parataxonomists

[Daniel Janzen]

Peter, thank you for the kind and quite accurate words.  Anyone who would
like a detailed description and history of the parataxonomists in Costa
Rica, just drop us a note off list and we will send the pdf.   You can see
some in action at http://janzen.sas.upenn.edu in the methods section.  The
term was borrowed from "paramedic" and was meant to have the same
relationship to the Ph.D. taxonomist as the paramedic does to MDs.  We
basically conducted a 5-6 month boot camp in 1989-1992 where we taught
rural residents with minimal formal education to be able to do most of the
things that you expect of a graduate student assigned to do an inventory of
particular place, and then they went to do this as a career, some staying
there and some moving on to other jobs or up the ladder into administration
and curatorial positions in urban areas.  INBio (http://www.inbio.ac.cr)
then continued offering yet more parataxonomist courses.  There are still
18 parataxonomists working in the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in
northwestern Costa Rica, and INBio has several dozen operating in the
remainder of the country.   Scott Miller and his colleagues also have a
fine group of parataxonomists doing insect inventory in Papua New Guinea
(www.nmnh.si.edu/new_guinea).   For parataxonomists to work well, they need
to be strongly embedded in an iterative collaboration between them in the
field, collections institutions, taxonomists, and the remainder of the
taxasphere.  But they certainly have demonstrated that they can be a strong
addition to the overall taxonomic endeavor and challenge, and in doing so
be an element in strengthening the in-country taxonomic process as well as
increasing the output of the international effort.

Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs


>X-Sender: pstevens at webmail.mobot.org
>Date:         Sun, 29 Sep 2002 16:13:15 -0400
>Reply-To: Peter Stevens <peter.stevens at MOBOT.ORG>
>Sender: Taxacom Discussion List <TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG>
>From: Peter Stevens <peter.stevens at MOBOT.ORG>
>Subject:      parataxonomists
>To: TAXACOM at USOBI.ORG
>Status:
>
>I am not sure who "real" taxonomists are (do I count? do I care? :>
>), but this definition of parataxonist is surely not how the term is
>used in places like Costa Rica where there are indeed
>parataxonomists.  I have the impression that parataxonomists may not
>have formal training in the minuteae of taxonomy, but are an integral
>part of the taxonomic enterprise.  They are paid, I think, and
>generate large numbers of excellent collections by virtue of
>focussing on an area and collecting throughout the years.  Perhaps
>somebody on the list knows about how the term has come to be quite
>popular, and how they operate - Dan Janzen may have been involved.
>
>Peter S.
>
>At 3:26 PM -0500 9/28/02, STEPHEN MANNING wrote:
>>I interpreted the term "parataxonomists (amateurs)" to mean, not
>>taxonomists who don't work for an institution, but rather persons who
>>probably don't have training in taxonomy but just like to just go out and
>>botanize for fun, usually consulting real taxonomists for any
>>identifications or other information they are interested in.
>>
>>Steve
>