Dear Premier, Ministers, and Members of Parliament,
it is with grave concern that I recently learned from my esteemed colleague Dr. Gintaras Kantvilas that the Tasmanian Government plans to "restructure" the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, thereby eliminating the Tasmanian Herbarium in its own capacity as the world's leading research entity on Tasmanian biodiversity.
The head of the Tasmanian Herbarium Dr. Kantvilas is a globally renowned specialist on Tasmanian Lichenized Fungi.
Dr. Kantvilas has won many awards for his outstanding research and his contribution to Tasmanian biodiversity research was just recently recognized by your own government, awarding him the Premier’s Tasmanian STEM Researcher Award.
The restructuring plans suggest eliminating several positions central to the operation of the Herbarium: the Head of the Herbarium, the Curator of Lichenology, the Curator of Bryology, and the Herbarium Administrator. This is short-sighted. In times of facing a global biodiversity crisis, Tasmania cannot afford to downsize essential research on organisms that comprise more than half of its biodiversity: lichens, bryophytes, algae, and fungi.
These organisms provide essential ecosystem services not only to Tasmania's diverse ecosystems, but they are globally important. Biodiversity is essential for ecosystem health of the planet and ultimately for our own survival as the human species.
I have heard that these ill-conceived restructuring plans will equally affect the Zoology Section of the Museum, by merging three positions - Palaeontology, Vertebrate and Invertebrate curator - into one single researcher. No single person can efficiently occupy these roles in one capacity: invertebrates are the most diverse organisms on the planet. Suggesting that such diversity can be addressed by a single person is ludicrous.
I urge you not to go ahead with these ill-conceived plans. They will cost the people of Tasmania dearly. Natural History Collections are not just assemblages of dead objects, museum artifacts to be preserved, These collections play a crucial role in understanding ecosystems, they are active objects of research and investigators can learn a great deal about the organisms preserved in specimen collections. They are crucial in understanding and addressing biodiversity loss, genetic diversity and resource management, species conservation and ecosystem functioning.
All across the globe, researchers who study this biodiversity rely on these collections. Only most recently the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) recognized the crucial role of Natural History Collections for the conservation of biodiversity.
As Managing Director of the Consortium of Lichen Herbaria, an international initiative for sharing biodiversity information on Lichenized Fungi globally, I am much too aware how little attention these often neglected, but crucially important organisms receive by the international research community. Lichens have no eyes. They are not large, iconic species like the Tasmanian Tiger, yet they are equally important for your precious and very unique ecosystem.
These organisms need attention and stewardship. And the researchers employed at your world-renown institution, the Tasmanian Herbarium are just that: stewards of biodiversity.
Eliminating these essential positions for the sake of saving a few dollars is a very grave mistake.
Regardless of political affiliation, I believe the Tasmanian people deserve much better and as the ones representing Tasmania, I ask you all to do what you can to make sure that these plans will not be allowed to proceed.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Dr. Frank Bungartz
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Frank Bungartz, Ph.D.
Collections Manager of Lichens and Digital Data
Natural History Collections, Arizona State University
Adjunct Scientist - Charles Darwin Foundation (AISBL)
Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galápagos, Ecuador
Adjunct Scientist - National Biodiversity Institute of Ecuador (INABIO), Quito, Ecuador
