CETAF welcomes a new position statement from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognising the indispensable role of natural history museums and biological collections in biodiversity conservation, scientific discovery and evidence-based decision-making.
Published by the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), the statement highlights the millions of preserved specimens held in natural history museums, herbaria, fungaria and other bio-repositories worldwide as an irreplaceable source of knowledge about life on Earth.
Crucially, it recognises that natural history museum collections are not simply repositories of the past, but dynamic, research-active scientific infrastructures with an essential role in addressing current and future global challenges.
Taxonomy as a foundation for conservation
The IUCN statement places particular emphasis on the fundamental role of collections in supporting taxonomy and, consequently, effective biodiversity conservation.
Taxonomy provides the scientific basis for identifying, describing and naming species. This knowledge is essential for assessing their conservation status, monitoring biodiversity change and developing effective measures for their protection.
Natural history collections provide the evidence underpinning this work while also contributing to areas ranging from conservation planning and climate change research to disease surveillance and the documentation of extinction.
The IUCN Species Survival Commission calls on governments, universities and agencies to recognise, prioritise and adequately fund these collections as critical scientific infrastructures. It also encourages the global conservation community to better integrate their resources and expertise into strategies aimed at reversing biodiversity decline.
A message closely aligned with CETAF’s mission
The statement strongly resonates with CETAF’s mission and the work carried out across its community of natural history museums, botanical gardens and research institutions.
CETAF has consistently advocated for the recognition of natural science collections and taxonomic expertise as essential research infrastructures and as a foundation for understanding, monitoring and conserving biodiversity.
The IUCN position reinforces the need to ensure that collections are not only preserved for future generations, but actively mobilised to provide the robust scientific evidence needed to respond to the biodiversity crisis.
“This is a timely and important position statement from IUCN highlighting the vital role of natural history museums and biological collections in understanding and conserving biodiversity. It strongly resonates with CETAF’s own mission to ensure that collections and taxonomic expertise effectively underpin biodiversity conservation.”
By formally recognising the role of collections and the expertise surrounding them, the IUCN statement adds an important voice to the growing call for sustained investment in taxonomy, collections-based research and the infrastructures that make biodiversity knowledge accessible and actionable.
