Insects play a significant role in the functioning of healthy ecosystems and human well-being. By providing vital services such as pollination, matter decomposition, and bio-control, they greatly influence the living world. Therefore, our ability and expertise to recognize insect species and biodiversity are fundamental for their conservation.
The Red List of Insect Taxonomists is a call for collective action to the community of experts: bring your expertise into the scope and give your contribution to preserving insect life.
Launched on World Bee Day, the #RedListTaxonomists portal invites insect taxonomists from across Europe to sign up and shed light on the gaps in expertise the EU urgently needs to address to pave the way to mitigating insect declines.
Through this large scale initiative, the European Commission aims to assess the available taxonomic expertise on insects across Europe. More detailed assessments at the Member State level will also be done for selected taxa of particular importance, such as pollinators.
Insect taxonomists, both professional and citizen scientists, are welcome to register on the Red List of Taxonomists portal at: red-list-taxonomists.eu and further disseminate the registration portal to fellow taxonomists.
The "Red List of Taxonomists" is a joint initiative by Pensoft Publishers, The International Union for Conservation of Nature -ICUN and the Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities- CETAF.