Overcoming the Taxonomic Impediment to
Sustainable Development: BioNETINTERNATIONAL, the Global Network for
Taxonomy—A Successful Networking Model
for Capacity Building in Developing
Countries
Nicholas King
Abstract—BioNET-INTERNATIONAL is the Global Network for
capacity building in taxonomy for sustainable development. Taxonomy (or biosystematics) is the basic underpinning science of all
biology—and thus of all environmental management. Without sound
taxonomy, no knowledge is available on living organisms, and if you
don’t know what you have, you cannot determine how to manage,
conserve, or sustainably use biological resources. The Global Network is comprised of a number of interlinked regional Locally
Organized and Operated Partnerships (LOOPs) of developing country institutions, supported by a consortium of developed country
institutions. Its purpose, through South-South cooperation and
North-South partnerships for institutional strengthening and human resource development, is to enable developing countries to
achieve self-reliance in taxonomy to support regional and national
programs for eradication of poverty, via sustainable agricultural
development and use of natural resources, and by full implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The network’s success is attributable to two key components. The
first is local ownership of the process, including governmental
endorsement of the need for such a capacity-building network,
whereby needs are identified and prioritized by member countries
themselves. The second is a tried and tested mechanism whereby a
lack of individual country capacity is overcome by pooling, optimizing, and sharing regional capacity on a reciprocal basis between
member countries. It provides a very useful model for other capacity-building initiatives in developing countries, as well as for NorthSouth and South-South collaborative partnerships for capacity
building.
Introduction ____________________
Whether it is called taxonomy, systematics, or biosystematics, this branch of science is dedicated to discovering,
identifying, naming, and classifying organisms and elucidating their relationships. As such, the discipline is fundamental
Nicholas King is Director, BioNET-INTERNATIONAL, Bakeham Lane,
Egham, Surrey TW20 9TY, UK, phone: +44 1491 829036/7/8, FAX: +44 1491
829082/100, E-mail: n.king@cabi.org, Web site: http://www.bionet-intl.org
In: Watson, Alan; Sproull, Janet, comps. 2003. Science and stewardship
to protect and sustain wilderness values: Seventh World Wilderness Congress symposium; 2001 November 2–8; Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Proc.
RMRS-P-27. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Rocky Mountain Research Station.
USDA Forest Service Proceedings RMRS-P-27. 2003
to our attempts to understand biodiversity, and the sustainable use thereof, and assess the impacts of any form of
activity involving, or using, natural resources.
What began at the Stockholm Conference on Man and the
Environment (1972), as a mildly keener appetite for taxonomy, was transformed at the Earth Summit in Rio (1992)
into an insatiable hunger, just as the scientific resources to
satisfy it began to become scarce. Today, it is doubtful if
there are any scientists within the realms of zoology, botany,
ecology, agriculture, or impact assessment who do not have
some taxonomic requirements. Identifications in particular
are urgently needed in ever-increasing quantities worldwide by natural scientists of every inclination—not the least
of those in the biodiversity-rich but resource-poor countries
of the developing world. Without correct identification, all
access to knowledge pertaining to that organism is denied.
In these nations, whose biodiversity is seen to be vital to
the world’s well-being and constitutes the Earth’s richest
genetic resource, there is little, and in some cases no, taxonomic capability. This is largely a consequence of history and
of recent financial policies of developed countries. From early
colonial days, and especially from the turn of the century
until very recently, the taxonomic needs of these developing
countries had been met by free taxonomic services provided
by the major world centers of expertise. These services, with
particular emphasis on providing authoritative identifications and related advice, continued uninterrupted as colonialism fell away and countries gained their independence.
While these services lasted, there was no cause or motivation for developing countries to invest their scarce, highlevel manpower and financial resources in developing expensive taxonomic capabilities. It would have been economic
folly, perhaps, in view of competing demands on national
budgets, to attempt to create sufficient local capabilities in
this very specialized field while such services were freely
available elsewhere.
Sadly, this comfortable arrangement was not to last. In
1993 to 1994, as a result of a worldwide recession and the
advent of new financial policies that required developed
country institutions to become income earning and selfsupporting, the free services of the expert centers were withdrawn. They were replaced by a system of graduated charges
for identifications and for all other services rendered, which,
while favoring developing countries and being modest relative to the actual costs of providing them, proved to be
beyond the means of developing countries.
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Overcoming the Taxonomic Impediment to Sustainable Development: BioNET-INTERNATIONAL…
As a result, developing countries found themselves to
varying degrees devoid of taxonomic services at the very
time when they most needed them, that is, when they, as
adherents to Agenda 21 of Rio, and as signatories to the
Convention on Biological Diversity, were attempting to meet
their international obligations as well as national needs for
development. They were faced with a taxonomic crisis, and
a taxonomic impediment was created to the pursuit of national programs for food security, sustainable agricultural
development, conservation and sustainable use of natural
resources and biodiversity, human health and control of
disease, and impact assessment.
