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THE NEED FOR A NATIONAL CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY

A National Center for Biological Diversity is being considered by Congress. Two bills in the House (H.R.2082, H.R.585) and one in the Senate (S.58) request, or are being amended to request (in the case of Mr. Studds' H.R.2082), that this be set up within the Smithsonian Institution. 

Biological diversity within the U.S. is as seriously under threat as are the great rainforests in the moist tropics, though North Americans have fewer species in their more temperate climate. Biologists suggest that a quarter or more of our fauna and flora, particularly the smaller species, are still not identified and named. Nine thousand known species are now considered under threat (CEQ Annual Report for 1990). These include over 600 species of plants which are considered to be likely to go extinct in North America in the next decade. Three hundred sixty-four species of freshwater fishes are now under concern, and the situation is worsening (American Fisheries Society). Butterflies, birds, and frogs are among some of the other groups where the diversity of species is being reduced.

It has become clear that there is a need for some central group charged with the task of helping our understanding of genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity; pulling together the widespread information on biological diversity and defining our state of knowledge of the issues involved; and pointing out gaps in our understanding, i.e. those areas where research in taxonomic, ecological and conservation biology needs to be undertaken.

Many models for developing a National Center for Biological Diversity have been considered, but a broad consensus in the scientific community supports the establishment of a National Center at the Smithsonian, and this is reflected in the pending legislation. This initiative is supported by House Committee testimony from the American Institute for Biological Sciences (supported by 70 scientific societies) and the Association for Systematics Collections (supported by the major university, state, and private museums with biological collections), among others.

FUNCTIONS OF THE NATIONAL CENTER

1. To devise and implement methodologies to access the widely scattered information on biodiversity:

Within the United States there are probably tens of thousands of sources of information on biodiversity, which include thousands of electronic databases. The latter may vary from the databases of individual researchers in universities or research institutions (which may themselves be the results of years or decades of study of species, groups of species, or ecosystems), to large databases such as those held by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Nature Conservancy. These databases have not been surveyed systematically, nor is there any central place where there is information about them.