On Wed, 9 Aug 1995, Jorge Soberon Mainero wrote:

The Aussies have had this kind of problem for years. Essentially most type material was taken to UK or European (occasional U.S.) museums. The Aussies have made a concerted effort to get type material to Australia. At the time these types were taken from Australia, Australia was considered a "3rd" world or colonial nation, essentially, and one to be plundered.

It is a fallacy that we in the so-called developed world will continue to look after museum material in the manner in which it should be kept. Money has been drying up, universities have been ridding themselves of "old science" things such as collections, and when the taxonomist and curator retires, the position is either not filled (the University of Alberta), or is filled with a molecular/geneticist type of some sort (Lakehead University).

I recently had a call from a colleague at Lakehead University. He told me that he will retire next year. He asked me where a collection of beetles I gave him when we were grad students together should go. I asked what he meant. He said that the university is replacing him with either a geneticist or a molecular type, and that the university wants nothing do to with the collection. After discussion, we agreed that it should go to the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.

However, this is not a real answer either. The scientists at the Canadian National Collection, Agriculture Canada, Ottawa, have had their job descriptions changed, and, if my information is correct, they are now doing research only 20% of the time and curatorial time.

Governments and the public do not seem to be interested in paying for the upkeep and maintenance of museums and collections. I know this is true in Canada, Australia and the U.S.,a nd probably elsewhere, too.

A few yars ago, the head of the USNM contacted the then head of the Entomology Research Institute in Ottawa, and requested that the holotypes of U.S. material in the Canadian National Collection be sent to the USNM. The answer from Ottawa was agreement if all of the holotypes from Canadian localities in the USNM would, at the same time, be sent to Ottawa. The matter was dropped with no further discussion.

Maybe the best way to maintain biological diversity and collections of organsims is to maintain large tracts of natural area that contain the organisms we would otherwise put in museum collections. This would be the oxymoronic LIVING MUSEUM. This way the organisms are preserved during at least our lifetimes, and if future generations keep these natural areas, then...but then the Spotted Owl is in trouble, and the...

Somehow, we have not done our job correctly. We have secluded ourselves in museums, and have shunned publicity for the most part. We have not, with the exception of a few individuals such as David Suzuki, impressed the public and the politicians of the need for cataloguing organisms, keeping them after the catalogue is made, and so on. Maybe it is too late, I do not know.

It seems that most of the 1st world countries that were signatories of the Rio de Janeiro agreement on biodiversity are not holding up their ends of the agreement.