dear all
I refrained from writing because I realise that this e conference has gone in a completely different direction than it was expected by the organisers. But the two questions that were posed (how to measure biodiversity; what to do with biodiversity money) evidently are of great interest for a lot of us. Maybe it might be nice to launch a forum on this, so that people who have (maybe) some possibility of doing something political (Martin?) can be aware of what a part of the scientific community think.

The issues are:
It is true that the way Martin depicts a taxonomist is obsolete. And it is true that there are many of these taxonomists. This means that we need a policy to produce a different brand of taxonomists, and they are not only molecular. This policy is not enforced in Europe.

It is true that what Martin says (there is a lot of money to support biodiversity: look at this list of projects) is correct, but it is also true that all these projects (as well argued by one of us) are aimed at providing services (types and lists) and not at producing research. I wonder who will use these services, since there are no more taxonomists and there is no funding for them (after all they either look at molecules and do not need types, or they inspect corpses in vials and are useless). It is evident that all this money has been given to people who do other things than taxonomy. So we need a policy to fund real taxonomy, and not services for non-existing taxonomists.

Martin is right in saying that the EU cannot read our minds. So we have to raise our voice and say it loud. Most of the times I found myself alone. I went to the launching meetings of GBIF (Paris) and ENBI (Stockholm) and my voice was alone in the desert. I try to say these things in MARBEF and I have the same result. I start to be tired, and lots of people are disliking me because of what I continuously say. Then, at meetings, lots of people approach me and say that they agree. But they say it in private. This is the first time that so many people agree with me (besides in the US, of course). Let's stick together folks.

ciao
nando