Ferdinando,

Thanks for your dynamic input to all the themes addressed by the electronic conference!

I would like to bring a positive experience to the issue you have raised. The major taxonomic institutions in Belgium - Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Royal Museum for Central Africa and the National Botanic Garden - are trying to do something about training a new generation of taxonomists. It is a very modest contribution, as our yearly budget is far beneath that of PEET, but it is a hopeful start. Our approach is oriented specifically towards developing countries - with 80% of the world's biodiversity and 6% of the taxonomists - and is twofold:

- top-down: experienced taxonomists from Belgian institutions identify important taxonomic impediments and tackle these by carrying out in situ research projects with a strong training component.
- bottom-up: interested parties from developing countries identify key taxonomic and/or collection management needs. Through call for proposals, the Belgian institutions make available their expertise, collections and other information to meet the needs.

What I would like to stress is that, with the right lobby and with the right arguments, it IS possible to convince the policy makers that their funding will not be wasted if they invest in taxonomy. The Belgian Development Cooperation has understood that, and has granted the RBINS and RMCA funding for training activities. As the persons who did the lobby are taxonomists, it appears that it is not impossible to conciliate the worlds of science and policy ... with a little effort from both sides.

If you are interested to have more information on the training programme for developing countries, feel free to contact the Belgian GTI Focal Point at cbd-gti@naturalsciences.be.

Greetings,

Anne

Dr Anne Franklin
Coordinator 'Capacity building for biodiversity'
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Invertebrates Department
Rue Vautier 29
1000 Brussels - Belgium