Conservation as we know it must be scrapped and replaced with a less Orwellian approach to environmental protection, according to a leading marine mammal scientist.
Dr David Lavigne, who is due to speak at an international conference on wildlife conservation in the University of Limerick this week, said that conservation now poses a threat to the protection of wildlife because it has been "hijacked" by the "wise use" movement, which has, he said, "abused it as an excuse for commercial exploitation under the guise of ecological sustainability".
Conservation as currently defined "has become part of the problem, not part of the solution", Dr Lavigne, a scientific adviser to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), contended.
"It must be reinvigorated, revised and reinvented to do any good at all," he said.
The obvious option, he added, was to adapt traditional conservation principles to deal with the realities of the 21st century.
"Perhaps both the word conservation, and the movement it inspired, should be abandoned and replaced with something that recognises humans are a part of nature, and that the future of our species and that of others is inextricably linked," he said.
Dr Lavigne is one of the key speakers at a forum entitled "Wildlife Conservation: In Pursuit of Ecological Sustainability," which is being hosted by IFAW and the University of Limerick this week.
The conference begins tomorrow and ends on Saturday.
The threat to animals under the current climate of conservation will also be highlighted by Prof Martin Willison, of Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.
He said a quarter of the bird species that existed 10,000 years ago are now gone, and an eighth of those still surviving are "at risk of extinction".
"Most species of invertebrate animals, for example, have not been named. Un-named species are currently being wiped out en masse in the deep seas before they have ever been seen by human eyes," he said.
Other speakers at the conference, to be attended by about 85 scientists and experts, will explain how the commercial exploitation of species can destroy the harvest it seeks.
Cod have declined by 90 per cent in the North Sea since the 1970s.
The vast wealth of cod stocks off Newfoundland, Canada, have also crashed by 99.9 per cent over the past 40 years.
Mr Vivek Menon, of the Wildlife Trust of India and co-chairman of the IUCN's Asian Ivory Trade Task Force, described economic pressure as disastrous.
"The sustainability of the ivory trade is a theoretical myth constructed by ivory tower economists that ignores market trends, trade perceptions and cultural beliefs."
He added: "We can no longer ignore the precautionary principle in wildlife conservation."
Prof Roger G.H. Downer, president of the University of Limerick, said the college was delighted to have such a gathering of distinguished scientists on campus "to address the critical issues around ecological sustainability that will determine the quality of life enjoyed by this and future generations".
A public lecture will be given during the main conference by Dr Jane Goodall, the well-known wildlife conservationist, on Friday at 7 p.m.
