Book of Abstracts (PDF) - International Mycological Association

IMC7 Wednesday August 14th Lectures
distribution. It has also facilitated scientific studies into the
taxonomy and ecology of targeted species. The progress to
date enables some reflections to be made on the
appropriateness of the taxa chosen for action plans and the
criteria used to select them. Observations are made on how
the priorities and the process might be improved and
adjusted to changing circumstances and continually
improving knowledge. The influence of the process on the
support given to the conservation of fungi by the
government and non-government sectors is considered.
However, the benefits arising from the inclusion of fungi in
the UK BAP have not been confined solely to the target
species. A much higher priority for, and a greater
partnership approach to, the conservation of fungi is now
evident.
235 - The importance of fungi in IUCN Programmes
R. Courtecuisse 1 & C. Perini 2*
1 Département de Botanique, Faculté de Pharmacie, B.P.
83, F-59006 Lille Cedex, France. - 2 Dipartimento di
Scienze Ambientali, via P.A. Mattioli 4, I-53100 Siena,
Italy. - E-mail: perini@unisi.it
IUCN (World Conservation Union) represents the world's
oldest and largest global conservation body ; it is a
powerful and well-structured organisation, devoted to
nature conservation all over the world, seeking to
influence, encourage and assist societies throughout the
world to conserve the integrity and diversity of nature and
to ensure that any use of natural resources is equitable and
ecologically sustainable. Activities involve several
thousands of people, distributed in about 150 countries.
Fungi have been rather recently considered in IUCN scope,
especially in establishing a Specialist Group for Fungi
(within the Species Survival Commission), which aims to
list the threats to Fungi, to consider the conservation
strategies and to promote actual conservation actions for
threatened Fungi. Testing and improving the red list criteria
and categories have been another recent priority. The
current investigations will be browsed and some example
of current actions, some of them in collaboration with other
organisms or councils (for example ECCF, European
Council for the Conservation of Fungi) will be given. The
Bern Convention case (for Europe), involving relations
between several European states and demonstrating some
difficulties in such international actions will illustrate this
purpose. Finally global perspectives for future conservation
of Fungi will be considered.
236 - Conservation based on genetic diversity
J.-M. Moncalvo 1* , J.E. Johnson 2 & R. Vilgalys 1
1 Department of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC
27708, U.S.A. - 2 Department of Biological Sciences,
Cameron University, Lawton, OK 73505, U.S.A. - E-mail:
jeanmarc@duke.edu
76
Book of Abstracts
Conservation biology requires knowledge about biological
diversity. Classic estimates of biological diversity use
species (or genera) as proxies. The development of largescale
molecular phylogenies provides a unique opportunity
to estimate biological diversity at the genetic level by using
the branching order and branch lengths from phylogenetic
trees. Both among-taxa and among-areas phylogenetic
diversity can be estimated and compared with the use of
the 'phylogenetic index of diversity' (PD). We will contrast
PD with classic estimates of biological diversity in various
groups of mushrooms for which extensive geographic
sampling and molecular phylogenies are available,
including genera Amanita, Pleurotus, Xeromphalina, and
Ganoderma. There are at least two advantages of PD over
traditional measures of estimating biological diversity: 1)
PD does not require a priori knowledge of taxonomic
circumscription (which is generally subjective in fungi),
and 2) PD takes into account genetic distances, therefore
emphasizes genetic breath when estimating diversity.
237 - The Convention on Biodiversity triggers
biodiversity research programs?
S.S. Dhillion * & M.A. Støen
Department of Biology and Nature Conservation,
Agricultural University of Norway & SUM, University of
Oslo, IBN, pb5014, NLH, N- 1432 Ås, Norway. - E-mail:
shivcharn.dhillion@ibn.nlh.no
Both member and non-member states have responded in
varied ways to the Convention on Biodiversity. This paper
presents the influence of the CBD in triggering biodiversity
programs, and explores if regulatory conditions and
expertise exist for their implementation. To date the Thai
government has been exemplary in setting up biodiversity
research and competence building programs, and drafting
regulations on biodiversity even though it is not a signatory
to the CBD. Now it plans to form a Committee on National
Biological Diversity Conservation and Utilization to
oversee and harmonize all biodiversity activities in the
country. The cross-sectorial and participatory approach
employed by Thailand is exemplary, but not devoid of
conflicts. Malaysia and the Phillippines, a signatory to the
CBD, have had specific research grant programs for
biodiversity launched after ratifying the CBD. The
Philippines has now enacted one of the most stringent
biodiversity laws in the world. The enforcement of
regulations in all three countries is weak and not all
government, academic, and private institutions are well
informed of protocols required for biodiversity studies. To
a large extend both Thailand and the Philippines rely on
foreign collaboration skills to catalog species. Nevertheless
all three countries have adopted distinct modes of
addressing CBD objectives and are much ahead of most
nations in doing so.