Workshop held on Global Taxonomic Issues | Herbarium Digital Library


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Workshop held on Global Taxonomic Issues

Category: Articles
Date Posted: 2005-12-28

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and the Australia Biological Study sponsored a workshop entitled, ?Removing the Taxonomic Impediment? in Darwin, Australia, 3-5 February 1998. The goal of the workshop was to discuss how institutions with systematics collection can help countries meet their obligation under the Conventional on Biological Diversity (CBD). The meeting was attended by 38 scientists representing 25 countries throughout the world. The recommendations from this workshop are important for U.S. and Canadian institutions that have herbaria with research or training programs in systematic botany. The CBD calls of the conservation, sustainable use, and equitable sharing of benefits from biological diversity. Eventhough the U.S has not signed the CBD, it faces the same challenges for understanding and protecting its biodiversity that other counties face. Furthermore, its systematics collection holds specimens from those countries, and its institution have the capability to assist in building the capability of those countries to address those challenges.

Taxonomic study has been reasonably well completed for some groups, such as mammals, birds, some higher plant groups, and some spectacular species of insects and mollusks. Little is known about the distribution, biology and genetics of the vast majority of species. The ?Taxonomic impediment? is our lack of knowledge about these group and the impact that lack has on our ability to manage and use our biological diversity. Taxonomists, herbaria, access to literature, and appropriate laboratory facilities are required to overcome this impediment.

Priorities for systematic collection are ? to extend focused collections in less studied taxonomics groups and selected geographical areas; to develop a mechanism for establishing priorities relating to capturing data in collections, for undertaking surveys, and for selecting areas to collect and inventory; and to ensure institutional collaboration at the level, as the most cost-effective means of addressing the current shortfall in collection.?

An overarching recommendation from the workshop was that ?a taxonomic perspective should be intergrated into policies and programs established at the levels of government to achieve sustainable development and conserve biodiversity. In addition, taxonomy should underscore all national, regional, and global programs for inventorying and monitoring of biological resources in ecosystems and requirements for broad-scale environmental assessment.?

Having collections is not, in itself, sufficient. The information in those collections and resulting from those collection must be made available. ?The essential requirement for accessing and utilizing this global information are: that electronic data is efficiently captured and provided in usable form; that existing information held in literature and by current experts is made available electronically; that stability of scientific names of organisms used to access this information, is promoted; and that useful taxonomic products are prepared on local, national, and regional levels.?

The workshop participants noted that, even though taxonomy is essential to conservation and the sustainable use of biological diversity, this point has not been made well to non-taxonomists. Taxonomists must understand the need of those who are taxonomic information and take these needs into consideration when setting priorities and deciding on means of information delivery.

A full report of this workshop is available at www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/flora/webpub/darwinw.htm. The workshop raised a number of question that are relevant to systematic in the U.S. and Canada,. Do we know where gaps will be in ten or twenty years, after current expert are retired? Do we know which collections are danger of becoming orphaned? Do we have a mechanism for communication the needs of the taxonomic community to funding agencies and to universities, museums, and botanical gardens where taxonomist are trained and hired? How can we be proactive about meeting these national and international needs?