2013 Volume 34 Pages 67-70
The current financial crisis at the International Trust for Zoological Nomenclature (ITZN) is reported here in the hope of inspiring widespread participation in an urgent, earnest, and ultimately successful fund-raising effort to save it. The organization, purpose, and history of ITZN are recounted here in brief, and evidently for the first time in Japanese, to foster a wider and better understanding of its significance. ITZN financially supports the entire operation of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) and its Secretariat, whose activities are indispensable for stability in the scientific names of animals. The Commission is responding innovatively to new technical opportunities by developing tools to make nomenclature more accessible and reliable, as shown by the 2012 amendment to the Code to allow valid electric publication and the relaunch of ZooBank, the Official Registry for Zoological Nomenclature, in a new architecture and better interface, both giving rise to an impressive increase in registrations. Establishing ZooBank as a gold-standard archive of scientific names is as important a task as the related endeavors of keeping archives of type specimens (the core role of Natural History Collections) and archives of published information (the core role of libraries and online data archives). ITZN's financial underpinnings must be restored quickly, with an assurance of steady and adequate future income. The risk is such that it could fail and be dissolved as soon as 2013. If ITZN founders, ICZN's ability to function will be severely compromised. A new "subscription" campaign to encourage annual pledges of funds to ITZN from stakeholder institutions and organizations around the world (museums, learned societies, businesses, etc.), including in Japan, is outlined.
Circular of the Japanese Society of Systematic Zoology
