Book Chapter
The contemporary view of biodiversity: bad science and bad policy
By
Andrew Beattie
Andrew Beattie
Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia
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Published:2013
Citation
Andrew Beattie, 2013. "The contemporary view of biodiversity: bad science and bad policy", Grumpy Scientists: The Ecological Conscience of a Nation, Daniel Lunney, Pat Hutchings, Harry Recher
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Biodiversity conservation science and policy largely ignores the majority of species: the microbes and invertebrates. This biodiversity contains most genetic, metabolic and chemical diversity on Earth and underpins a wide variety of ecosystem services, an unexpected diversity of major industries and, ironically, conventional conservation. Its exclusion, often explained by inadequate scientific technologies, is no longer tenable. On the other hand, its inclusion in biodiversity science and policy will: 1) enhance understanding of the processes and mechanics of ecosystem services, 2) place biodiversity at the core of all economies, 3) realise a vast array of new biological resources, 4) extend responsibility for conservation into industrial sectors that depend on biodiversity, 5) generate a new interest in the workings of the planet through the ‘Attenborough Effect’.
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