On this International Day for Biological Diversity, themed “Acting locally for global impact,” we are releasing two papers that aim to facilitate the development of a robust network of DNA barcoding practitioners, delineating regional/national approaches that are adaptable and replicable globally: “Empowering national capacity for a DNA-based approach to species identification and biodiversity monitoring,” by Kaitetzidou, E. et al., with Grabowski, M. as the senior and corresponding author, published in Metabarcoding & Metagenomics, providing advice on the set up and implementation of International Barcode of Life (iBOL) national nodes; and “Species identification, discovery and biomonitoring: strategic priorities for DNA barcoding in Europe, set in a global context,” by Hollingsworth, P. et al., published in BioScience, proposing a mission and related strategic priorities for the iBOL Europe community.
Focusing on the national level, Kaitetzidou et al. synthesise experiences from 20 countries, highlighting strategies for capacity building, methodological standardisation, stakeholder engagement, funding diversification and communication, ultimately providing 10 recommendations to guide the establishment and long-term success of national DNA barcoding nodes.
Complementing this from the trans-European perspective, Hollingsworth et al. propose a broad mission for iBOL Europe to produce, curate and provide access to a DNA barcode reference library of eukaryotic species, with the immediate goals of compiling reference libraries for priority taxa, democratising access to sequencing technologies, and strengthening a distributed community of practice.
The papers underscore that building a comprehensive reference library of European biota is a race against time, particularly in high-diversity regions like Southern and South-Eastern Europe, which are biodiversity endemism centres of global importance, threatened by urbanisation and climate change, yet still lacking deep DNA barcode coverage.
Taken together, these two articles represent a stepping stone not only for the DNA barcoding community in Europe but also for strengthening the local, regional and global infrastructures and the involvement of professional taxonomists and citizen scientists to deliver robust DNA-based biodiversity monitoring, underpin metabarcoding and metagenomic studies, and contribute to global efforts in species discovery, conservation, and environmental management.
While both papers are the result of community authorship and ongoing consultations over the years, their propositions are not intended to be fixed: they are open to our community for feedback and adjustments.
This is particularly true for iBOL Europe’s vision and mission proposal: the delineated objectives and priorities serve as a starting point; they can be amended and adapted to better meet needs that may arise at any time. The mission paper will be presented and discussed at the July community meeting on 27 July.
—
Both papers were published with support from the Biodiversity Genomics Europe project, funded through Horizon Europe, the UK Research & Innovation Fund and the Swiss Confederation.
A press release is available here.
Graphic by Suzanne Bateson, CC BY-SA.
