UK racist toward alien species?

Independent:

"Save the aliens!" is the cry – and an unusual one too. Safeguarding Britain's flora and fauna from the ravages of mankind and "non-native invader" species has become the largely unquestioned cause célèbre of a generation.

In a new book, however, a leading historian argues this "culturally-determined" idea of native and non-native species is fundamentally flawed, and calls attempts to preserve the genetic identity of British wildlife "quasi-racist". Professor Christopher Smout, Scotland's Historiographer Royal and the founder of the Institute for Environmental History at St Andrews University, said species needing conservation should receive it regardless of "ethnicity". Those which cause problems, such as native bracken or non-native giant hogweed, should be dealt with in the same way and classed as "pests".

"The preoccupation with alien species is comparatively recent and not something which worried scientists and ecologists 50 years ago," said Professor Smout, whose book, Exploring Environmental History, is published in May. "They were concerned with pests. In recent times, the emphasis has been on the fact these pests are aliens and it has tended to a blanket condemnation to all species not classed as natives."

One such unfortunate is the ruddy duck, an American species accidentally released from the Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire – described as the "birthplace of modern conservation" – in the 1950s. The population expanded to such an extent that the bird migrated to Europe and, in Spain, started breeding with the white-headed duck, threatening the latter's status as a distinct species. The RSPB persuaded the British Government to carry out a decade-long cull of ruddy ducks.

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Sounds kind of like the Europeans who took over America.