The Demand for Computer-Aided Taxonomy (CAT) and the ESF's Potential Role in Responding to the Needs of the Developing World <B>The Demand for Computer-Aided Taxonomy (CAT) and the ESF's Potential Role in Responding to the Needs of the Developing World</B><P> <EM><B></B></EM><B>Tecwyn Jones and Paul D. Bridge</B><BR> BioNET-INTERNATIONAL Technical Secretariat, Bakeham Lane, Egham, Surrey, TW20 9TY, UK<B></B><P> BioNET-INTERNATIONAL, the global, inter-governmental network for capacity-building in taxonomy in the developing world, currently has sub-regional LOOPs in the Caribbean, East, West and southern Africa, South-East Asia and the South Pacific embracing almost 100 countries. It also has a network covering major taxonomic institutions in 25 countries of Europe, known as EuropLOOP.<BR> BioNET-INTERNATIONAL's 10 year objective is to endow all developing country sub-regions with realistic self-reliance in taxonomy to support national programmes for sustainable agricultural development. BioNET-INTERNATIONAL is a facilitating mechanism for the wider interventions needed to assist developing countries to achieve full implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity.<BR> BioNET-INTERNATIONAL's concern is to remove the present taxonomic impediment to progress in identifying the components of biodiversity an impediment to progress in identifying the components if biodiversity an impediment that renders futile most attempts to inventory, monitor and manage ecosystems. For this its sub-regional LOOPs have initiated substantial training programmes which will ensure that taxonomy is more easily available to and useable by a very much wider community of scientists and technicians. These time-prescribed programmes increasingly rely on computer-aided-taxonomy (CAT), including electronic identification keys and various automated systems.<BR> Europe, despite its rich and extensive taxonomic resources and its obvious potential to develop and provide CAT products, has produced only a few high quality items as yet. Due to lack of adequate and sustained funding for the multi-disciplinary research needed to yield prototypes and develop finished systems, Europe's immensely rich resource of innovative technologies has barely been tapped.<BR> ESF investment in CAT would yield handsome returns. It would allow European taxonomic institutes to communicate and use their collections, records and skills and provide them with marketable products urgently needed world-wide. It would also enable a significant contribution by Europe to human-kind's endeavours to achieve sustainability not least in the developing world.<P>