species themselves. Some of it is just part of the human condition and will always be around but that cannot be permitted to become some tired old cliché that both justifies **** poor ethical behaviour and gives organizations the mediocre excuse to shrug their shoulders and do nothing to address these underlying issues.

Change is long overdue and desperately needs to be promoted at all levels from academic / scientific research to field based NGO's and even in zoos. If nothing is changed these sort of situations it will continue to stymie and stall progress in reaching conservation goals by fueling petty interpersonal conflicts. It will also drive young conservationists (who will be desperately needed in the next half a century in the ongoing biodiversity crisis) out of the field for good.

The paradigm shift indeed should be shifting Funding and Focus from an outdated economic model that is "perennial economic growth" (and the expense of the many and for the Happy Few, that is ...) towards a more socio-economically just model of a sustainable, inclusive cradel-to-cradle cyclic economic model that respects and benefits environment, people and society at large.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

The paradigm shift indeed should be shifting Funding and Focus from an outdated economic model that is "perennial economic growth" (and the expense of the many and for the Happy Few, that is ...) towards a more socio-economically just model of a sustainable, inclusive cradel-to-cradle cyclic economic model that respects and benefits environment, people and society at large.

I agree with all of what you have suggested here and this is a massive paradigm shift that I hope (though the pessimist in me is cynical that it will) emerges in the future of humanity if we are to avoid civilizational collapse and planetary extinction.

However, what I was really getting at with my comment was less on these external changes in wider society and directed more at the changes that I am absolutely convinced need to occur within the conservation world itself if it is to innovate and evolve (I'm hardly alone in this assumption either and calls for change are getting louder within this community and particularly among my generation).

First and foremost I believe there needs to be several major and sweeping changes to currently accepted toxic "social norms" within the organizational cultures of entities involved in conservation work such as NGO'S , Zoos , and academia / scientific research. Before we go about "saving the world / biodiversity / ecosystems" we sorely need to do the hard and neglected work of focusing on the human dimensions of our field and putting our own house in order.

If nothing is done to address these issues within conservation itself then ultimately we are just condemmed to go on and on repeating the same toxic patterns of hypocrisy , mediocrity, and platitudes ad infinitum. This is a major issue and particularly at this critical point in time and it is going to further impede our work to effectively conserve biodiversity until it is recognized to be a problem.

 

[Jurek7]

interpersonal issues of people fighting over finite and limited funding and media attention absolutely everywhere in the world

Conservationists are generally moving away from that model, realizing that a) there is more conservation issues than people b) they can tackle bigger projects.

As a matter of fact, American zoos in the mid 1900s were tuned to strong competition, but changed to cooperation and specialization of nearby zoos to different animal groups.

I don't want to discuss big socio-economic issues, since it is unproductive - you cannot change these in a reasonable time.

 

[Onychorhynchus coronatus]

Conservationists are generally moving away from that model, realizing that a) there is more conservation issues than people b) they can tackle bigger projects.

As a matter of fact, American zoos in the mid 1900s were tuned to strong competition, but changed to cooperation and specialization of nearby zoos to different animal groups.

I know there has been much "talk" of moving away from this model but I have personally seen and experienced very little evidence of any significant departure from those old and toxic social norms of cuthroat competition.

In fact quite the opposite and I'm not just talking about zoos here but across the board. Actually this issue perhaps pertains even more to conservation NGO'S and to Academia / scientific research within conservation biology than the zoo world.