THE DRAGONFLY SOCIETY OF THE AMERICAS

Statement of Committee on collecting Policy

A final draft of the DSA Collecting Guidelines has been completed through the diligent work of the Committee set up by George Harp, chaired by Richard Orr, and with the valuable comments of many of our members. This draft is basically the draft published in ARGIA (1994, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 6-8), but with a few significant changes.

Preamble

Our ethical responsibility to assess and preserve natural resources, for the maintenance of biological diversity in perpetuity, and for the increase of knowledge requires that Odonatologists examine the rationale and practices of collecting Odonata, for the purpose of governing their own activities. While we recognize that historically most threats to preservation of odonate species have been a consequence of habitat destruction, we believe that there is a need for responsible collecting practices. To this end, the following guidelines are outlined, based on these premises:

0.1 Odonata are a natural resource.
0.2 Any human interaction with a natural resource (e.g. Odonata and their environment) should be in a manner not harmful to the perpetuation of that resource.
0.3 The collection of Odonata:

Guidelines

Purposes of Collecting (consistent with the above):
Restraints As To Numbers:
Collecting Methods:
Live Material:
Environmental and Legal Considerations:
Responsibility For Collected Material:
Related Activities Of Collectors:
Traffic In Odonata Specimens:

(Last update 13-April-96) (current as of 26-Feb-2020)