3GTW
the 3rd Global Taxonomy Workshop
Pretoria 2002
Paris 2003

Welcome
In April 2002 Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted Decision VI/8, the Programme of Work of the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI). Such support for the GTI from over 180 countries indicates an unprecedented level of political recognition of the need to strengthen taxonomy, especially in less developed countries. The challenge now is to to turn this political commitment into action. A number of steps have already been taken, notably at the 3rd Global Taxonomy Workshop (3GTW) where a global-level end-user needs assessment was carried out and commitments made to a Plan of Action for the GTI.

The inputs to, and results from, 3GTW have been compiled here in the hope that they will both catalyse and help guide the full, effective and prompt implementation of the Programme of Work of the GTI. A report on both parts of 3GTW has also been made available by the CBD Secretariat - UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/9/INF/16 - as part of a progress report on the GTI.

Using this CD
Use the links on the left to find what interests you. 3GTW-Pretoria brought together end-users of taxonomic outputs, technology providers, development organisations and taxonomists. All the contributions to and outputs from the Workshop are presented here, including a published version of the Keynote presentation from IUCN: The Role of Taxonomy in Conserving Biodiversity. See 3GTW-Paris for details of the commitments made to date to a Plan of Action for the GTI. The Resources section contains many key references, including links BioNET LOOPs, GTI documents, case studies on the value of taxonomy to society, the Darwin Declaration on the Taxonomic Impediment and a forthcoming paper from Taxon on Lessons learnt from the SABONET Project whilst building capacity to document
the botanical diversity of southern Africa.

Dr Nicholas King, Director, and Dr Richard Smith, Assistant Director, BioNET-INTERNATIONAL Technical Secretariat, Egham, UK, October 2003. bionet@bionet-intl.org