SCB: Conservation classifications
Okay, so Nick Salafky's big idea isn't just his, but a whole bunch of people who have been meeting and meeting and meeting to hammer out one standardized vocabulary to describe the conservation problems and solutions. He described it as "so unsexy", but so important. The idea is, that if you are a conservationist describing a bit of land being threatened by overgrazing, you could describe that problem as "cows" or "cattle" or "grazing" or "overgrazing" or any number of other words. But if everyone uses the same words, suddenly everyone can work off of the same checklist, can summarize their site in just a few simple words, and search databases and journals effectively for similar issues.
The cooperating groups are the IUCN and the CMP, and the new classifications are available at www.conservationmeasures.org. This August, at the first European Congress of Conservation Biology, a symposium will put this idea together with two others that have as their aim the rigorization (to coin a word) of conservation. You can read about the two other ideas here.
