{"id":7359,"date":"2023-07-04T16:22:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-04T13:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/?p=7359"},"modified":"2023-07-04T16:22:07","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T13:22:07","slug":"the-impact-of-natural-history-museum-decline-on-biodiversity-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/the-impact-of-natural-history-museum-decline-on-biodiversity-conservation","title":{"rendered":"The Impact of Natural History Museum Decline on Biodiversity Conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"bulletpoints\">\n<ul>\n<li><em>Many important natural history museums are struggling to survive due to reduced funding and staffing, and so their collections are increasingly being split up, degraded, or hived off.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>A review of these trends, addressing the problems with such museums and suggesting solutions, was recently published in the journal Megataxa.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>\u201cInstitutional declines need not be seen as inevitable, but should at least be acknowledged before things may be improved. We have all-too-silently borne witness to declines or extirpations of natural history museums, not just in London, Paris or in the tropics,\u201d a new op-ed argues.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>With the disappearance of European empires, many associated internationally important natural history museums (NHMs) are struggling to continue. They are being underfunded, short-staffed; collections split up and hived off. Many are, in short, dying, despite much window dressing with specimens being digitally archived away with even less access for naturalists who may need them.<\/p>\n<p>Fred Naggs, previously of London\u2019s NHM, recently provided a review of such trends in the science journal<em>\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biotaxa.org\/megataxa\/article\/view\/megataxa.7.1.2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Megataxa<\/a><\/em>\u00a0in a wide-ranging, 27 page article addressing global biodiversity problems, with several suggested solutions. Given that firsthand observations about museum culture are rarely articulated, such observations should interest all those interested in institutions that are often publicly funded to support biodiversity research and conservation including zoos, societies and botanic gardens.<\/p>\n<p>Although Naggs\u2019s article concentrates on the Natural History Museum in London, its remit is much wider (uncredited quotations below are taken from it). Despite declines, many museums and institutes still seem to thrive \u2013 these include NHMs in Copenhagen, Sydney and at Harvard, and also the British Museum and Kew Gardens \u2013 perhaps the best-known botanical institute in the world. I\u2019ve been fortunate to visit at least a dozen important NHMs around the world, including a tiny one in Riga, Latvia, and expanding modern ones such as in Singapore.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270304\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-270304\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215304\/LatvianNHMRiga.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215304\/LatvianNHMRiga.jpg 768w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215304\/LatvianNHMRiga-610x458.jpg 610w\" alt=\"A natural history museum in Riga, Latvia with a diorama of taxidermied Asian wildlife. Image courtesy of the author.\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A natural history museum in Latvia with a diorama of taxidermies of Asian wildlife. Image courtesy of the author.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Several museums and their collections have been severely damaged or destroyed by <a title=\"Clearing the ridge: Fire for forest health and resilient communities\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/clearing-the-ridge-fire-for-forest-health-and-resilient-communities\">fires<\/a> such as the Lisbon NHM in 1978, the Delhi NHM in 2016, and the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 2018, erasing centuries of work and countless biological specimens.<\/p>\n<p>The interestingly-named Darwin Museum in Moscow, founded by the enthusiasm of Eugenia Aleksandrovna and Alfred Kohts in the early 20<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0century, when interest in the natural world in the West\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2022\/04\/amateur-naturalists-deserve-more-support-and-less-barriers-commentary\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">peaked<\/a>\u00a0beyond levels seen today, is clearly struggling. This museum now maintains a low profile while collections in Ukraine face\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2023\/02\/amid-war-ukrainian-biologists-fight-to-protect-conservation-legacy\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">devastation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In the context of better-known institutes such as the NHM in London, the problems are seen as self-imposed under the intervention of <a title=\"Forest Governance Scholarship for PhD\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/forest-governance-scholarship-for-phd\">government<\/a> ineptitude: \u201c[barely any] of the U.K.\u2019s 650 members of parliament holds a degree in a biological subject.\u201d This situation is clearly not unique to the U.K. Most politicians today tragically lack the enthusiasm for the <a title=\"World leaders urged to back innovative nature financing at One Forest Summit in Gabon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/world-leaders-urged-to-back-innovative-nature-financing-at-one-forest-summit-in-gabon\">natural world<\/a> of, say, U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who helped found the American Museum of Natural History, in New York City, which has retained many traditional features such as the \u2018lifelike\u2019 African wildlife dioramas that are now well over a century old. Naggs\u2019s contribution is one of very few similar documents \u2013 an insider\u2019s perspective that helps explain why the role of some NHMs seem to be in terminal decline, at a time when they are urgently needed.