World Federation for Culture Collections

The members representing Africa and Latin America are still missing.

GOALS

To act as first port of call for any collection (industrial/private/academic) which considers itself to be endangered.
To assess the requirements of the Endangered Collections and provide any supportive or lobbying assistance it can.
In the event of a culture collection being in imminent danger of being lost, to visit or by means of correspondence assess its sector of expertise and interest (i.e. industrial/medical/fungal/algal etc) and solicite possible alternative sites. Issues such as number of strains, key strain selection, level of maintenance and cost for transfer and upkeep would also have to be investigated at this stage.
To seek a source funding for this exercise; or if a "pot" already exists to allocate appropriate funds for the task to be carried out. This is the crucial clause which needs the committee´s efforts because without it, we can´t see very many culture collections having the capacity and finances to in effect function as an unrewarded dustbin; in which case only collections with market potential will be "saved".