Why is taxonomy important for conservation?
This issue has been the subject of some scholarly debate, but the crux of the matter is that one cannot prioritize the “value” of a particular region (be it a country, province, or local forest) without being able to quantify the biodiversity present there. To do this, one has to be able to count / estimate the number of species — without a good handle on taxonomy, this will be a difficult task. I’m including links to a few peer-reviewed articles on the subject below. If you can’t access the full articles, feel free to contact me, as I may be able to through my university’s subscriptions.
