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AAAS Resolution:
In Support of a National Center for Biodiversity
Whereas biological information is critically important for the understanding and protection of our nation's biological diversity;
Whereas governmental agencies and citizens have need for biological, and especially systematic and ecological information to meet their obligations to protect biological diversity;
Whereas biological survey activities in the United States are piecemeal and there is little incentive for scientists and their institutions to perform such activities despite their importance to environmental policy;
Whereas a National Center for Biological Diversity would provide critical biological data to enhance larger databases about the environment, and should be developed in coordination with them;
Whereas federal legislation has been introduced that would create a National Center for Biological Diversity that will draw together sources of information on biological diversity, support research to fill gaps in that information, commission and publish guides, keys, and faunal/floral and microbial surveys for public uses, and communicate information to policy-makers and conservation organizations;
Therefore be it resolved, that the American Association for the Advancement of Science supports the concept of a national center for biological diversity as a data coordination and information center, urges that it be developed in coordination with other environmental databases, and encourages other scientists to support such initiatives that more fully incorporate biological information into the public policy process. [Adopted by the AAAS Council, February 18, 1991.]
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