More about the Network
It is predicted that more than half the species on Earth are likely to become extinct before the year 2100 due to human activities. At present only about one and a half million species are know to us whereas perhaps tens of millions of species still have to be recognised and evaluated in terms of their potential usefulness. Biological diversity is now widely recognised as a vital source that will enable us to move towards more sustainable patterns of growth. Species are also thought to play an as yet poorly defined role in ecological biology. The science of systematic biology lies at the heart of many research programmes that aim to retrieve the history of life and to understand the dynamics of ecological systems. More than half of the world's biological collections are in European systematic institutions supported by an unrivalled concentration of systematic expertise. However, the community of biological systematists is not currently organised to work together to meet the scientific challenges due to their traditionally separate disciplines. The primary purpose of the ESF network is to stimulate communication and collaboration between this significant group of European scientists.
The objectives of the Network are:
- to unite European systematists and to create a linked systematic resource,
- to explore the relationship between morphological and molecular systematists,
- to consider new developments in systematic theory, practice and application,
- to provide information for management of natural resources,
- to establish priorities for training new generations of systematists,
- to provide a platform for world-wide cooperation among systematists.