<\/p>\n<p>Naggs is among many of us who have palpably witnessed rapid\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/list\/biodiversity\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">biodiversity<\/a>\u00a0destruction \u2013 especially tropical\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/list\/rainforests\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">rainforests<\/a>: \u201cTo state that progress on biodiversity protection has proved elusive since the first Earth Summit [1992]\u2026 is an understatement \u2026\u201d Most ambitious UN <a title=\"Science Communication Course\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/science-communication-course\">conservation<\/a> targets have not been met, and such stated goals \u201cwill not stop the current extinction crisis, \u2026 there is no such thing as sustainable growth in a finite world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Large collections, as were set up in London initially, turned into veritable black holes for specimens. Most collectors or \u2018sportsmen\u2019 (just for mammals and birds rather than invertebrates) bequeathed their collections to museums like London\u2019s, at a time they were <a title=\"Welcome\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/\">welcome<\/a> with due caution, but without the same degrees of restrictions in place today, especially when wildlife was historically more abundant. \u201cThe great majority of collections were accumulated in the nineteenth century \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270302\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-270302\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28194654\/giraffe-puzzle-copy-1.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1210px) 100vw, 1210px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28194654\/giraffe-puzzle-copy-1.jpg 1210w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28194654\/giraffe-puzzle-copy-1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28194654\/giraffe-puzzle-copy-1-610x458.jpg 610w\" alt=\"Is the jigsaw puzzle of the world's natural history museums going to pieces? The &quot;Water Hole Diorama&quot; by Pomegranate Puzzles depicts a classic scene at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City of an oasis in the Guaso Nyiro River Valley in Kenya. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay.\" width=\"1210\" height=\"908\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Is the jigsaw puzzle of the world\u2019s natural history museums going to pieces? \u201cWater Hole Diorama\u201d is a classic scene at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City and depicts wildlife attracted to an Upper Nile River marshland. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a unique audit conducted at the London NHM for about 20 years until 1904, there were then approximately 55,000 mammal and 400,000 <a title=\"Grants for Research on Neotropical Birds\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/grants-for-research-on-neotropical-birds\">bird<\/a> specimens. Currently there are estimated to be about 800,000 preserved fish and 8 million mollusks, largely in the form of empty shells. \u201cThe current estimate for zoological holdings (including insects) is 63 million specimens and for <a title=\"Botany in Action Fellowships 2023\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/botany-in-action-fellowships-2023\">botany<\/a>, 6 million \u2026 with particularly strong representation from Britain\u2019s colonial empire\u2026,\u201d which implies important collections from parts of Africa, Canada and Australasia as well as South Asia, Burma, Malaya and parts of modern Indonesia. There would be many specimens collected by Charles <a title=\"Darwin Initiative: Round 30\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/darwin-initiative-round-30\">Darwin<\/a> and Alfred Russel Wallace, to name but two outstanding naturalists, and others that could never be replaced, such as the lost foot of a dodo (now only existing as a plaster cast). \u201cThe NHM\u2019s collections are the core of its being \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2022\/12\/nations-adopt-kunming-montreal-global-biodiversity-framework\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Convention on Biodiversity<\/a>, among other frameworks, has prevented museums from the unrestrained acquisition of international terrestrial specimens since about 1990, without due qualification, and sometimes ironically, such as confiscated illegally imported specimens of potential research value. Modern museums often acquire collections through collaborative research with international partnerships, where specimens will be shared with local <a title=\"Conference: Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/conference-tanzania-wildlife-research-institute-tawiri\">researchers and institutes<\/a>, and are imported with permits.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to barriers in such diplomacy and interpretations, especially if hampered by degrees of \u2018bio-nationalism,\u2019 many NHMs have scaled back collecting from abroad and London\u2019s is no exception. It is not as ambitious in acquisitions as compared to the past: \u201cThe fact remains that the NHM does not have targeted and ambitious programmes to collect from non-marine habitats in tropical <a title=\"Biodiversity offsets under fire as EU updates green finance taxonomy\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/biodiversity-offsets-under-fire-as-eu-updates-green-finance-taxonomy\">biodiverse<\/a> countries, which are in the frontline for extinctions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NHM has its origins in the natural history collections of the British Museum (BM) that opened to the public in 1759 in Bloomsbury. The British Museum (of Natural History), an impressive neo-gothic building, was opened to the public in 1881 in Kensington to house the BM\u2019s natural history collections. Declared independent from the BM in 1963, it was renamed the Natural History Museum in 1992. A similarly palatial Vienna NHM arose concurrently, with variations in scale reflecting power and geographic reach.<\/p>\n<p>Until recently the museum was comprised of the departments of Zoology, Botany, Entomology, Paleontology and Mineralogy, each with their dedicated heads or \u2018Keepers.