Short notes and reviews Zoological nomenclature – reflections on the recent past and ideas for our future agenda

A couple of weeks after the start of my service as President of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, a paper of mine appeared in the Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature (Minelli, 1995) in which I outlined some major challenges to be faced by biological nomenclature in response to the changing paradigms of biological systematics. Now, with the approaching end of my six-year term as President, I wish to look in retrospect at the recent history of the Commission, briefly touching on successes and failures alike, and to outline what 1 now see, from the vantage point of my experience, as further challenges and responsibilities awaiting us; by “us” I mean not merely the Commission but all those active in the field of zoological (or biological) taxonomy. The main message I will try to convey in this open letter is that a major effort is necessary in order to better integrate the Commission’s work into the daily practice of taxonomists world-wide (and also, in a sense, vice versa).