News

This is the place for your news items relating to fungal conservation. That means notices of forthcoming events, notices of new projects, brief reports on events which have produced some result impacting on fungal conservation, information about surveys or calls for opinions or support, in fact anything with a fungal conservation slant. News will be displayed in chronological order by date of posting, the most recent being at the top. After a suitable period, news items will be archived. Please send you news items to Dr D.W. Minter [e-mail: d.minter<at>cabi.org].

Fungi to feature in Jeju. Every four years, the International Union for Conservation of Nature [IUCN] holds its main congress. This is the event where policy for the next four years is determined for the world's biggest conservation organization. The next such congress will be in Jeju (South Korea) in early September this year. For the fungi, this congress will be very special indeed. For the first time in the more than fifty year history of that organization, the fungi will have a presence. Amazingly, that has never happened before. Organizers have allocated a place and time in the programme for presentations about fungi and, more significantly, the delegates will be debating a motion calling for fungi to be recognized on a par with animals and plants. Dr Greg Mueller, one of our Founder Members and Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission Mushrooms, Brackets & Puffballs Specialist Group will fly the flag for fungi at that meeting. If any other Society Member plans to attend, please contact him [e-mail: gmueller<at>chicagobotanic.org]. [posted 11 June 2012]

New plans for key biodiversity areas take account of fungi. A special workshop hosted by the IUCN was convened in Cambridge (UK) from 5-8 June 2012 to review possible criteria for recognizing key biodiversity areas. Over 60 delegates from all over the world converged for four days of intensive debate. The event was of enormous significance because it seems to be the first time some fungal expertise (in the form of Society President, David Minter) has been included in discussions - a wonderful and morale-boosting change from the all too common occurrence in the past where mycologists often learned of decisions only after they had been made. Thank you, IUCN! [posted 11 June 2012]