Asean makes move to save dying science of taxonomy

MANILA, Philippines - To boost the ASEAN region’s taxonomic capacities and save the dying science of taxonomy, the Philippine-based ASEAN Center for Biodiversity (ACB), in partnership with Japan’s Ministry of Environment, recently conducted a series of workshops aimed at enhancing the capabilities of ASEAN+3 countries in the understanding and application of taxonomic knowledge in the context of sustainable biodiversity conservation and management.

ASEAN+3 refers to the 10 ASEAN member states together with Japan, China and Korea.

Rodrigo Fuentes, executive director of ACB, said, “Taxonomists, like many endangered species, are not increasing in numbers. There is a dire need to revive interest in taxonomy.”

“The diminishing status of this science and profession is crippling the ASEAN member states and other Asian countries’ capacity to effectively catalogue our biological resources. We are all aware that without knowledge and understanding of species, it would be difficult to plan and implement biodiversity conservation efforts,” Fuentes added.

Fuentes said people relate taxonomy to science only. “But we believe that taxonomy is one of the fundamental tools required by our global community to implement the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the development targets set by the World Summit for Sustainable Development.”

“Without sufficient long-term investment in human resources, infrastructure, and information resources necessary to promote taxonomy, this gap could prevent implementation of sound and scientifically based sustainable environmental management and development policies. And we are all aware that development and environment that are not sustainable are a bane to poverty reduction and other MDGs,” Fuentes added.

The workshops were part of a project on “Taxonomic Capacity Building and Governance for Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity” funded by the Japan-ASEAN Integration Fund.

The first in the series focused on corals taxonomy and was held last Dec. 4-8 in Penang, Malaysian, in cooperation with the University Sains Malaysia (USM).

The training workshop introduced the participants to the general biology of reef-building corals; and upgraded their skills on the methods of morphological observation, sample collection, processing and managing of corals, advanced taxonomic methodologies such as molecular techniques, photography of corals, and use of the Internet in corals taxonomy.

The participants had hands-on experience on museum collections management, cataloguing and storage.

The ASEAN region is home to 34 percent of the world’s coral reefs. This richness, however, is increasingly at risk due human activities and climate change, among other factors.