This was not unexpected. It had been foreseen in the late
1980s when donor assistance had been sought in vain to
subsidize the services needed. It was indeed out of growing
concern for a solution to the forthcoming crisis that in 1991
an answer that proved acceptable to donors, expert centers,
and developing countries alike was devised in the form of a
global network for taxonomy. This was launched in June
1993 in the form of BioNET-INTERNATIONAL, an initiative for enabling developing countries to establish and sustain realistic self-reliance in taxonomic services, and to do so
in the technically best and most cost-effective way.
Purpose _______________________
The Global Network for Taxonomy, in the form of BioNETINTERNATIONAL, is focused on assisting developing countries to acquire and maintain the scientific skills, the collections of organisms and their related knowledge, and the
technologies needed to provide the vital taxonomic support
for national programs for conservation and sustainable use
of their natural resources and biodiversity and sustainable
agricultural development. The Global Network is also a
facilitating mechanism for the broader interventions
needed to assist developing countries to achieve full implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Global Network is a mechanism based first on subregional self-help, that is, South-South cooperation, to mobilize, pool, and optimize the use of existing resources, and
second, on North-South Cooperation to transfer knowledge,
skills, and technologies to developing subregions. The Global Network concept also envisages the provision of essential taxonomic services to developing countries during
their transition to self-reliance, with donor support being
provided to the LOOPs as integral parts of national sustainable development programs.
Structure ______________________
The Global Network is comprised of a series of interlinked
subregional networks (Locally Organized and Operated
Partnerships [LOOPs]) of developing country institutions,
supported by a consortium of developed country expert
institutions (known as BIOCON) and managed by the
BioNET-INTERNATIONAL Consultative Group (BICG) and
its Technical Secretariat (TecSec) (fig. 1).
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Figure 1—Conceptual model of the global network.
Organization ___________________
Locally Organized and Operated
Partnerships (LOOPs)
The LOOPs are the very core of the Global Network. They
are based on the United Nations concept of Technical Cooperation Networks (TCNs) and are dedicated, through SouthSouth cooperation, to mobilizing, pooling, and optimizing
the use of existing taxonomic skills and resources within the
subregions for the benefit of all LOOP members. The Global
Network subregions accord closely to those prescribed by the
United Nations. Management of LOOPs is founded on four
functional levels:
1. National Institutes (NIs) are the relevant bodies within
individual countries that work together as a national network and implement work programs.
2. National Coordinating Institutes (NACIs) are the single
institutes in member countries designated to coordinate the
activities of the National Institutes (NIs).
3. The LOOP Coordinating Committee (LCC) is the governing body of the LOOP and is comprised of the NACIs
together with any other invited bodies.
4. Network Coordinating Institutes (NECIs) are the single
member institutes of the LCC, elected to coordinate and
manage the affairs and work of the LOOP.
Consortium for North-South Technical
Support (BIOCON)
This consortium (BIOCON) of the world’s major centers of
taxonomic expertise and resources is designed to provide the
information, skills, materials, and technologies needed by
developing country subregions to achieve realistic self-reliance in taxonomy. It is the source of technical support for
donor-funded programs for capacity building and human
resource development in the BioNET-INTERNATIONAL
LOOPs of the developing world ( North-South cooperation.
This consortium is being created worldwide as developed
country institutions begin to collaborate to make their diverse resources available. The first subregional consortium,
EuroLOOP, with some 100 institutions spread throughout
25 countries was established in 1994 and is now expanding
as it embarks on the task of inventorying the resources it has
to offer to developing country LOOPs. A second BIOCON
LOOP is contemplated in the Australasia region to serve the
needs of the Pacific and Asian LOOPs of the Global Network.
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LOOPS Work Programs __________
The subregional LOOPs are initiated with four priority
work programs:
Establishment and Enhancement of
Information and Communication Services
The need often exists to update and expand hard copy
library resources at designated centers of excellence (CEs) of
LOOPs (such as with major reference works, taxonomic
monographs, and relevant serial journals), and information
technology infrastructure may need to be provided to these
CEs for intercenter networking and linkages with the Network Coordinating Institutes (NECI) and TecSec. Databases and database access arrangements with major world
centers need to be established, and Internet access, including e-mail facilities, are often required.
Broadly speaking, an efficient information service providing all relevant new and existing knowledge is needed
covering traditional taxonomy, molecular techniques, new
records, current biodiversity distribution maps, quarantine
pest lists, incidence and threats of alien invasive introductions, and relevant information on natural enemies and
biological control. To facilitate this, TecSec has recently
formed a strategic partnership with the United Nations
Food and Agricultural Organization based ECOPORT initiative (http://www.ecoport.org) as the primary future tool
for capture, management, and dissemination of taxonomic
information and knowledge for all levels of user groups.
Taxonomists and Technicians Training
This, the most substantial program of the LOOPs for the
foreseeable future, will involve:
•
•
Updating and upgrading of existing expertise through
appropriate training of the present subregional specialists at local subregional academic and scientific centers
and/or at overseas universities and institutions. Also,
supplementary training is needed in specialized taxonomic areas, such as specific groups of economic importance, agricultural pests, invasives, natural biocontrol
agents, and endangered species. In particular, invasives
are by definition a transboundary problem, and require
multilateral collaboration for proactive solutions. Such
solutions are a classic “weakest link” problem, being at
the mercy of the lowest national capacity to implement
agreed activities on control of invasives’ movements and
establishment.
