Editorial – Presentation of the special issue “Network of Herbaria and Virtual Herbaries in Brazil” Ana Odete Santos Vieira, André Luís de Gasper

Abstract

The Brazilian Herbarium Network (RBH) of the Brazilian Botanical Society (SBB) was formed from the "Herbarium Committee", and coordinated by some curators, appointed at each National Botany Congress.

A page with information and the RBH Catalog are hosted on the SBB page (http://www.botanica.org.br/rbh) and available to the entire community. The catalog was built based on data organized by Vinícius C. Souza, at the time coordinator of the “Commission” for the “Taxonomy in Brazil” page, coordinated by Hilda M. Longui-Wagner and hosted at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.

RBH's mission is to coordinate the strengthening of Brazilian herbaria and their associated and auxiliary collections. One of the objectives for developing this mission is to expand the dissemination of data on Brazilian herbaria and their activities, so, in addition to maintaining the catalogue, different activities are proposed each year. Since 2014, the Brazilian Herbarium Network's communication with curators, as well as between curators, has been expanded with the use of new tools, such as the Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/groups/636109086464434) and the Google Groups email (rede-brasileira-de-herbarios@googlegroups.com). These tools have allowed the exchange of experiences between curators, facilitating the exchange of information about the collections, about good initiatives and/or practices, such as regulations, manuals and policies for the herbarium and about the work routine in the collections and their equipment and furniture. .

For the 66th National Congress (Santos, São Paulo) a special issue of UNISANTA BioScience was proposed, which would bring together and expand updated information from Brazilian herbaria. Vol 4, No 6 (2015) Special Edition “Herbariums of Brazil” - 66th National Botany Congress, was launched in October and presents texts on 59% of active herbaria in RBH (116 herbaria in October 2015), from all regions of the country and almost all states.

The proposal and adoption of the “Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC)”, in 2002, by the signatory countries of the Convention on Biological Diversity, accompanied by the proposal of the “Global Taxonomic Initiative”, involved actions linked to diagnosis, evaluation and infrastructure for the development and preservation of collections. During the following almost 15 years, government programs, preparation of documentation on guidelines and strategies for biological collections, notices to support the development of collections and training and training of taxonomists brought significant progress to Brazilian herbaria and their teams.

The development of equipment, protocols and information technology tools allowed the establishment of several proposals that aimed to computerize collections, collectively share data from specimens collected on Brazilian soil, rescue the history of researchers, as well as repatriate information from samples abroad . Other institutional and regional network initiatives expanded the improvement in the curation of collections and the dissemination of Brazilian flora and mycota.

Thus, for this second volume “Herbarium Networks and Virtual Herbariums in Brazil”, the proposal was to record experiences with the joint work of herbaria in networks and the development of virtual herbaria, in the documentation of Brazilian biodiversity.

We continue with the same purpose, that this new issue of UNISANTA Bioscience, inspire all of us botanists, to develop the collections and their preservation, work together to validate and share the records deposited in the collections and expand the record of species of plants and fungi in Brazilian herbaria.