{"id":2510,"date":"2019-10-02T08:01:54","date_gmt":"2019-10-02T12:01:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/?p=2510"},"modified":"2022-03-14T09:17:28","modified_gmt":"2022-03-14T13:17:28","slug":"how-a-tropical-country-can-dna-barcode-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/features\/how-a-tropical-country-can-dna-barcode-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"How a tropical country can DNA barcode itself"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”on” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ background_blend=”multiply” custom_padding=”0px|0px|3px|0px|false|false” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_fullwidth_header title=”@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF90aXRsZSIsInNldHRpbmdzIjp7ImJlZm9yZSI6IiIsImFmdGVyIjoiIn19@” subhead=”@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9leGNlcnB0Iiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJ3b3JkcyI6IiIsInJlYWRfbW9yZV9sYWJlbCI6IiJ9fQ==@” header_image_url=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/COVER-2.png” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ _dynamic_attributes=”title,subhead” title_font=”|||||on|||” title_line_height=”1.2em” content_font=”||||||||” content_text_color=”rgba(0,0,0,0.8)” subhead_font=”||on||||||” subhead_text_color=”#ffffff” subhead_font_size=”16px” subhead_line_height=”1.5em” background_color=”rgba(168,211,103,0)” use_background_color_gradient=”on” background_color_gradient_start=”rgba(114,39,17,0.91)” background_color_gradient_end=”#f9c352″ background_color_gradient_direction=”123deg” background_color_gradient_start_position=”22%” background_color_gradient_end_position=”94%” background_enable_image=”off” custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|desktop” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_fullwidth_header][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ disabled_on=”on|on|off” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.27.4″ text_font=”||on||||||” text_text_color=”#646564″ text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

Written by<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Dan-Winnie.png” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ width=”52%” module_alignment=”center” border_radii=”on|50px|50px|50px|50px” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_team_member name=”Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs” position=”Department of Biology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104 and Technical Advisors to A\u0301rea de Conservacio\u0301n Guanacaste” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_font_size=”17px” body_font=”||||||||” body_font_size=”15px” text_orientation=”center” width=”85%” module_alignment=”center” link_option_url_new_window=”on” border_radii_image=”on|50px|50px|50px|50px” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_team_member][et_pb_divider divider_position=”center” _builder_version=”3.23.3″ custom_margin=”||1px” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.27.4″ _dynamic_attributes=”content” text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#003254″ text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]@ET-DC@eyJkeW5hbWljIjp0cnVlLCJjb250ZW50IjoicG9zdF9kYXRlIiwic2V0dGluZ3MiOnsiYmVmb3JlIjoiIiwiYWZ0ZXIiOiIiLCJkYXRlX2Zvcm1hdCI6ImRlZmF1bHQiLCJjdXN0b21fZGF0ZV9mb3JtYXQiOiIifX0=@[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_button button_url=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/2019-JanzenHallwachs-1.pdf” url_new_window=”on” button_text=”Download PDF” button_alignment=”center” disabled_on=”off|off|off” _builder_version=”4.13.0″ custom_button=”on” button_text_size=”14px” button_text_color=”#ffffff” button_bg_color=”#003254″ button_icon=”;||divi||400″ button_icon_color=”#ffffff” box_shadow_style=”preset3″ box_shadow_horizontal=”3px” box_shadow_vertical=”11px” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_button][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#646564″ text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”]

https:\/\/doi.org\/10.21083\/ibol.v9i1.5526<\/pre>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_sidebar area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ show_border=”off” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ text_orientation=”center” background_layout=”dark” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_sidebar][et_pb_sidebar area=”et_pb_widget_area_1″ show_border=”off” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_sidebar][et_pb_divider _builder_version=”3.23.4″ height=”0px” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_cta title=”Newsletter” button_url=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/features\/how-a-tropical-country-can-dna-barcode-itself\/#subscribe” button_text=”Subscribe now” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ body_text_color=”#646564″ body_font_size=”16px” background_enable_color=”off” custom_button=”on” button_text_size=”15px” text_orientation=”left” background_layout=”light” global_colors_info=”{}”]Get the Barcode Bulletin delivered to your inbox[\/et_pb_cta][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ text_font=”||||||||” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]I<\/span>BOL\u2019s new research program BIOSCAN<\/a> <\/strong>has set out to DNA barcode the world (terrestrial invertebrates especially).