\u2019 These five departments have since been amalgamated into \u2018Life and Earth <a title=\"Research Assistant \u2013 Extreme Citizen Science Group\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/research-assistant-extreme-citizen-science-group\">Sciences\u2019 before being lumped into a hollow \u2018Science Group.\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>See related:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/news.mongabay.com\/2023\/04\/indianapolis-zoo-offers-1m-grant-for-plan-to-save-a-threatened-species\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Indianapolis Zoo offers $1 million grant for plan to save a threatened species<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270305\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-270305\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215613\/DodoBM1857.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215613\/DodoBM1857.jpg 750w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215613\/DodoBM1857-610x557.jpg 610w\" alt=\"The British Museum's dodo exhibit.\" width=\"750\" height=\"685\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The British Museum\u2019s dodo exhibit in 1857. Image in the public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>During these simplifications, it is not only Keepers who have been eliminated. There has been a progressive diminution of curatorial staff, <a title=\"Research Assistant Vacant\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/research-assistant-vacant\">researchers and assistants<\/a>, whereas the numbers of specimens have not similarly declined. According to Naggs, in the Fish Section alone in the 1970s, there were at least 10 <a title=\"European School of Sustainability Science and Research- Doctoral Programme on Climate Change Adaptation by Publications\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/european-school-of-sustainability-science-and-research-doctoral-programme-on-climate-change-adaptation-by-publications\">researchers employed full time with a \u201cprodigious publication<\/a> output.\u201d There are now no fish researchers, and two remaining curators. There have been similar declines across life sciences, including in the Mammal Section.<\/p>\n<p>Many visiting <a title=\"PhD Research Concept Note: Invasion, impacts and management of Prosopis and Water Hyacinth in Tanzania\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/phd-research-concept-note-invasion-impacts-and-management-of-prosopis-and-water-hyacinth-in-tanzania\">researchers have noted<\/a> a loss of curatorial standards, with some wet specimens drying up due to inadequate top-ups with preservatives (e.g., amphibians) \u2013 in part due to staff cuts. Scientific <a title=\"Technical and Administrative Staff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/staff\/technical-and-administrative-staff\">staff have been replaced by a \u201cclique of empowered administrators<\/a> \u2026\u201d (and unpaid volunteers). Their role and that of PR has emerged stronger than science. Whereas the museum supports PhDs and postgraduates, very few have been recruited to employment positions. Departmental simplifications and staff cuts have been progressing since the 1990s and had been criticized earlier in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/345568b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Nature<\/a>. The museum has also lost its in-house taxidermists, since the 1980s (Vienna NHM still employs at least 3).<\/p>\n<p>With such changes, the specimens have tended to lose their home at the museum itself. Many were re-homed temporarily in storage sites such as the cetaceans and corals; the bird collection was sent from London to Tring in an amalgamation with the Rothschild Museum. Plans are now being implemented to deposit about half of the collections and scientific staff in Reading, in collaboration with Reading University. There are also plans to digitize specimens to a far <a title=\"REGULATIONS AND GUIDELINES FOR HIGHER DEGREES TO SUPPORT ONLINE TRAINING AND MANAGEMENT OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES AT SUA\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/regulations-and-guidelines-for-higher-degrees-to-support-online-training-and-management-of-postgraduate-studies-at-sua\">higher degree<\/a> \u2013 which unfortunately is problematic, as many specimens are not adequately catalogued or identified. \u201cDigitisation of NHM collections needs to be focussed, selective and prioritised \u2026 Even collections made by experts in the latter half of the twentieth century have been shown to have fewer than 80% of samples correctly identified \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As with many similar museums, other kinds of specimen storage should be adopted for <a title=\"Emergency Funding for Conservation\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/emergency-funding-for-conservation\">conservation<\/a> priorities such as cryogenic specimen storage and bio-banking. Naggs considers that London could take a species <a title=\"Measuring impact to improve conservation results\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/measuring-impact-to-improve-conservation-results\">conservation<\/a> lead by adopting large scale storage of viable cells. Splitting the specimen collection and researchers will damage institutional identity and integrated function.<\/p>\n<p>Given a general lack of funding for taxonomy, exacerbating a \u201ctaxonomic deficit,\u201d the museum has declared that it will change direction, specializing towards \u201capplied environmental, agricultural and medical research,\u201d competing with several institutes, both commercial and government-funded, already serving these needs.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone familiar with the London NHM since the 1970s, like this author is, is likely to have noted the following changes: many biodiversity galleries, such as the large fish, paleo-mammal, evolution, bird and even British wildlife galleries have been demolished, dismantled or replaced (you can no longer see a mounted, red-faced malkoha). They weren\u2019t just stuffed displays. The central hall, once devoted to large specimens, has now been cleared \u2013 given it is needed for evening celebrity led\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.museumsassociation.org\/museums-journal\/news\/2023\/05\/controversy-over-rightwing-thinktank-dinner-at-natural-history-museum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">functions<\/a>\u00a0(evocative of Matthew 21:13).