The Species Plantarum Project, an international collaborative initiative for higher plant taxonomy

Abstract

SummaryBrummitt, R. K., Castroviejo, S., Chikuni, A. C., Orchard A. E., Smith, G. F. & Wagner, W. L.: The Species Plantarum Project, an international collaborative initiative for higher plant taxonomy. – Taxon 50: 1217–1230. 2001. – ISSN 0040–0262.Basic understanding of the higher plant resources of the world for the successful management of biodiversity requires international collaboration and the setting up of a global taxonomic database. Botanists at all levels should be involved in the taxonomic work, and biologists and conservationists need to be actively aware of the need for such work on a global basis. The database must include census, descriptive, and identification aspects. At present, existing available information is haphazardly distributed on library shelves and inadequately organised. Published data on threatened species have been shown to be hopelessly inaccurate. National and regional Floras may often portray a false perspective of the plants they include. The world's botanists have to organise themselves to pool their information, and substantial international funding is needed to support this. The Species Plantarum Project, set up in 1995 under the International Organisation for Plant Information affiliated to the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), aims to overcome “the taxonomic impediment”, and is currently seeking appropriate funding. It responds to the priorities highlighted in the work programme being developed under the Global Taxonomy Initiative of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The project has an international Steering Committee representing all regions of the world, and aims to develop a further network of collaborators. Publication of data will be in both hard copy and electronic form. Instructions to contributors and accounts of five relatively small families have already been published in hard copy, and accounts of two further families totalling nearly 1000 species are in press. Future plans emphasise the need for capacity building in floristic work throughout the world. The project now invites the collaboration of taxonomists throughout the community, but the future of the project is dependent on funding being made available.