\u00a0 This will give us a very broad and paper-thin view. We and the world can do a lot with paper.\u00a0 A very lot. Especially when it is used to map movements, detect presence, and begin to reveal the linkages among living things, tens of millions of living things.\n\nCosta Rica, a very enthusiastic node in BIOSCAN, has decided instead to go for depth for a place, for its million-plus species of Eukaryota in an area the size of a tiny USA state or a fraction of a Canadian province. There are more eukaryote species within 50 km\u00a0of our field home\u00a0in the Area Administrativa of\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>A\u0301rea de Conservacio\u0301n Guanacaste (ACG)<\/a><\/strong> in northwestern Costa Rica1,2<\/sup> than in all of Europe.\n\nCosta Rica\u2019s newly started ten-year goal is called BioAlfa, as derived from BioAlfabetizada<\/em> and BioAlfabetizaci\u00f3n<\/em> (a.k.a. BioLiterate in another familiar language).[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/COVER-2.png” show_in_lightbox=”on” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ width=”86%” custom_padding=”||46px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”2_5,3_5″ disabled_on=”off|off|on” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”2_5″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”3_5″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ text_font=”||||||||” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]I<\/span>BOL\u2019s new research program BIOSCAN<\/a> <\/strong>has set out to DNA barcode the world (terrestrial invertebrates especially).\u00a0 This will give us a very broad and paper-thin view. We and the world can do a lot with paper.\u00a0 A very lot. Especially when it is used to map movements, detect presence, and begin to reveal the linkages among living things, tens of millions of living things.\n\nCosta Rica, a very enthusiastic node in BIOSCAN, has decided instead to go for depth for a place, for its million-plus species of Eukaryota in an area the size of a tiny USA state or a fraction of a Canadian province. There are more eukaryote species within 50 km\u00a0of our field home\u00a0in the Area Administrativa of\u00a0<\/a><\/strong>A\u0301rea de Conservacio\u0301n Guanacaste (ACG)<\/a><\/strong> in northwestern Costa Rica1,2<\/sup> than in all of Europe.\n\nCosta Rica\u2019s newly started ten-year goal is called BioAlfa, as derived from BioAlfabetizada<\/em> and BioAlfabetizaci\u00f3n<\/em> (a.k.a. BioLiterate in another familiar language).[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/COVER-2.png” show_in_lightbox=”on” align=”center” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ width=”86%” custom_padding=”||46px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ prev_background_color=”#ffffff” next_background_color=”#ffffff” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ background_color=”#f2f2f2″ custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|tablet” custom_padding=”1px||63px|||” top_divider_style=”slant2″ bottom_divider_style=”slant2″ bottom_divider_flip=”horizontal” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ custom_padding=”122px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”]
BioAlfa aims to document and reveal, for its 5 million people, by those people, with appropriate international collaborations and one major technical advance, the pocket personal reusable cheap barcoder, Costa Rica\u2019s \u201ctotal multi-cellular biodiversity\u201d. For any species, if you know what it is, if you can read and access it, then humans are quite adroit at deciding how and why they want to conserve it for truly sustainable uses. \u201cUse it or lose it\u201d is a gene complex deeply embedded in our Pleistocene genome. That is the deepest, most selfish driver of BioAlfa.<\/p>\n
A thoroughly barcoded national biodiversity will be at the least a major reference baseline for whatever sampling methods BIOSCAN and others employ world-wide. Not only will BioAlfa have repeatedly collected a year of Malaise traps from this or that ecosystem, but it will also come to know what fraction of the trappable and untrappable arthropod fauna is being captured in that or other years, owing to both Malaise trapping and all the other many ways we find invertebrates.<\/p>\n
