Abstract
The critical event by which bat conservation is progressed in a country is the establishment of a dedicated NGO. This allows long-term conservation projects to be carried out and provides a mechanism for recruiting and harnessing the enthusiasm of volunteers. Such organisations, whose aim is to conserve bats, have been established in most European countries, as well as in those comprising North, Central and South America; Australasia and parts of Asia. The rest of the world—most of Africa, parts of South and Southeast Asia, all of Central Asia and much of the Russian Federation—remains a conservation void so far as bats are concerned, although there are individuals working in isolation in some of the countries concerned. The opportunities that have facilitated the development of bat conservation organisations are reviewed in the hope that they may now be pursued in some of the countries where such conservation is non-existent.
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Acknowledgements
This chapter is based on an invited keynote lecture at the 15th International Bat Research Conference in Prague in August 2010, and I would like to thank the organisers for that opportunity. I would also like to thank Luis Aguirre, Pat Brown, Jakob Fahr, Martin Fisher, Suren Gazaryan, Christine Harbusch, Tony Hutson, Richard Jenkins, Dave Johnston, Tom Kunz, Bob Locke, Wanda Markotter, Angie McIntyre, Simon Mickleburgh, Dixie Pierson, Greg Richards, Shirley Thompson and Allyson Walsh for their assistance in its preparation and to Julia Hanmer, Richard Jenkins and Merlin Tuttle for their comments on an earlier draft. The views expressed remain entirely my own.
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Racey, P.A. (2013). Bat Conservation: Past, Present and Future. In: Adams, R., Pedersen, S. (eds) Bat Evolution, Ecology, and Conservation. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7397-8_25
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