Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 09:46:16 +0100 From: "Nigel Hurneyman" <nhurneyman@onemeaning.com> To: cp@opus.hpl.hp.com Message-Id: <aabcdefg2735$foo@default> Subject: Re: new species or hybrid
Hi Phil,
It would be useful if people who are active in naming new plants and
frequently have to negotiate the bureaucracy involved could detail their
experiences to this listserver.
A recent analysis reckons that if the current swathes of bureaucracy (of
which CITES is a major proportion) had existed since Linnaeus invented
his naming system, 50% of our domestic plant and animal breeds wouldn't
have come into being and 25% of the currently known species of plants
and animals would not have been identified or would have passed into
extinction. And the new rules about export permits for material being
imported into Europe would have made those figures worse. The
ramifications are far wider than how pretty your garden would be; for
example, American drug companies wouldn't have ready access to specimens
of a rare South African(?) yew that is yielding an anti-cancer drug that
seems far more potent than Tamoxifen with substantially less
side-effects.
NigelH
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