This work had its origins in three earlier UK Darwin Initiative projects, Fungi of Ukraine (1993-1996), Fungi of the Caribbean (1997-2000) and Biodiversity Information in the former Soviet Union (1999-2002). These all shared an objective of computerizing fungal records, two concentrating on Cyrillic alphabet records. Two subsequent UK Darwin Initiative projects, Biodiversity Conservation in Cuba (2001-2004) and Recovering Ukraine's Lost Steppe (2002-2005) have continued the work. Among other outputs, those Darwin Initiative projects resulted in many thousands of computerized bibliographic records of mycological literature, a first tranche of which is being made available now. Much of that literature underpins the mycological websites dealing with Electronic Distribution Maps of Caribbean Fungi, Electronic Distribution Maps of Georgian Fungi, Electronic Distribution Maps of Ukrainian Fungi, Lists of Potentially Rare, Endangered or Under-recorded Fungi in Ukraine and Maps Showing Recording Coverage in Ukraine of Higher Fungal Ranks.

The Darwin Initiative