For any organism found in the country, Costa Rica wants to know what it is, where it is, what it does, and how to find it when you want to \u2013 for at the least the 25% of the country that is still natural forest \u2013 dry forest, rain forest, and (rapidly dwindling) cloud forest. And what is on the agroscape derives from the wild as well, so it will be registered too. BioAlfa\u2019s technical and bio-political goal is to capture those informative items and get them all readably\u00a0and legally\u00a0<\/span>stashed on the internet in the public domain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Until the internet, computerization, and DNA barcoding emerged, such a goal would have been only a dream, and restricted largely to what is big enough for you see through your binoculars or in the museum drawer. The latter species are some 2% of Costa Rica\u2019s wild biodiversity, depending on how good and trained your vision, and how many libraries and field guides you have to hand \u2013 along with ever-scarcer\u00a0quality taxonomists. What about the rest of the crops, beauties, wigglies, and dangers in those wild forests and remaining freshwater \u2013 70% arthropods, 19% nematodes, and 9% fungi?<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
BIOALFA IS MODULAR<\/h1>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ link_text_color=”#ff9200″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
BioAlfa is modular. Different modules range from taxon-based morphology+barcoding inventory (e.g., all Hymenoptera, all Lepidoptera) that was initiated decades ago1,3-6<\/sup>, to industrial biomonitoring7<\/sup> with 6 years (so far) of Malaise traps to determine the impact of a road and geothermal drilling platform on original complex tropical forest, to facilitating staff of Costa Rica\u2019s national parks to set and manage at least a year of Malaise traps in all of Costa Rica\u2019s major ecosystems (including the urban capital San Jose) with their own sweat equity (initiated March 2019 by gov-NGO collaboration), to (taking a note from iBOL\u2019s Canadian efforts<\/a><\/span>) setting rural schools to do their own Malaise trapping. And in all of this, BioAlfa is turning Costa Rica into being a tropical canary in the coal mine, now facing three decades of climate change8<\/sup>.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
Taxon-based morphology+barcoding inventory<\/h4>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/cliff-top-light.jpg” title_text=”cliff top light” _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_code disabled_on=”on|on|on” module_class=”gq_overlay_text” _builder_version=”4.4.7″ disabled=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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Taxon-based morphology+barcoding inventory<\/h3>\u00a0<\/pee>\u00a0BIOALFA module<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#646564″ text_font_size=”16px” width=”100%” module_alignment=”center” custom_padding=”||3px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Hazel Cambronero and Sergio Salas collecting ACG moths from a light trap. Each moth is individually collected into discardable plastic containers so as to minimize DNA contamination among them.\u00a0 At present, 11,500+ species of ACG Lepidoptera have been barcoded from light-trapped adults since 2004 and reared caterpillars since 1978, for an estimated total of 15,000 species from an area the size of New York and its suburbs (125,000 terrestrial ha of dry forest, rain forest, cloud forest, and intergrades of a 400-year old ranch being restored since 1985.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
Industrial biomonitoring<\/h4>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Drilling-platform-PL12-Malaise-2014.jpg” title_text=”Drilling platform PL12 Malaise 2014″ _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_code disabled_on=”on|on|on” module_class=”gq_overlay_text” _builder_version=”4.4.7″ disabled=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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Industrial biomonitoring<\/h3>\u00a0<\/pee>\u00a0BIOALFA module<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#646564″ text_font_size=”16px” width=”100%” module_alignment=”center” custom_padding=”||3px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]
The PL12 geothermal drilling platform in its first year of construction, with a Malaise trap at its margin for biomonitoring (the white spot just to the left of the yellow star).\u00a0 This trap and its eight companions have been in place since forest clearing began in September 2013. Together these traps continually compare the insect community of the margin with that 50 m and 150 m into the forest behind. This trap collected ~ 80,000 insects of ~8,500 species in its first year, the same year that the platform was carved out of this old-growth forest.\u00a0 Comparison with the traps 50 and 150 m into the forest showed that as far as their species and seasonal communities were concerned, the drilling platform did not exist.\u00a0These nine traps in total contributed 11,500+ species barcodes as measured through Barcode Index Numbers.\u00a0 The actual number once these species are \u201cmore known\u201d will be about 13,000.\u00a0The Centre for Biodiversity Genomics did the barcoding and analyses of seven of the traps in six months with funding from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) (the other two traps are still in the freezer, awaiting funding for processing).<\/span><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
