The International Mycological institute, supported by the UK Overseas Development Administration, provides a plant disease diagnostic and advisory service for agriculture and forestry which is available free of charge to scientists and practitioners working in selected developing countries. Examples include India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya, Ghana, Mexico and Brazil. Contact: Disease Diagnostic & Advisory Service (Crop Protection), IMI, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey TW20 9TY, UK. Tel: +44 [1784] 470111; Fax: 44 [1784] 470909; Email: [email protected].
IMI, in association with other CAB international institutes, also offers a routine identification service for fungi, insects, nematodes and other pest organisms. Details are available from the above address.
The international Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management hosted, on 11-13 March 1996, a workshop of the Species 2000 Project that became the Founding Meeting of the SPECIES 2000 Federation: an initial group of 20 Global Species Databases, including all large museums (British Museum, Kew, Smithsonian, etc.) and representing all groups of organisms (viruses, bacteria, fungi, plants, animals). SPECIES 2000 is supported by the international Union of Biological Sciences, the Committee on Data for Science and Technology, the international Union of Microbiological Sciences, and the United Nations Environment Program, and has applied for funding by the Global Environment Facility. FishBase has been asked to be one of the initial databases.
The goal of the SPECIES 2000 Federation is:
· to create a standard checklist (names, synonyms, common names) for the 1.75 million known species, to be available with annual updates on CD-ROM and on the internet,
· to develop a Common Access System that will connect directly to the participating databases and will allow users to find all information on a certain species in appropriate databases; e.g. FishBase. This service will help Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity that are obliged to create national biodiversity databases. Standardized species names are actually a precondition to an exchange of biodiversity data between these parties.
The SPECIES 2000 Federation is managed by a team of 10 people. The actual work will be done by a full-time SPECIES 2000 staff member based at ICLARM.
