Memorandum submitted by Mr Adrian Norris
Recorder for Non-marine Mollusca Conchological
Society of Great Britain and Ireland and the Yorkshire Conchological
Society; Chair Yorkshire Naturalists' Union Natural Sciences Committee;
Senior Curator Natural Sciences, Leeds City Museums (Retired).
THE STATE
OF SYSTEMATICS
AND TAXONOMY
RESEARCH
Some elements of questions 1 to 6 are covered
by my comments below
DATA COLLECTING,
MANAGEMENT, MAINTENANCE
AND DISSEMINATION
Question 7. In most cases, the information
gathered is adequate for the purposes for which it is accumulated,
for example, production of distribution maps, on a 10 km basis,
however, modern demands on this data for example, for local planning
purposes, far exceed the normal requirements of the data-gatherers.
Problems over the legal ownership of the data also make the free
use of the data problematic. Much data is unusable by many organisations
due to the refusal by the data-gatherers to allow this information
to be made freely available to all. Most national recording schemes
are unable to computerise their holdings of data due to a number
of important factors: the size of the backlog of data available,
incomplete data-sets, the reluctance of data-owners to allow full
access to these data-sets, and the lack of transparency over the
use and sale of the data by Local Record Centres (LRCs), as well
as the perceived difficulties of allowing the transfer of data-sets
to the originators themselves. It should be noted that most national
recorders are unpaid volunteers and may not have the back-up of
a sophisticated computer data-base or the support required to
ensure that all data entered into their data-base has all the
required ownership and legal titles attached. A National set of
agreements need to be in place between data-owners, LRCs, the
National Biodiversity Network (NBN), and all other interested
parties so as to allow free access of data to and from data-gatherers.
This agreement needs to be able to assure data-gatherers that
their data will not be sold or used for profit.
Question 8. Most regional museums
are unable to fund even the most basic research and many do not
have the funding, space or expertise to place the bulk of their
collections in taxonomic order. The regional collections do, however,
play a major role in housing local, regional and even international
collections and allowing access to these collections by local
specialists and recorders, without which these people would be
unable to check and verify the identifications of data submitted
to LRCs and ultimately to the NBN database.
The development of the Regional Museum HUBS
and the extra funding which came with this development from DCMS
has made some difference but much of this extra funding has been
wasted due to a lack of long-term strategic planning. Governments
like "quick fixes" which gain them publicity. One of
the easiest of these "quick fixes" is to spend more
on educational projects, often with little co-ordinated planning
and few long-term gains. The original plans for this extra funding
for museums were intended, at least in the first few years, to
build capacity and expertise within these institutions. This policy
was discarded in favour of "quick-fixes" purely for
political and publicity purposes. Funding should be allocated
to correct this so that museums can fund strategic taxonomic tasks
by employing trained taxonomists, as well as funding the proper
storage of their collections.
The many differing documentation systems used
by museums make it difficult to extract data from reference collections
via these data-bases for use in national recording schemes. Some
system needs to be established by which this data can be extracted
and used as the historical base for the modern LRC data-bases.
Questions 9 and 10. I have combined
these questions as I feel that one cannot easily be separated
from the other. Although some attempts have been made to develop
web-based taxonomy, the constant advances in identification techniques,
particularly with the much wider use of DNA, has resulted in many
changes to our knowledge about the inter-relationship of species.
These modern techniques have also resulted in many changes to
the nomenclature making it difficult to keep up to date. In many
cases, web-based identification systems are difficult and expensive
to alter when such nomenclatural changes take place. Thus these
systems, at best, are commonly out of date.
Question 11. The role of the experienced
amateur naturalist has long been recognised within Britain as
one of the major players in the collecting, identification and
compiling of knowledge on our flora and fauna and yet, some elements
of the professional taxonomic community make little effort to
engage with the non-professionals. The work of the LRCs, English
Nature and its regional equivalents and many other local, regional
and national NGOs and other statutory bodies would be severely
curtailed without the input of the non-professional enthusiast.
With the pressures of global warming threatening climate change
and thus the extinction of our more vulnerable species, more should
be done by government to encourage the participation of people
of all ages and abilities to become involved in the study and
monitoring of our flora and fauna. Legislation passed in recent
years covering health and safety and child protection, although
very necessary in some quarters, has made things almost impossible
for the non-professional to become involved in this important
work. Insurance cover is difficult to obtain and expensive to
acquire even to cover simple field meetings and most organisations
find it difficult to involve younger people as the costs involved
in getting child protection clearance is far too expensive.
SKILLS BASE
As indicated above, most regional museums do
not have the funding to employ specific staff covering systematics
and taxonomy, and the lack of job opportunities within Britain
has discouraged universities from training students in these subject
areas. This situation contrasts sharply with that in most of the
rest of Europe where a high value is accorded to taxonomy and
significant resources are available even in regional museums.
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