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COORDINATING COMMITTEE
Not yet established.
Status The design workshop for this LOOP is in the planning process. Please contact Dr de Grosso, Chair of the Organising Committee, if interested.
Member countries Target countries are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and
Uruguay.
Context The South American Southern Cone region has rich and valuable biodiversity, much of it unique to the area, and abundant natural resources. The planned network includes countries with a wide range of environments and several ecoregions of unique characteristics such as the Amazon, Atlantic Forests and the "Big Chaco", which are of enormous global importance in a world facing rapid loss of its biological resources and the need to adapt to climate changes.
The institutional capacity of Southern Cone countries to respond to the growing national, regional and international demand for ready access to biodiversity information and expertise is very uneven and in several cases limited by a shortage of human resources and infrastructure. Capacities for inventory, collection, curation and assessment of biodiversity need to be strongly enhanced at national and regional levels. A South American Southern Cone network for taxonomy affiliated to BioNET’s global network is considered to be the best means of achieving realistic regional self-reliance in taxonomy.
Goals and Priorities
- Establish LATINET as part of a government-endorsed subregional strategy and work plan for optimising all taxonomic capacity building initiatives needed to meet CBD, IPPC and other commitments in the subregion.
- Provide a forum for the pooling, sharing and optimising of taxonomic capacity to prevent redundancy and duplication, and maximising the use of scarce resources.
- Become a focal point and institutional basis for future donor interaction within the region whereby taxonomic capacity building activities can be debated, discussed and prioritised by the countries concerned.
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