COMMENTARYHope for Tropical Biodiversity through True BioliteracyDaniel H. Janzen1Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6018, U.S.A.ABSTRACTFor tropical wild biodiversity to survive, it must occupy a large terrain, be permanently endowed, and be integrated with its local, national, and international society.Among other things, integration will be enormously facilitated by giving bioilliterate humanity—all seven billion of us—the ability to read wild biodiversity anywhereany time for the personal cost of a pocket comb. That is true universal bioliteracy. DNA barcoding is the technology for this, and a personal or an institutional decisionto sustain its cheap cost will cut the Gordian knot.Key words: conservation; DNA barcoding; taxonomy.IN CONTRAST WITH THE HOPE OF GETTING ANTHROPOGENIC CLIMATECHANGE UNDER CONTROL, or even dampening it, there is still most de-cidedly an opportunity and hope for the conservation of tropical wildbiodiversity, at least that which still survives as viable populations.A major cause for hope is that we do not have to try to saveevery bit of it, nor even have an omnipresent, as well as global,solution in order to save a huge part of it. Biodiversity does not flowlike CO2. Stop trying to save all wild nature all the time, every-where. Triage does have its place, especially when we are both theenemy and the partner. We have the luxury that by focusing onsociologically and ecologically workable lumps, and by purchasingor otherwise securing them from the marketplace, right now , wherethey are, there is still time for a major peace treaty with wild tropicalnature. Yes, it will be flawed, but it will be vastly better than the paleshadow of nature that clings to subsistence agroscapes, industrialagroscapes, and urban sprawl. But, wild nature is melting like asnowdrift in a March warm wind, quickly turning into brown slush,even if still cold. We need to pick the low-hanging fruits, growlarger and more experienced at conserving, cooking, and eatingthem, and later reach for the higher branches.Why am I restating the obvious? Because now the whole worldcan listen (thank you Google). There is still time for large lumps ofwild tropical biodiversity to be recognized and saved. The solutionsare also recognizable and applicable. While globalization is just asmuch the problem as is the frontier farmer with nine children, theyare also both part of the solution. Globalization allows all of us tolisten and participate. The occupant of the land is the caretaker.LARGE, ENDOWED, AND INTEGRATEDAnother reason for hope is that saving various sizes of lumps oftropical biodiversity is within the grasp of each of us, as individualsand as groups. Buy it off the marketplace. The aggregate of thoselumps can be several large semi-wholes, especially if the aggregationis socially integrated locally and nationally. Humanity is not goingto give the planet back to the wild. The wild can only hope for anetwork or leopard spots of large lumps, not a continent(s). Largethey have to be, to biologically survive, to minimize the islandeffect, to withstand the siege of the adjacent agroscape, and toabsorb the footprints of us users, all of us.What else besides large? Wild nature needs to be permanentlyendowed. In other words, it has to do the strategizing and negoti-ating required to be a partner to humans. The nondamaging bio-developers of the wild (e.g., Janzen 1999, 2000) need job securityand operations budgets to cover their mission of wildland survivalinto perpetuity through integration with society. This cannot beachieved through beggar status. The wildland lumps must pay theirbills. No society will long tolerate a parasitic nonintegrated, yetadequately large wildland. Whether it will die by a thousand cuts orone legislated bullet, the free rider will die.What else besides large and permanently endowed? The con-served wildland must be heavily integrated with the society in whichit is imbedded. To be integrated means anything to everything,including being able to read its biodiversity and its other moods.One shirt does not fit all. Wildland integration will be very differentin Canada, California, and Costa Rica. This is because the shirt issocial and the body it wraps is place-based biodiversity, with all itsscars, warts, and silky smooth niceness.TO WHOM AM I TALKING?Tropical conservation has been understandably focused on ‘protectit’. That is the conservation emotion, the conservation industry.That industry is in part why tropical conservation still has some-thing to work with. But it has been a mix of one-night stands andsuccess through agricultural inviability of the frontier. And then wewalk away to the next seductive issue. Marriage is long overdue. Wehave far too long deluded ourselves into thinking that saving it wasenough. But if it is just saved, it is dead.‘Just save it’ is an academic protocol. Think it, publish it, put itin your curriculum vitae. From then on, it is the journal and thelibrary’s responsibility. We move on to the next puzzle. Conservationis long overdue for creative, understanding, and mission-orientedSPECIAL SECTIONReceived 22 April 2010; revision accepted 27 April 2010.1Corresponding author; e-mail: [email protected] ]](]]): 1–3 2010 10.1111/j.1744-7429.2010.00667.xr 2010 The Author(s) 1Journal compilation r 2010 by The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservationresident engineers and administrators, appropriate annual budgets,and appropriate annual yields. ‘Park guard’ is not an adequate stafffor a park any more than it is for a bank. Conservation throughnondamaging biodevelopment is only attained with a secure en-dowment, payment for services, and a market for its offerings. Thisstructure is well known. It is that of a large, good, long-standinguniversity. It has security and buildings, but it has so much morethan that necessary platform.Yes, there will always be an agroscape, hopefully self-fundedfor its environmental health. That is one of the human gardens, nomatter how sustainable. The urban ecosystem is another. Let hu-manity have those huge gardens. The quid pro quo we seek is thathumans let wildness have its large garden in return (Janzen 1999,2000). We do not lament the absence of serious wild biodiversity inthe shopping mall, rice field, and football pitch. Some whole coun-tries, some whole regions, some whole places, and some bits ofplaces are missing wild