In a recent paper, the members of the IUBS Scientific Programme “Governance of Global Taxonomic Lists” suggest a set of ten principles for creating and governing lists of the world’s species, and a proposed governance mechanism for ensuring that the lists are well-managed and broadly acceptable. Prof. Stephen Garnett of Charles Darwin University, the paper’s lead author and one of the Leaders of the Governance of Global Taxonomic Lists program says, “Listing all species may sound routine but is a difficult and complex task. Currently no single, agreed list of species is available. Instead, some iconic groups of organisms such as mammals and birds have several competing lists, while other less well-known groups have none.”
This causes problems for organizations and governments that need reliable, agreed, scientifically defensible, and accurate lists for the purposes of conservation, international treaties, biosecurity, and regulation of trade in endangered species. The lack of an agreed list of all species also hampers researchers studying Earth’s biodiversity. The new paper outlines a potential solution in the form of a set of ten principles for global taxonomic lists and a governance mechanism for them.
