The Elect, in other words, have all the luck. If the Preterites are to yield any value, this funding bias will have to be reversed, and priority in field research will have to be given to areas experiencing the most rapid loss of biodiversity. Such areas are easily picked out on satellite images and aerial photographs. We know where Preterition is occurring. I think the answer is clear enough.
Salvage is the responsibility of taxonomists.
No-one else is qualified to do the job. As each new taxon is recognised or an old one confirmed, the conscientious taxonomist will carefully consider the conservation status and likely future of the species concerned. Species restricted to small, doomed natural areas, and species tied to particular doomed habitats, should be collected - and fast. Underfunded taxonomists should actively recruit volunteers for field work, both to gather material of disappearing species and to exhaustively sample the biota of disappearing natural areas. Biologists opposed to destructive developments usually take action by writing letters to the newspapers, joining protest groups and lobbying politicians.