Challenging the wisdom of the Universe, Parliament and the People: the perils of saving species

Abstract

No one ever pretended that the conservation of biodiversity would be easy. Not only do conservation biologists and those responsible for implementing conservation programmes need to cope with the vagaries of a rapidly degrading global environment and the often poorly understood and unique requirements of a largely undescribed biota, they must also cope with human social systems and its plethora of minority interests. In an earlier issue of Pacific Conservation Biology, Leong Lim expressed his concerns about the operation and legitimacy of New South Wales' threatened species legislation. Partly he was concerned about the constitutional validity of the legislation and partly about difficulties for land owners, consultants, and government authorities in addressing the requirements of the legislation when information on individual threatened and listed species was incomplete. In this issue, the Scientific Committee set up under the legislation to determine listings of threatened species responds to Lim's criticisms. The Committee argues that they operate within the bounds of the legislation and are constrained by the requirements of the Act. The issue of "accountability" raised by Lim is important.