Microfungi Conservation

CECILIA C. CARMARÁN & ANDREA I. ROMERO

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, EEUU

Congreso; MSA Annual Meeting; 2007

Mycological Society of America

Carmarán, Cecilia C. and Romero, Andrea I.*  Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales , UBA, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Pabellón 2, piso 4, Ciudad Universitaria, Av. Int. Guiraldes 2620 Cp1428EHA, Buenos Aires, Argentina. romero@bg.fcen.uba.ar. Microfungal conservation. Fungal conservation raises some difficult issues, and is topic novel for many people. Because most fungi are inconspicuos most of the time, there is little understanding of their diversity and even less of their importance. The public is simply unaware that fungi are indispensable components of the world1´s  ecosystems and that macrofungi are a key source of many important pharaceuticals and other commercial products. This lack of understanding and awareness results un a political lack of concern about conservation of fungi. For most countries participating in the Rio Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) this is evidenced by a total absence of effort to implement the convention for this important group of organisms. In 1994, Argentina approved the CBD; the Secretariat for the Environment & Sustainable Development is in charge of promoting the country´s biodiversity conservation but the scientific policy is manages the financial support. Argentine scientists and concerned that these two bodies have divergent interests and that implementation of CBD goals in Argentina is delayed by their different opinions. This symposium presentation will discuss the impact of that problematic situation on fungal conservation, and wil review national responsabities to the CBD as a legally binding convention in respect of the fungi. Symposium Presentation