INTRODUCTION

This Foreword will not venture into deep discussion of the major themes adumbrated in this book. Written by economists for the most part, they are not my “bag”: I am not a card-carrying economist. Rather, I specialize in being a generalist. I am also one who prefers to side-step the usual practice of supplying new answers to established questions. I prefer to raise new questions. So I propose to try my hand with a number of fresh perspectives on endangered species, in the hope that they will serve to expand the policy purview for the issue. Some perspectives are not so much fresh as “fresh-ish” since they have been around, in principle at least, for some years, while receiving only moderate attention from ecologists and economists. Nor shall I focus on the United States after the manner of most contributors to this book. After spending lengthy periods in a dozen countries West, East, North, and South, I prefer to look at the endangered species question as manifested in the world at large, though many of the points apply specifically to the United States.

TRIAGE PLANNING FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES

We are far from possessing sufficient conservation resources – funds, scientific skills, and the like – to help all species in trouble. Even if resources were to increase several times over, we could not hope to save more than a proportion of all species at risk. When we allocate funds to safeguard one species, we automatically deny those funds to other species.