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_270306\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-270306\" src=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215822\/ColourizedfishgalleryNHM1970s.jpg\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215822\/ColourizedfishgalleryNHM1970s.jpg 750w, https:\/\/imgs.mongabay.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2023\/06\/28215822\/ColourizedfishgalleryNHM1970s-610x362.jpg 610w\" alt=\"The fish gallery and staff as it appeared in the 1970s. Image in the public domain.\" width=\"750\" height=\"445\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The London Natural History Museum\u2019s fish gallery and staff in the 1970s. Image in the public domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This extends to the replacement of the famous diplodocus by a suspended whale, freeing up even more footprint. Dinosaurs have become a much bigger attraction than they ever were, towards \u201cDisneyland-inspired public exhibitions \u2026\u201d Whereas the museum remains a very popular public attraction, more space is now devoted to coffee shops, and much less to prominent neontological specimens. Taxidermy dioramas, as once existed, barely survive.<\/p>\n<p>Given that there appears to be a decline, who is to blame? Cuts and priorities in <a title=\"UK Government \u2014 Illegal Wildlife Trade Challenge Fund\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/uk-government-illegal-wildlife-trade-challenge-fund\">government funding<\/a> are partly responsible, as are alterations in administrative structures. Strategies for external scrutiny and oversight of the museum such as \u2018visiting groups\u2019 have now been dismantled, and the museum administration seems more centralized than ever before. Criticisms as made by Naggs and in\u00a0<em>Nature<\/em>\u00a0are insufficiently addressed by the museum. Meanwhile, an imperial-sized collection open to <a title=\"Global Raptor Research &amp; Conservation Grant\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/global-raptor-research-conservation-grant\">global researchers<\/a> will probably be increasingly split, re-homed and scattered, based on questionable amalgamations, far from London.<\/p>\n<p>Declines in museum culture, driven not by science but by more commercial forces and leadership at odds with goals associated with highlighting <a title=\"New guide promotes biodiversity conservation in hydropower development\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/new-guide-promotes-biodiversity-conservation-in-hydropower-development\">biodiversity and conservation<\/a>, are certainly not confined to the NHM, as Naggs indicates. Cultural shifts related to NHM declines have been noted in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/ojs.victoria.ac.nz\/nzsr\/article\/view\/7750\/6895\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">New Zealand<\/a>\u00a0and currently in the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/academia.hypotheses.org\/48749\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Paris<\/a>\u00a0NHM, where staff are openly rebelling against the changes and have launched a petition.<\/p>\n<p>Many NHMs in the Global South have been victims of declines in standards since a more prosperous colonial era. A re-organization of the Colombo NHM in Sri Lanka in the 1990s made the displays worse, and more open to attack by moisture and <a title=\"Scientists make inroads against tree-killing pests\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/scientists-make-inroads-against-tree-killing-pests\">pests<\/a>. Similar declines apply to Manila in the Philippines.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, it is very difficult to maintain temperate climate-style natural history museums in the humid tropics, due to insect and fungal encroachment, let alone book libraries that also decay much faster. For decades, the London NHM has been a vital repository of <a title=\"Call for national experts: strengthening capacity among African forestry stakeholders for implementing REDD+ in Anglophone and Lusophone Africa\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/call-for-national-experts-strengthening-capacity-among-african-forestry-stakeholders-for-implementing-redd-in-anglophone-and-lusophone-africa\">African and Asian biological collections among<\/a> other global treasures, but for how much longer?<\/p>\n<p>The current stated declines seem to tragically mirror the fate of much of tropical biodiversity, at a time when we may need to increase taxonomists by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/345568b0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">twenty-five<\/a>\u00a0fold, to mention an unaddressed concern issued in 1990. Since then, many institutes such as Kew Gardens and even London Zoo have survived, even allowing for declines in <a title=\"Small Grants for Great Ape Conservation\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/news\/small-grants-for-great-ape-conservation\">conservation<\/a> or engagement.<\/p>\n<p>Institutional declines need not be seen as inevitable, but should at least be acknowledged before things may be improved. We have all-too-silently borne witness to declines or extirpations of NHMs, not just in London, Paris or in the tropics. Articulations of this have been less evident and may merit a wider appreciation, given that biodiversity has never had a substantial voice of its own.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many important natural history museums are struggling to survive due to reduced funding and staffing, and so their collections are increasingly being split up, degraded, or hived off. A review of these trends, addressing the problems with such museums and suggesting solutions, was recently published in the journal Megataxa. \u201cInstitutional declines need not be seen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7359"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7365,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7359\/revisions\/7365"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cfwt.sua.ac.tz\/ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}