All,
Many of you know I am not the inventor of that phrase. Tom Crutchfield was the one that came up with that. At least that is where I first heard it. Maybe Tom can explain the evolution of him using that phrase on his price lists.
I remember when I was running the Reptile Department at Central Florida Zoo and had gone to Tom's shop in Bushnell. He was telling me of his plan to buy all the known habitat for the recently re-discovered, thought to be extinct, Jamaican Iguana. It was known at the time that developers were trying to buy that land and the zoos hardly had funds to help the head start program on Jamaica. Tom approached Rick Hudson of Ft. Worth Zoo who was head of the Cyclura Working Group and told him that if he donated some hatchling Jamaican Iguanas, Tom could sell them to wealthy Japanese collectors and get enough money to buy the land. From what I remember Tom wasn't going to make a dime off the deal. At least that's what I remember. Tom said Rick wouldn't do it. I couldn't believe that Rick would risk the re-extinction of wild Jamaican Iguanas over a non-commercial stance. And this was during the time when I was pushing the banning agenda I was duped into following by my unwaivering goal to conserve herps at all costs no matter what (kinda like many academics and AR groups now). This got me thinking about how Conservation through Commercialization could work to benefit wild herps. Then I went on to work on my Bachelors in Wildlife Science and learned about sustainable harvest and wildlife management. I was also familiar with the use of Conservation through Commercialization and sustainable harvest from the way The Crocodile Specialists Group was being successful at crocodile conservation.
Hudson, Allison Alberts and the Cyclura group were able to get the funds to buy the land in the end. But what would have happened if they didn't? Maybe Tom can tell the story better but that is what I remember.
Commercializing in herps is the answer to herp conservation from the view of collecting, breeding and selling. People care about things that have a commercial value. Having a commercial value generates funds for conservation. Many people (including me at one time) scoffed at the idea that money has any place in conserving wildlife (it was what was killing the herps). After all herps are not commodities but intrinsic animals that have a value beyond the dollar. They are both but the capitalistic world we live in demands that they have a commercial value. Thus herps need to be conserved, managed, harvested, propagated and sold in a sustainable manner. Captive propagation makes more individuals thus perpetuating the species. Most folks don't give their offspring away so they are commercial. We need access to founder stock, new localities and new blood. We need to embrace the realities of this world and fight for what is right.
Welkerii
El Paso, TX
