The EU-backed TETTRIs project is improving Europe’s taxonomic capacity through training, tools and shared resources for species identification.
One of the quietest foundations of conservation is taxonomy: knowing what species exist and how to identify them correctly. The EU-backed TETTRIs project is strengthening Europe’s taxonomic capacity with training, tools and shared resources.
This may sound old-fashioned beside satellites and AI, but it is essential. A conservation plan cannot protect a species properly if people cannot identify it, distinguish it from close relatives or understand where it belongs in a habitat.
Europe, like many regions, has a shortage of specialist taxonomic knowledge in some groups. That is especially true for small organisms such as insects, fungi and invertebrates that may be ecologically important but less familiar to the public.
The positive angle is that expertise can be rebuilt and shared. By training people and creating better access to identification resources, Europe is strengthening the human knowledge base that every biodiversity policy depends on.
Source: CORDIS / European Commission