Dear ALL Advisors and Science Board,

Starting December 1, the ALL Species Foundation will close its San Francisco office because of a lack of funding for the Foundation. However, both the Foundation and its foundational idea will continue.

Let me start with the idea. The notion of ALL Species is to discover and describe all living organisms on earth within one human generation, and to make this information available to everyone everywhere. That grand vision can't happen if the idea is ALL Species Foundation's alone, and thankfully it isn't. Later in this memo I will mention the other places where the ALL concept has taken root. The idea is in wider circulation today than it was 2 years ago. Indeed, everyone on this list has been involved in conveying the idea as widely as possible. In that respect, ALL has been successful so far. There is no retreat on the concept.

Two years ago we launched the ALL Species Foundation as a 25-year project. We had relatively modest hopes for the first 2 years. We spent that time engaging the science community to fashion a coordinated and mutually agreed proposal to achieve the goal. We have put a lot of our energy in creating alliances, seeking out all players, contacting previous and concurrent projects, creating new joint projects, and setting up a nimble organization that represents the community. In that respect I think we have been successful.

Although we've had less success in raising private funding, we are still engaged in that, and will always be engaged in it. Private philanthropy is a very personal process. Results from this approach bloom slowly. But its lack right now is the reason we are forced to de-staff our San Francisco office.

Let me explain what that means for the ALL Species Foundation. On December 1, we will vacate the Presidio office. Staff (except one; see below) will be given severance. Ryan will step down as CEO and resume her position on the Governing Board. We will keep this list-serve going, as well as a minimal web presence. Phones and mail will funnel through the one staff member with part-time duty for ALL Species Foundation.

In this transition the ALL Species Science Board will become an essential core for the mission. Terry Erwin has been wonderful as our Science Board Chair, and has dedicated much of his valuable time to representing ALL Species with Ryan at many meetings, particularly those in Washington DC. Because of the demands of his off-line field work and because he is focusing on developing protocols for a rapid all-taxon inventory, David Hillis will rotate into the Chair of the Science Board. David, who is also on the ALL Governing Board (bios are on our website) will be harnessing the latent power of this remarkable group of scientists in new ways.

It is a pity and paradox, that at the moment we must close our office, we have an ever-expanding set of initiatives that are active and in-progress. Examples of the kind of decentralized work which ALL will continue doing with its extensive networks of advisors are listed here:

1. Build Awareness for Discovery/Inventory
The ALL Species Governing and Science Boards, ALL Advisor Network, and strategic partners will continue to promote the need for discovery and the value of inventory, and to seek funding for these efforts.

2. Global Discovery Initiative
Spearheaded by Jeffrey Sachs at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, an ALL Species Global Discovery Initiative will be launched in 2003. It will attempt to raise significant international funding for inventory and building capacity through GEF, OECD and the World Bank.

3. E-Type /E-Description Initiative
Digitization efforts for E-Types (primary type specimens) and E-Descriptions (original species descriptions) continue. Founding Sponsorships (with fees ranging from $2,500 to $25,000) have been committed on a two-year basis by the California Academy of Sciences, the Field Museum, the Missouri Botanical Garden, and the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. Fees will cover costs for one full-time employee, who will be housed at the California Academy of Sciences and who will be responsible for this Initiative. That person, Julia Berger, Director of Special Projects for ALL Species will focus approximately 80% of her time on the E-type Initiative and 20% on promoting the value of inventory and the need for discovery. From time to time she may be calling on our Advisors to assist with speaking engagements, or to talk with the media.

4. Planetary Biodiversity Inventories
The Governing Board of Directors will assist in generating funds for the PBI, a new $14 Million NSF/ALL/Sloan program for 2 - 5 global inventories. ALL Species is committed to raise $2M over the next four years, and to provide scientific input for this joint initiative.

5. Rapid All-Species Inventories
Co-develop with Conservation International (CI) a rapid (12-month) All-Species Inventory initially scheduled for Spring 2003 in Los Amigos, Peru. As in-kind contribution, CI is providing staff resources and logistical support from their Washington DC office. Piotr Naskrecki from CI has been appointed as an ALL Species liaison. Terry Erwin, at the Smithsonian is working on the inventory protocol.

Ryan Phelan may post further details about these continuing initiatives in a later message.

How can you, as an ALL advisor, help?

The single thing that would increase our ability to bring funds, attention, and leverage to the idea of an all-species inventory would be a scientifically compelling argument for this goal, one that would persuade funders and the public of the urgency and importance of the vision. I see this as essential. I am imagining a peer-reviewed scientific and economic case for large-scale inventories. Right now we have a hunch, we feel a moral obligation, but we do not have published scientific position papers on why and how to do global taxonomic surveys.

I am hoping that the ALL Species Science Board with the help of ALL advisors can make this scientific case happen. Without it, we will have great difficulty persuading politicians, we will have great difficulty persuading funders, and we will have great difficulty convincing the public. The Governing Board has charge David Hillis with the task of soliciting, or commissioning, or initiating such documents. I hope you will give us your expertise and time.

My hope for ALL Species in the coming few years is simple. Right now the climate for philanthropy could not be worse, but in a few years it could be better, if not wonderful. I am hoping that the Science Board can help to prepare us for that day when funding opportunities return. It can do that in two ways:

1) To be ready with a set of white papers detailing the economic and social benefits of a global inventory of biodiversity.

2) To help cast the myth of All Species Inventory into all smaller inventory efforts. Every expedition, every field excursion, every survey - no matter how small or local - is actually a part of the All Species Inventory, and it is my belief that if we can disperse that message, that it will directly benefit the doers. Who would not prefer to take a small step on a mythic journey, rather than a small step in a stroll across the street?

To that end, our mission remains unaltered:

To discover and describe all living organisms on earth, within one human generation, and to make this information available to everyone everywhere.

P.S. I would like to extend a very public thank you to Ryan for the heroic work she has done in the past year as CEO. She has advanced the agenda of ALL greatly and brokered valuable alliances with few resources while working round the clock without pay since August. Her staff (now in its last weeks) of Hugo Llamas, David Thau, Julia Berger, Deborah McDaniels, and Danica Remy have accomplished amazing things in a short time and deserve a round of applause and praise. Thank you all.