Facilitating National Park staff’s biomonitoring efforts<\/h4>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/ibol.org\/barcodebulletin\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Tortuguero-SINAC-Malaise-install-March-2019.jpg” title_text=”Tortuguero SINAC Malaise install March 2019″ _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_code disabled_on=”on|on|on” module_class=”gq_overlay_text” _builder_version=”4.4.7″ disabled=”on” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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Facilitating National Park staff’s biomonitoring efforts<\/h3>\u00a0<\/pee>\u00a0BIOALFA module<\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ text_font=”||||||||” text_text_color=”#646564″ text_font_size=”16px” width=”100%” module_alignment=”center” custom_padding=”||3px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”]
Two staff of Parque Nacional Tortuguero install their first Malaise trap by themselves following their early March instructive workshop in SINAC\u2019s Parque Ecologico in Santo Domingo de Heredia (outskirts of San Jose).\u00a0 While the photo appears simply to show two researchers, closer scrutiny shows that they both have guns on their belts.\u00a0 That is to say, they are simultaneously park guards on the government payroll while now performing biodiversity science.\u00a0 The trap is about 150 m from the jaguar at the bottom, a screen capture from a video taken by the Costa Rican Minister of the Environment himself, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, on a visit at about the same time.\u00a0 The slide itself was created by the trap setters and posted by them, unknown to BioAlfa, on International Forest Day, 21 March 2019.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
As BioAlfa takes form, perhaps being a walking organism by January 2020, the modules each move at their own pace according to their technology, biopolitics, and \u201csmall\u201d funds to accompany their massive Costa Rican (and on many occasions international) sweat equity. The sweat-equity budget will always characterize sustainable long-term tropical national biodiversity biodevelopment but also is the only way known to have a tropical country itself become truly aware of this vital piece of its socioeconomic fabric.<\/p>\n
The modules also fit together according to their development, their discoveries, their small failures, their repairable flat tires. This is planning by doing rather than hewing to a monster complex \u201cplan\u201d or \u201cblueprint\u201d that is long obsolete by the time the rubber hits the road and takes years to create in the first place. It is also evolution, as biologists are very aware. But for other sectors of society, this methodology can be quite novel and even threatening.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ prev_background_color=”#ffffff” next_background_color=”#ffffff” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ background_color=”#f2f2f2″ top_divider_style=”slant2″ bottom_divider_style=”slant2″ bottom_divider_flip=”horizontal” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ custom_padding=”80px||72px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
There is, however, the reality that the overall cash cost, to match at least a portion of Costa Rica\u2019s sweat equity (coupled with the same from the international community, and especially the taxasphere) will be at least $100 million as a single source spread over ten years and variously front-loaded and pulsed. Of this, $25 million will be needed for a permanent endowment, the income from which will be aimed at perpetuity for all of BioAlfa\u2019s processes \u2013 ranging from data and specimen preservation to constant updating of information management for raw information and output formats. Another $25 million will be a slowly sinking fund to facilitate start-ups and start-up processes that build on BioAlfa biodiversity data for biodevelopment of all kinds by all sectors \u2013 government, private, commercial, academic, etc.; innovative embedment of wild biodiversity in Costa Rica\u2019s socioeconomic fabric is the goal. And, finally, $50 million is for the actual cost associated with all the mechanics of species sampling (no matter how much sweat equity, there are store-bought costs), laboratory DNA barcoding the samples, and base management of the information and process. Fortunately, BioAlfa has the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics<\/a><\/strong> (CBG) backing BIOSCAN. The CBG can also meet the BioAlfa need to DNA barcode at least 10 million specimens that will be generated by BioAlfa over its ten years; the CBG has already barcoded 500,000+ ACG insects of about 45,000 species since ACG offered itself in 2003 to the CBG for this close scrutiny of tropical biodiversity, a level of scrutiny of which we have been innocently ignorant for various centuries.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
