Is freshwater advocacy group the solution?
© Michael Lo
In the second part of an interview with Paul Jepson from the University of Oxford, Will Darwall, Head of the IUCN Freshwater Biodiversity Unit, suggests that formation of a single, unified group of scientists and conservationists may help give voice to the crisis affecting the planet’s freshwaters.
Not only are freshwater habitats and species under-represented in the media and biodiversity conservation legislation, but those most passionate about their survival are separated into disparate groups around the globe.
Will therefore advocates the amalgamation of those sharing such interests into a single expert network in order to improve lobbying, information sharing and direct action in the field.
We think a couple of major questions here might be, would the aquarium hobby have something to offer such a group? If so, what?
See part one of the interview here.
This interview first appeared on the Biofresh Blog.
Category: Conservation, News | Tags: aquarium, biodiversity, conservation, fish, IUCN, water and biodiversity, Will Darwall | 2 comments »
June 4th, 2013 at 9:23 am
Wonderful Idea, but should also involve Aquarium Hobbyist ( as they often go on field trips) plus like minded groups like International Rivers, Water pollution watchdogs etc as they can indirectly contribute to state of freshwater etc. Also the Portal should allow individuals to anonymously post Picture and location details for polluted freshwater and or write a small note on where and how the pollution is taking place. This reporting tools can add a great value to corrective action through Government – Civil participation etc…Also cases of extreme water pollution, River mining, Land grabbing through filling of River, Lakes etc should be reported …
Hope we have a website soon… and we can get all the data together..
June 4th, 2013 at 8:06 pm
All great ideas Joyban and couldn’t agree more with what you say. IUCN Red List information on species could be updated more dynamically that way too as a lot of it is already out of date. Really hope they get it together.