The chapters in this volume reflect continuing changes in perspectives and priorities in insect conservation biology. Some cover topics scarcely noticed at the time when their predecessor in this series of symposia was published, just 16 years ago (Collins and Thomas, 1991). They reflect the advent and establishment of insect conservation as a 'respectable' area of concern for our natural world, rather than the province of eccentrics. The wider trend, of which insects are now a firm component, is that many research programmes in ecology now address 'conservation' as a primary focus, rather than as a politically astute afterthought. Awareness of the vulnerability of the natural world to human cupidity is more widespread than ever before, although there remains a substantial gulf between the attitudes to insect conservation (and the capability to pursue it) in wealthy 'first-world' countries and much of the rest of the world.
展开▼
