“Project to enumerate all known species of plants, animals, fungi and microbes on Earth as the baseline dataset for studies of global biodiversity. It will also provide a simple access point enabling users to link from here to other data systems for all groups of organisms, using direct species-links. Users worldwide will be able to verify the scientific name, status and classification of any known species via the Species Locator, which provides access to species checklist data drawn from an array of participating databases.”
Aims to to produce a uniform and validated index of names of all known species for use as a practical tool. The index will be used to provide:
- an electronic baseline species list for use in inventorying projects worldwide
- the index for an Internet gateway to species databases worldwide
- a reference system for comparison between inventories
- comprehensive worldwide catalogue for checking the status, classification and naming of species
Prototypes of Species Locator and checklists are available to search online. List of participating organisations is available on the WWW site.