The importance of this phenomenon was recognized by the Convention on Biological Diversity, signed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit,[1] and initiatives have occurred that have not yet solved the problem.
Against formidable odds and with minimal funding, equipment, infrastructure, organization and encouragement, taxonomists have discovered, described, and classified nearly 1.8 million species.
While increasing attention is being paid to making this substantial amount of accumulated taxonomic information more easily accessible, comparatively little attention has been paid to opening access to the research resources required by taxonomists themselves.
"[4] It was not until the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP 2) meeting in Jakarta in 1995 that the term "taxonomic impediment" was first used in the modern sense, referring explicitly to a shortage of taxonomists and lack of support for their research,[4] and subsequently first formally published in the broader scientific literature in 1996.
It is argued that some initiatives that aim to bypass the bottleneck of insufficient taxonomic expertise continue to draw funds away from solving the fundamental problem.