Coordination in ESBs in the Nordic countries: Background, results and future prospects

Environmental specimen banking (ESB) in the Nordic countries has been under investigation in a special project under the Nordic Council of Ministers (NMR). Among other results of this project, a manual of methods on collecting, transporting, preparing and storing specimens in connection to ESB-activities in the Nordic countries has been generated. At present a catalogue on where and how specimens of various kind are being stored is prepared. The project also deals with questions on how to manage and coordinate the Nordic ESBs in future. Collection, storing and analyses of specimens from the environment are important parts of environmental monitoring, and ESB is the basic way for saving specimens for future analyses and prognosis. ESBactivities should be going on towards that goal in spite of the economic, political, ideological etc. situation in the time beeing. There is a great need for a continuous coordination of the existing ESBs in the Nordic countries. Based on experience gained in the project a suggestion is made, that is a small, but economically and politically independent secretariat for the ESB-coordination should be established. The instrument for such an activity is of course a metadata base built just for ESB purposes, but the most fundamental element is the skill of the secretariat in advanced practice, scientific knowledge, and experience on ESB, especially in the international field.