Training of technical support staff in preparatory techniques and curatorial practices, collection management,
database management and information retrieval systems, illustrative techniques, and development of electronic products. Electronic teaching courses and training material need to be provided to the CEs, and TecSec
has recently commissioned production of training manuals on CD-ROM in order to facilitate this.
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Rehabilitation of Collections and
Establishment of New Resources
These major programs address the inadequacies and needs
of existing preserved and living reference collections and
facilities, including buildings, storage units, working amenities, security, curatorial techniques, and the sustainability
of the physical condition of collections and their attendant
records. These programs also address the taxonomic needs
of collections to optimize their value as working resources for
LOOPs.
Development and Application of New
Technologies
These programs aim to make new and existing userfriendly taxonomic tools, for example, electronic aids to
identifications, and compendia, available to LOOP specialists, and to enable LOOPs to commission and/or develop
products that are tailor made for their own requirements.
More electronic and paper-based identification aids need to
be commissioned, and new tailormade products need to be
developed jointly by overseas specialists and subregional
taxonomists for their own requirements.
The achievement of BioNET-INTERNATIONAL’s objectives within the 10-year time horizon can only be contemplated because of, and through, the use of new technologies —
not the least electronic aids to identifications. These require
first and foremost the availability of keys written by world
experts for the groups of organisms concerned, which can
then be converted into electronic forms suitable for a whole
spectrum of users—from the upstream researchers and taxonomists to more downstream practitioners in areas such as
human and animal health and disease services, conservation biology, plant protection and biological control, quarantine, control of invasives, and development planning.
These technologies make taxonomy more available to, and
more useable by, a much larger community of scientists and
technicians, and enable them to become competent in identifying the organisms of relevance. Experience has shown
that as such keys become available their impact leads to a
demand for others, and as these keys ultimately depend on
the skills of the traditional taxonomist, the demand for these
experts is also increasing. The need for taxonomists has
never been greater, and their role in improving the welfare
of humankind and of future generations has never been as
well perceived as it is today.
Progress _______________________
Locally Organized and Operated Partnerships have been
or are being established in the following sequence:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Caribbean
Europe
Southern Africa
South East Asia
East Africa
West Africa
East Asia LOOP
Northern South
America
CARINET (22 countries)
EuroLOOP (25 countries)
SAFRINET (15 countries)
ASEANET (10 countries)
EAFRINET (6 countries)
WAFRINET (18 countries)
EASIANET (5 countries)
ANDINONET (5 countries)
1993
1994
1995
1996
1998
1999
2001
2002
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9.
10.
11.
Overcoming the Taxonomic Impediment to Sustainable Development: BioNET-INTERNATIONAL…
South Asia LOOP
South Pacific
North Eurasia LOOP
SACNET (9 countries)
PACINET (26 countries)
NEURASIANET
2002
2002
2003
with others to follow.
By the end of 2002, BioNET-INTERNATIONAL LOOPs
will have been established or activated by governments in
the Caribbean, Africa, Asia, the South Pacific, and Latin
America, embracing some 140 countries.
Funding and the Future __________
A very supportive group of donors, including the United
Nations Development Program (UNDP TC/DC) and the
bilateral agencies of Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden,
Switzerland, and the United Kingdom, plus the intergovernmental agencies of the Commonwealth Secretariat, have
enabled the Feasibility Studies and LOOP Formulation
Workshops needed to establish subregional LOOPs. In this
way, these LOOPs have been created with full and formal
support by the governments concerned. They are thus accorded some priority in the national development plans of
those who own them. Donor funds are now forthcoming from
such agencies as the Swiss Development and Cooperation
Agency (SDC), the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom, and the European
Union’s Center for Technical and Rural Cooperation (CTA)
to enable the implementation of the work programs of
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established LOOPs. In addition, a contribution of SFr 2.9
million by the SDC to the BioNET-INTERNATIONAL FUND
has enabled the initiation of a BioNET-INTERNATIONAL
Fellowship Scheme, an Information Support Service, and
has assisted the operations of the Technical Secretariat and
Network Coordinating Institutes.
The response of the international donor community to
further substantial funding proposals suggest that the basic
Global Network could be in place within the next 3 years,
and full development may be completed by 2005. By that
time, there should be established within the subregions of
the developing world a substantial taxonomic resource to
support national and regional programs of sustainable
development.
Finally, in the last few years, a number of related international initiatives have developed as recognition of the taxonomic impediment has spread. The Conference of the Parties (CoP) on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
has formulated the concept of a Global Taxonomy Initiative
(GTI) to promote a concerted effort between international
funding agencies, national governments, and NGOs to link
taxonomic capacity building to the effective implementation
of the CBD. BioNET-INTERNATIONAL is working closely
with such initiatives to harness synergies and prevent
duplication of efforts in building the required taxonomic
capacity. Together such international initiatives may be
able to overcome the Taxonomic Impediment.
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