Deposit of type material

[Henk Beentje]

Jorge Soberon writes
>"In the case that the material collected in Mexico is used to describe
>new species, it will be necessary for the foreign scientist to deposit
>part of the type material in a Mexican collection with an infrastructure
>that guarantees its preservation and maintenance"
>
>We went for almost two hours over this point without reaching an
>agreement. For several of us the article expressed something which is a
>matter of principle. Oponents to the article, however, felt that it may
>cause unecessary concern among foreign taxonomists without improving what
>is almost a rule of cooperation between the main Mexican collections
>and their foreign counterparts.
>
>Your comments will be useful for our discussion.
>

I believe this should be a standard rule.
When I was working in the National Museums of Kenya I felt very resentful
towards foreigners who wanted to take all material out.
In general duplicates of all material of which duplicates are possible
should go to the mother country, but type material certainly.
(debatable whether this should be the top set or the second set,
I believe it should be the second set since I like to take the top set
with me, but I knuckle under to local regulations). It is the least one
can do for the host country in which one collects.

Henk Beentje, speaking as an individual, but this is Kew policy as well.

H. Beentje
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew