The foundation of conservation is three-fold: 1) biodiversity; 2) staff who protect the biodiversity; and 3) constituents who support the protection of biodiversity. This, in essence, is conservation's three-legged stool. Without any one leg, the stool falls over. If any one leg is longer or shorter than the other, the person sitting a top the stool (our beloved conservation leader) is at best off balance. Bottom line, without each leg existing in proportion to the others, balanced conservation is not going to happen. Unfortunately, the forgettable conservation leaders of our time focus solely on constituents, and within constituents, primarily on funders. Little concern is given to the biodiversity or the staff. "Leaders" seem to think, with a lot of money, they themselves could pretty much deal their way to world domination... I mean conservation.
Our stool is severely broken. We need balance. We need respect for and recognition of staff's role in protecting biodiversity and a recognition that the ultimate goal is biodiversity conservation, not basking in leaderless glory.
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