Brasilian Congress of Entomology

Sat Apr 28 08:04:01 CDT 2001

To help loggers, and rain forest destruction.
Brazilian government is pleased that scientist who is not under government
control = non Brazilian scientist ,cannot do any research on richness of
biodiversity..

So easy and simple: No research - no data - no protests.

Regards
Ricardo

----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Smith" <asmith at UNLSERVE.UNL.EDU>
To: <TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG>
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2001 12:03 AM
Subject: Brasilian Congress of Entomology

> Hello,
>
> I thought some of the taxacom subscribers might be interested in the
> message below.  It is especially relevant to those of us who work on
> Neotropical organisms!
>
> Andrew
>
>
> >Prezados Colegas,
> >Segue o informativo do XIX CBE para conhecimento e providencias.
> >>Por favor divulgue o XIX Congresso Brasileiro de Entomologia entre os
> >>pesquisadores, e professores. "A Entomologia no Século XXI e o Manejo da
> >>Biodiversidade".
> ****************************************************************
> It is ironic that the theme of this meeting is managing biodiversity when
> it now seems impossible for scientists outside of Brasil to conduct any
> biodiversity research in Brasil.  The vast amounts of data associated with
> specimens in Brasilian museums are effectively closed to the rest of the
> world because it is impossible for both Brasilian and non-Brasilian
> scientists to exchange, borrow, or loan scientific specimens.  We cannot
> even RETURN Brasilian museum specimens to Brasil under the current laws
for
> fear that these specimens will never get to the museums because they will
> be confiscated by alfandega for lack of proper documentation.  Brasilian
> scientists are being restricted in their studies by these regulations as
> well as others.
>
> Brasil is an extremely rich nation in terms of biodiversity, and it will
> require the efforts of the international community to fully document and
> understand that biodiversity.  I believe that most scientists wish to
fully
> cooperate with their Brasilian colleagues for conducting reseach and to
> fully cooperate with Brasilian museums for loans of specimens and
> especially deposition in Brasilian collections of type material of new
> species of Brasilian insects.  However, under the current laws, this kind
> of collaboration is now impossible.  Our efforts to understand
biodiversity
> in Brasil are doomed to failure if the WORLD systematics community cannot
> also be included in research endeavors in Brasil.  There are not enough
> Brasilian scientists or enough time left before critical habitat is
> destroyed forever for Brasil to do all of this alone.  We WANT to help in
> understanding Brasil's biodiversity but are now prevented from doing so
> because of politicians who fail to understand what it is that we must
still
> do to document biodiversity. . .  especially with regards to the huge
> diversity of Insecta that yet remains unknown in Brasil.
>
> Last August, our team attended the International Congress of Entomology to
> present results of our studies.  We also visited the entomology
collections
> in Belem, Rio, Sao Paulo, and Manaus where we provided identifications for
> thousands of specimens, curated collections, revised the old nomenclature
> of numerous taxa, and donated copies of our scientific publications.  We
> did a lot of work in these collections to make them better and more
> accessible by the user community.  We also set aside specimens that we
> would like to receive on loan for our studies of Neotropical taxa.  To
> date, we have received none of those loans.  The loans cannot be sent by
> our Brasilian colleagues because the current regulations forbid it.  How
> can we conduct thorough research on Neotropical biodiversity if the
largest
> country in South America will not grant loans of scientific material for
> scientists to study?  How can we document the rich biodiversity of Brasil
> before it is too late and that biodiversity disappears forever?   How can
> you have a congress on maintaining biodiversity when you don't even know
> the composition of that biodiversity? Clearly, our research results and
> monographs will have very large gaps if the world scientific community
> cannot study Brasilian collections and their associated data.  Brasil and
> the community of international scholars will be the poorer for it.
>
> I hope we can all work together to achieve common goals in understanding
> and documenting insect biodiversity AND that Brasil will provide major
> contributions to these efforts.  Then, truly, we can have a real Brasilian
> Congress of Entomology with a theme of preserving biodiversity.  We look
> forward to working with our Brasilian colleagues, and we share with them
> their dismay about misguided rules implemented by politicians acting
> blindly in the name of biotic patrimony.
>
>
>
> =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
> Brett C. Ratcliffe
> Curator & Professor
> Systematics Research Collections
> W436 Nebraska Hall
> University of Nebraska
> Lincoln, NE 68588-0514  U.S.A.
>
> TEL: (402) 472-2614
> FAX: (402) 472-8949
> INTERNET: bratcliffe1 at unl.edu
>
> Visit the Division of Entomology at
> http://www-museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/index.htm
> Scarab Workers: World Directory
> http://www-museum.unl.edu/research/entomology/workers/index2.htm
> Coleopterists Society homepage
> http://www.coleopsoc.org/
> =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
>