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The Global Taxonomy Initiative

Category: Articles
Date Posted: 2005-12-28

The Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has recognized that taxonomy is a fundamental too to the CBD and has endorsed the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI) as a priority program to address knowledge gaps that should be supported by the Global Environment Facility. The endorsement was based on the recommendations of a series of workshops, i.e. ?Removing the Taxonomic Impediment? held at Darwin, Australia in 3-5 February 1998, ?Taxonomy Initiative; Shortening the Distance between Discover and Deliver? held in London in September 10-11, 1998; and ?Global taxonomy Initiative: using Systematic Inventories to Meet Country and Regional Needs? in new York in September 17-19, 1998. These series of workshops emphasized the importance of systematic inventories as the basis for organizing framework for building taxonomic knowledge and capacity on which all country-driven activities on conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity depend on.

The CoP has acknowledged that the present level of taxonomic resources is inadequate for the proper documentation of taxa thus resulting to an impediment to conservation and management of the world?s biodiversity. This taxonomic impediment refers to the gaps of knowledge in taxonomic systems particularly the following:

? knowledge gaps associated with genetic systems

? the shortage of trained taxonomists and curators

? the impact of these deficiencies on the ability to manage and conserve biological diversity

The GTI aims to provide the impetus to address the taxonomic impediment at a variety of levels:

? gathering of facts (through collection of specimens and the maintenance of these collections)

? development of information (compilation and organization of basic data from the collections into databases, regional checklists, maps, etc.)

? development of knowledge (synthesis of those data, into monographs, floras, faunas, keys, etc. Each level of increasing complexity delivers information crucial to effective implementation of the CBD)

The key recommendations for advancing these objectives are for the Parties of the CBD to:

? undertake assessment of national taxonomic capacity (including manpower, data collection facilities, libraries)

? develop a taxonomic strategy and action plan to strengthen national capacity

? develop initiatives to implement their taxonomic strategy and action plan

? conduct regional workshops to develop action plans

For the Philippines, the Philippine National Museum, in coordination with DIVERSITAS, spearheads the implementation of the GTI in the country. As an institution with the largest natural history collection and a long history of field biodiversity inventory and research, it has the capacity to provide a variety of inventory products, i.e. floras, field guides, checklists, area-specific or species-specific publications, national databases, webpages, which are the basis for applying taxonomy for biodiversity conservation and resource-management. It can serve as the national focal point for taxonomy which could serve as a reference center that could link taxonomic information derived from systematic studies, ecological studies, and other studies with economic perspectives from both national and international sources.

Among the activities of the Philippine National Herbarium which are along the line of the objectives of the GTI are:

? maintenance of the largest plant specimen collection of the country

? inventory of plant diversity through the Flora of the Philippines Project which is an international collaborative project involving collection of plants, preparation of checklists, and writing of a flora or revisions

? conduct vegetation and ethnobotanical inventory

? conduct rapid assessment for prioritization of sites and species for conservation

? training on plant inventory and herbarium techniques, plant identification, ecological assessments for plant conservation, flora writing, and para-taxonomy techniques

? bioinformatics through development of databases, checklists, and softwares