location data: Open, Obscured, Private?
There is an excellent essay on this topic by David Lindenmayer and Ben Scheele** in the journal Science, vol. 356, issue 6340 of May 26, 2017, page 800. If you have online access, visit www.sciencemag.org, search term "Do Not Publish". If you don't, contact me and i can send you a copy.
Turns out, poaching IS a problem. And more than that, enthusiastic nature-seekers will degrade habitat and disrupt animal behaviors in their zeal to see a rare organism. The authors also stress that an invasion of nature tourists can badly compromise the researcher/landowner relationship which is hard-earned and built on trust.
A brief quote:
"Biologists must urgently unlearn parts of their centuries-old publishing culture and rethink the benefits of publishing location data and habitat descriptions for rare and endangered species to avoid unwittingly contributing to further species declines."
Personally, i obscure everything. All the time. And this irritates some people sometimes. But project admins CAN see location coordinates that i have obscured; Joe Hunting Rifle does not need to.
Not everybody agrees with me. If you don't want to take a look at the essay, please at least consider the issues.
** Threatened Species Recovery Hub, National Environmental Science Program, Fenner School of Environment and society, The Australian National University, Canberra.
