What is needed is positive action

The Smithsonian Magazine recently published an article about a few species about to go extinct

The Smithsonian Magazine recently published an article about a few species about to go extinct (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/specialsections/40th-anniversary/Five-Species-Most-Likely-to-Become-Extinct-in-the-Next-40-Years.html?c=y&page=100&navigation=next).

Typically, and in line with other articles in many publications on extinction these days, the Smithsonian Magazine published pictures and a short description of the species – Rabb’s Fringe Limbed Treefrog (Panama, maybe one left?), Ploughshare Tortoise (Madagascar, maybe 400), the Hirola (a large antelope; Kenya-Somalia, maybe 600), the Baiji (a Chinese dolphin already declared extinct) and the Cat Ba Langur (pictured above, a monkey, Vietnam, 59 left). Reasons for their decline? Habitat destruction, illegal trade, poaching and overhunting, and in the case of the Cat Ba monkey, decimation to make “monkey balm”, a traditional medicine.

POSITIVISM

But really, what was the article supposed to achieve? We all know many species have become extinct already, or are on the brink of extinction, or are clinging to existence – but did the Smithsonian Magazine suggest positive ways forward? Not.

I think we all realize that many species are in deep shit to put it bluntly. Frankly, there is a limit to how much bad news anyone can absorb in a day. Conservation-minded people have access to many sources on the web to absorb gloom and doom before their breakfast. This might sound harsh, but if we are going to be motivated to take positive action, why would the Smithsonian Magazine delight in publicizing such frankly ecovoyueristic articles? They have thereby joined the ranks of the paparazzi of the extinction crisis.

What is needed is positive action. We can still do much to reverse species declines. Lion Aid concentrates on lions, in full confidence that if apex predators can be conserved, there will be significant benefits to all species in that consequently robust ecosystem. And it is not too late for lions. There are still populations (a handful) sufficiently healthy numerically to provide for recovery. Creative conservation programmes can still reverse their headlong decline, and this will take hands-on efforts to evaluate the best means to achieve. If we sit back, lions could join the Cat Ba monkeys in the Smithsonian Magazine publication of 2030.

Picture credit: princehotelhanoi.com/images/cat_ba_langur.jpg

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