Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts
These collaborations were invaluable not solely in terms of being “above board” and respecting the local jurisdictions (and supporting those local authorities in their biodiversity protection efforts) but also by connecting us with local resources and expertise. We were then able to provide back to the local institutions in terms of expertise (we performed an inventory of a park that they were specifically interested in knowing more about, trained local scientists in the field, and provided a set of our collections to the local herbarium), and in terms of facilitating the professional development of local scientists, two of whom were coauthors on a paper resulting from this fieldwork: Chen, C.-W., Rothfels, C. J., Mustapeng, A. M. A., Gubilil,
M., Karger, D. N., Kessler, M., & Huang, Y.-M. (2017).
End of an enigma: Aenigmopteris belongs in Tectaria (Tectariaceae: Polypodiopsida). Journal of Plant Research.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-017-0966-9
Experiences Drafting Prior Informed Consent and Mutually Agreed Terms (Benefit Sharing)
We worked closely with local collaborators, both in securing the permits and in the fieldwork itself.