---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 9 Jul 1996 10:56:11 -0700 (PDT)
From: Salvatore ARICO <s.arico at unesco.org>
To: biodiv-conv at igc.apc.org
Subject: UNESCO-IOC Register of Marine Organisms
UNESCO-IOC Register of Marine Organisms
=09The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (of UNESCO) has undertake=
n a
project jointly with the National Museum of Natural History in Leiden,
Netherlands, and the Expert-center for Taxonomic Identification (ETI) in
Amsterdam, Netherlands, aimed at the development of a Register of Marine
Organisms, principally as a tool to assist governments in the implementatio=
n
process of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
=09At the present time, many efforts are being undertaken to prepare partia=
l
biodiversity inventories at different levels - global, regional and
national. The Register is, therefore, intended to act as a tool for the
collection of information necessary to the development of strategies at the
decision-making level for the conservation and sustainable use of biologica=
l
diversity.
=09The Register will draw on a checklist of marine organisms with a
bibliography of key works. The initial phase of the project extends to the
family level and it has largely been completed.
=09The Register can, thus, provide a framework for more detailed work, such=
as
compiling inventories of species. Furthermore, as a comprehensive list of
marine organism families, the Register will act as an 'entering key' to mor=
e
specific lists/databases (e.g. the ETI products).
=09The second phase, already started, is aimed at expanding the Register do=
wn
to the species level. The further development of the project must, however,
be considered as an on-going exercise, leading to a product which also
includes tools as guidance for identification.
=09The Register is also aimed at building up a basis for an internationally
agreed taxonomic terminology of marine organisms. In fact, while the projec=
t
of a comprehensive register of marine organisms does not have the pretentio=
n
of making taxonomists agree once and for all, the Register could hopefully
act as a co-ordinating mechanism to help stabilize nomenclature. This goal
is being achieved through the involvement of many specialists and, to this
end, some 400 floppy disks with a draft register of families were
distributed worldwide and numerous taxonomists were invited to contribute.
Meanwhile many reviewed the first draft and provided their inputs to the
completion of lists of species of several selected groups.
=09Another important goal of such a project is to come up with a reliable
assessment of the number of marine species. Assessing the effective number
of marine species is probably an impossible task. However, it is time to
show what the international scientific community does know in this field.
=09The Register, which will also run on computer CD-ROM, is also aimed at
promoting computer assisted taxonomy. This appears very important,
especially in those countries where good libraries are scarce or absent.
Furthermore, a computer database can always be easily updated.
=09The US National Oceanographic Data Center (NODC) Taxonomic Code - which=
is
a hierarchical system of numerical codes used to represent the scientific
name of organisms - has been introduced into the Register. This need for a
coding system arises because biological data are nowadays increasingly
processed by computer, and several taxonomic coding systems have been
developed accordingly. The advantage is that, once a coding system has been
introduced, the records can be easily manipulated. Similarly, FAO provided
their standardized lists of common names in use for fisheries purposes for
inclusion in the Register.
=09The Register is also intended to help circulate biological data within t=
he
International Oceanographic Data Information and Exchange System (IODE),
thus becoming accessible to IODE system users as well.
=09The Register project is associated with the recently launched
IUBS-ICSU-IUMS "Species 2000 - Indexing the World's Known Species" Programm=
e
- a much more ambitious enterprise. This programme has approximately the
same goal as the UNESCO-IOC Register, but it has the objective of
enumerating all known species on earth. Duplication of effort is thus
avoided through strong liaison.
It is IOC's plan to make copies of the final product available free of
charge to developing countries, as well as the other partners's intention t=
o
provide each user with scientific and technical assistance on how to best
use the Register.=20
Those parts of the Register which are complete or nearly complete are now
being made available on the ETI Internet site to speed up their distributio=
n
and to facilitate contributions by specialists. Please communicate with the
contact persons below to obtain the exact Internet site to access to the
Register as well as further information on this project.
=0C Contact persons for the Register
Jacob van der Land
Editor
National Museum of Natural History
PO Box 9517
2300 RA Leiden
THE NETHERLANDS
tel. (31 71) 516 26 54
fax (31 71) 513 33 44
email evert at nnm.nl
Salvatore Aric=F2
Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
UNESCO
1, rue Miollis 75732 Paris Cedex 15
FRANCE
Tel. (33 1) 45 68 40 14
Fax (33 1) 40 56 93 16
e-mail s.arico at unesco.org