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The Biodiversity Programs of the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH)
contribute to the Smithsonian Institution's 1994 commitment by Secretary
Heyman to have a deeper participation by the Smithsonian in the environmental
debates raging in this country and to the NMNH mission to understanding
the natural world and our place in it. The programs conduct studies relating
to Biological Diversity: Systematics, Evolution and Ecology, one of the
five NMNH Research Initiatives.
Biodiversity Programs Mission:
To understand and conserve the diversity of the world's fauna and flora
Biodiversity Programs provide administrative and financial
support for:
Research, particularly by NMNH and other Smithsonian
professionals, on biological diversity including inquiries into tropical
and temperate, marine and terrestrial, and genetic subjects, scholarly
activities on biodiversity subjects.
Goals:
Increase our knowledge of the world's natural history
through taxonomic collection and data analyses, as well as ecological
and interdisciplinary studies.
Improve education for this and the next generation of
scientists, natural resource users and managers, and serve as a catalyst
for information exchange between scientists and decision-makers
Objectives:
Biodiversity Programs seeks to build long-term relationships with all
key participants in biodiversity research, management and education.
Linkages are within the Smithsonian bureaus, other government and non-government
organizations and universities here and abroad with a goal of associating
our scientific staff with the global network of experts shaping biodiveristy-related
programs.
Knowledge: We will foster and conduct more investigations
in temperate, marine and genetic biodiversity, as well as participate
in the global community identifying existing biological collections
and launching new surveys to fill in missing areas. Biodiversity Programs'
existing core programs such as Caribbean Coral Reef Ecosystems, Biodiversity
of the Guianas, Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments and Measurement
and Assessment of Biodiversity will be strengthened and expanded to
support regional approaches to the study of biodiversity. We will
improve our system of diffusion of knowledge and providing data collected
to users in the research and planning arenas using printed, electronic
and all available media to disseminate this knowledge.
Education: We will bring more foreign and U.S. minorities,
scholars and students into the educational and training process of
museum curation and research as well as continue providing the international
model with the Biodiversity Measuring and Monitoring and related courses.
We will publish course manuals for instructors and students to accelerate
the process of information transfer worldwide. We will explore all
other media possibilities as they evolve for expanded dissemination
of research and education results.
Partnerships:
Biodiversity Programs counts among its partners in science, conservation
and education other key units of the Smithsonian Institution including
the National Zoological Park, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute,
Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and the National Air and
Space Museum, as well as colleagues in Peru, Bolivia, Cuba, Brazil,
Canada, Costa Rica, and Panama and at the Environmental Protection Agency
and the National Biological Service.
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