Building the biodiversity macroscope in Bolivia: a collaborative network between two South American neighboring counties in the International Barcode of Life project

KOPUCHIAN, CECILIA

Kunming

Congreso; Fifth International Barcode of Life Conference; 2013

The Neotropics are among the most biodiverse regions of the world and are therefore particularly important for the goals of the International Barcode of Life project. In this context, in 2008 MACN in Argentina started a collaboration with the Colección Boliviana de Fauna in Bolivia to barcode the biodiversity of Southern South America. This collaborative network was supported by Canadian (BIO, IDRC) and U.S. (Richard Lounsbery Foundation) funds. Bolivia is a developing country with a small scientific community. Its territory presents a rich and not fully known biodiversity, distributed in several ecoregions in a wide altitudinal gradient going from 90 to 6500 masl. Since it became a regional node in 2009, Argentina has been working with Bolivian Institutions from La Paz, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz to obtain genetic barcodes of vertebrate and invertebrate species which are contained in more than 10 BOLD projects. Also, more than 20 Bolivian researchers and students were trained in Bolivia and Argentina in barcode techniques and in field work. Moreover, collection campaigns and existing Museum collections were economically and logistically supported. Nowadays, the future of this fruitful collaboration mainly relies on the resolution of permit restrictions that are being implemented by the new Bolivian authorities.