A magnificent DNA barcode library and its accompanying collateral data and analyses will not, however, truly generate national bioliteracy until every citizen \u2013 farmer, schoolchild, housewife, garage mechanic, entrepreneur, and government employee has or can have a dirt-cheap personal barcoder in their pocket, reusable and connected to the internet through Wifi. All of the quasi-analogues that exist today and those envisioned are aimed at the high-end purchaser of both gadgets and supplies. When a cheap alternative comes down the road, there will be billions of buyers and barcodes and collateral information on each species will be the resource in short supply. Until that time, both verified barcodes and the gadget are in short supply.<\/p>\n
A bioliterate world will contribute seriously to the global barcode library every time anyone uses the magic gadget. As in literacy, for it to reach its social potential, cheap tools are needed for everyone.<\/p>\n
As is known to all, the academic research and discovery community has for a very long time been examining portions of tropical biodiversity for a multitude of reasons, yet also mostly in the fragmented, expeditionary and superficial way common to our northern societies and their tropical acolytes. BioAlfa is philosophically and technically an offspring of those efforts, but in modular outcomes differs in audience and actions.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ prev_background_color=”#ffffff” _builder_version=”3.29.3″ background_color=”#f2f2f2″ top_divider_style=”slant2″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ custom_padding=”74px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
Here we list just a few as modules of the start-up process. Each document is available on request for updates, if there are, but most are now available<\/a><\/strong> on the ACG web site and more will be parked there as available.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ header_text_align=”right” header_text_color=”rgba(100,101,100,0.61)” header_font_size=”100px” global_colors_info=”{}”]
1.<\/h1>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”]
On 27 November 2017, the previous Costa Rican government decreed that DNA barcodes from Costa Rican specimens are public domain, and therefore may be harvested (under appropriate government permit from CONAGEBIO<\/a><\/strong>, the operational manifestation of Costa Rica\u2019s Ley de Biodiversidad). Costa Rican barcodes can be freely used, published, etc. for biodiversity identification and discovery. This assumes that the barcode itself is not of commercial value, anymore than is a word in a dictionary. Indeed, CONAGEBIO\u2019s headline is \u201cContributing to the conservation and sustainable uses of biodiversity\u201d. The permitting process basically involves registration of the project coupled with assurances that the actual owner of the organisms is in agreement with the sampling of \u201chis or her\u201d beasts. Simultaneously this decree set in motion the government mechanics of formally bringing BioAlfa to life. Available on request and the ACG web site (decree #40725).<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ header_text_align=”right” header_text_color=”rgba(100,101,100,0.61)” header_font_size=”100px” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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On 17 November 2018, the staff of the Sistema Nacional de Areas de Conservaci\u00f3n (SINAC) of the present Costa Rican government of President Carlos Alvarado presented BioAlfa to the global COP meeting of the CBD (Convention for Biological Diversity) in Egypt as part of Costa Rica\u2019s ongoing stock-taking of its biodiversity resources and weaving them into national socioeconomics. A bilingual folder available on request and the ACG web site.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ header_text_align=”right” header_text_color=”rgba(100,101,100,0.61)” header_font_size=”100px” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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On 4 June 2019, the Costa Rican government officialized BioAlfa and its goals, especially by declaring it to be a process of National Importance, thereby granting even more legitimacy for the government to develop government-NGO-private-commercial-academic collaborations to advance BioAlfa goals (decree #41767). The signing of this decree was the occasion of a sit-down explanatory meeting of BioAlfa with the entire Cabinet and other major sector decision-makers. It is also at the roots of the government of Costa Rica currently constructing a proposal to the government of Norway for major funding of BioAlfa (fingers crossed).<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row column_structure=”1_3,2_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”1_3″ _builder_version=”3.29.3″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.29.3″ header_text_align=”right” header_text_color=”rgba(100,101,100,0.61)” header_font_size=”100px” global_colors_info=”{}”]
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At present, a number of small modules are being initiated or continue with the few resources at hand, while desperately searching for at least enough funding to cover CBG’s sequencing costs that are currently at $3\/insect for massive samples and hoped to drop to about $1\/insect by January 2020.<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.4.7″ global_colors_info=”{}”]