Historical biological archives and collections: framing cooperation and biodiversity knowledge with Africa

Background/Question/Methods

The latest assessments of biodiversity estimate large numbers of unknown taxa in almost every organism group and a time frame ranging from several decades to centuries to catalogue them all. Moreover, species extinction rates are increasing and the geographical locations with bigger potential of yielding new species are under threat of habitat loss. Nonetheless, the knowledge of some taxonomic groups seem closer to completion, as is the case of flowering plants (80-90%) on which we will focus our attention.

As central organisms in almost all habitats on earth plants can be used as indicators for monitoring and measuring global biodiversity. Remarkably, recent research argues that more than half of the still unknown species in this group may already have been collected and are stored in herbaria worldwide waiting to be catalogued, and the process of their discovery, classification and dissemination kept in historical archives (manuscripts, letters, iconographic material) and centuries-old grey literature.

The not-so-distant past of Portugal as an imperialist nation resulted in the amassing of vast collections of information and biological specimens pertaining to African territories (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde), data which are currently stored, understudied and undervalued as a source of information for the countries where it originated from. These areas host some of the biodiversity hotspots where new species are thought to abound and make this reassessment of historical information even more urgent.

These three aspects – biological collections, historical archives and knowledge transfer to African countries will frame our communication and guide us through the actions being taken to bring this data into focus and revalue its importance for current biodiversity research efforts.

Results/Conclusions

We will present an overview of the University of Coimbra biological and historical archives pertaining to collections and scientific explorations of Portuguese-speaking African countries (now congregated in the CPLP – Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries), assessing their potential and actual use for biodiversity studies. We will highlight the importance of building up digital repositories and their integration into online platforms incorporating several layers of data (herbarium and museum specimens, archive and library assets digitisation, etc.), which is currently underway.

This path towards the widespread dissemination of the UC assets, specifically focusing on CPLP countries, has been allowing us to strengthen a platform for biodiversity knowledge transfer, training and science communication – the UNESCO Chair in Biodiversity Safeguard for Sustainable Development.