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Letters 905
Conservation Biology and the
300th Anniversary of the Birth of
Carl Linnaeus
In February 2007 the board and com-
mittees of the Society for Conserva-
tion Biology’s European Section held
consecutive meetings in Uppsala,
Sweden. The choice of venue paid
tribute to the 300-year anniversary
of the birth of Carl Linnaeus (1707–
1778), the Swedish taxonomist who
developed a classification system and
binary nomenclature for the descrip-
tion of species that is still in use
today (e.g., Linnaeus 1735, 1758–
1759).
We visited Linnaeus’Hammarby
residence, where he completed the
10th–12th volumes of Systema Nat-
urae (Linnaeus 1758–1759, 1762,
1766–1768) in which Homo sapiens
L., among other taxa, is named. The
residence is the most genuine Lin-
naeus site in the world. The rooms
have original portraits of the fam-
ily, and in the study and bedroom,
the wallpapers are original prints of
plants from contemporary scientific
publications. In visiting we seemed
to travel back 248 years. The gar-
den still contains many plants that
were planted by Linnaeus. Outside
the residence the world has changed
dramatically, but for at least three
reasons Carl Linnaeus remains of in-
terest to present-day conservation
biologists.
First, Linnaeus played a central role
in the early development of systemat-
ics and taxonomy (Godfray 2007). He
laid out the first system into which all
plants could be classified and made
many important contributions to ani-
mal classification. He coined the term
Mammalia and included whales and
bats in this category (Linnaeus 1758–
59). He also suggested that humans
are closely related to apes (Linnaeus
1735), which was not popular among
theologians of the eighteenth cen-
tury. Linnaeus started a global species
inventory and made rules for de-
scribing species (Linnaeus 1735). De-
scriptive taxonomy and systematics
is still an important basis for conser-
vation biology. Although he strongly
believed that he categorized and de-
scribed species that had been inge-
niously designed once and for all
by God, Linnaeus’discoveries made
him think that new plant species
could arise (Linnaeus 1744). In 1757–
1759 he experimentally crossed the
plants Tragopogon pratensis and T.
porrifolius and created a hybrid that
was intermediate in morphology. Ap-
parently Linnaeus’studies triggered
thoughts about evolution a century
before Darwin (1859). Today, the
continuing global investigation and
mapping of biodiversity is a legacy of
Linnaeus and remains crucial to in-
creasing knowledge for biodiversity
conservation.
Second, his fascination with the
richness in nature and his feeling
that it was both a highly valuable re-
source to use and a heritage to con-
serve is central to conservation biol-
ogy today. Interestingly, even when
Linnaeus’studies and teaching fo-
cused on particular details, it seemed
important to him not to forget the
bigger picture, for example, to ex-
plain or elaborate on character func-
tion in an ecological context. This fea-
ture of his personality and his broad
fascination with the world also made
him a very good teacher and multi-
disciplinary scientific observer. The
notes he made when traveling (e.g.,
Linnaeus 1747, 1811) are still use-
ful to taxonomists, ecologists, geol-
ogists, and social scientists. His for-
mal education in medicine and re-
search in biology makes many of his
eighteenth-century examples of the
utility of biological resources interest-
ing to a wide audience.
A third highly relevant aspect for
conservation biologists is Linnaeus’
teaching approach. In addition to lec-
turing and presenting living material
to his students, he took them out for
excursions around Uppsala, where
they examined the flora together. His
students found this outdoor educa-
tion and collaborative learning in-
spiring, and the excursions became
very popular. Linnaeus’teaching ap-
proach is reflected in today’s out-
door education programs. What his
students especially appreciated was
the keen interest and curiosity—a
total fascination—that he conveyed.
Inspiring children (Linnaeus himself
started learning about plants when
he was only 4 years old) and peo-
ple in general to discover and ap-
preciate the values of nature is a
key component of biodiversity con-
servation. Children have reported im-
portant discoveries for nature con-
servation, such as new localities of
threatened species (e.g., the her-
mit beetle [Osmoderma eremita]in
Sweden). Some Linnean examples
that will inspire present-day school
children can be seen in The Linnaean
Lessons—Inspiration for Knowledge
(www.bioresurs.uu.se).
What would Linnaeus think of the
exploitation and use of biological re-
sources of the last 50 years? We think
he would have strong and mixed feel-
ings and be disturbed by the vast and
rapid erosion of biodiversity and nat-
ural heritage throughout the world.
We think he would welcome using
biotic resources to cure diseases, be
thrilled by the development of new
scientific methods and international
collaboration, and endorse actions
and research to conserve biodiver-
sity.
The 300-year anniversary of Lin-
naeus’birth was celebrated in Upp-
sala (www.linnaeus2007.se), London
(www.linnean.org), and other places
on 23–24 May. The 2007 Annual
Meeting of the Society for Conserva-
tion Biology in South Africa would
have greatly interested him. He was
fascinated by the many undescribed
species from this region collected by
his students Carl Peter Thonberg and
Anders Sparrman, and because con-
servation biology plays a key role in
advancing the scientific legacy of Lin-
naeus.
Conservation Biology
Volume 21, No. 4, 2007
906 Letters
Per Sj ¨ogren-Gulve,∗Elisabeth L˚angstr ¨om,†
Andr´as B´aldi,‡Pierre Ibisch,§Vassiliki
Kati,∗∗ Barbara Livoreil,†† and Nuria
Selva‡‡
∗The Swedish Environmental Protection
Agency, Department of Natural Resources,
SE-106 48 Stockholm, Sweden, email
per.sjogren-gulve@naturvardsverket.se
†Uppsala University, Evolutionary Biology
Center, Department of Systematic Botany,
Norbyv¨agen 18D, SE-752 36 Uppsala,
Sweden
‡Hungarian Natural History Museum, Ludovika
t´er 2, Budapest, H-1083, Hungary
§University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of
Forestry, Alfred-M¨oller-Straße 1, D-16225 Eber-
swalde, Germany
∗∗University of Ioannina, Department of En-
vironmental and Natural Resources Manage-
ment, Seferi 2, 30100 Agrinio, Greece
††SOPTOM-CRCC, 30 Rue Lamartine, F-83590
Le Luc en Provence, France
‡‡Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish
Academy of Sciences, Mickiewicza 33, 31–120
Krak´ow, Poland
Literature Cited
Ahnfelt, A. 1877. Carl von Linn´es lefnadsmin-
nen—tecknade af honom sjelf. Oscar L.
Lamm, Stockholm.
Darwin, C. 1859. The origin of species. John
Murray, London.
Godfray, H. C. J. 2007. Linnaeus in the infor-
mation age. Nature 446:259–260.
Linnaeus, C. 1735. Systema naturae. Lugduni
Batavorum.
Linnaeus, C. 1744. Peloria. Dissertation. Upp-
sala University, Uppsala.
Linnaeus, C. 1747. W¨astg ¨ota-resa, p˚a riksens
h¨ogloflige st¨anders befallning f¨orr¨attad ˚ar
1746. Salvius, Stockholm.
Linnaeus, C. 1758–1759. Systema naturae.
10th edition. Reformata. Impensis direct.
Laurentii Salvii, Holmiae.
Linnaeus, C. 1762. Systema naturae. 11th edi-
tion. Lipsiae.
Linnaeus, C. 1766–1768. Systema naturae.
12th edition. Impensis direct. Laurentii
Salvii, Holmiae.
Linnaeus, C. 1811. Lachesis Lapponica, or a
Tour in Lapland [1732]. White & Cochrane,
London.
Conservation Biology
Volume 21, No. 4, 2007
