Scientific collections at risk: political threats to Latin America’s biological memoryScientific collections are the silent heart of biodiversity research. They hold specimens, decades of accumulated knowledge, data on the natural history of ecosystems, and irreplaceable records for understanding environmental change, disease distribution, taxonomy, and species conservation (Rocha et al. 2014). They are central to knowledge production, scientific sovereignty, and biodiversity preservation. Yet worldwide, these institutions face growing threats — the gravest not from fires, pests, or humidity, but politics. What was once occasional neglect has become a systematic, global political offensive against science, targeting both the material infrastructure of collections and the social value of scientific knowledge.
In the United States, the return of Donald Trump’s administration has triggered direct attacks on research universities. Harvard saw billions in federal contracts and grants frozen under claims of “ideological bias” and “mission drift” (Conroy 2025, Robertson 2025). Research in strategic fields such as genetics, public health, and applied physics was abruptly halted. The NSF and NIH suffered severe cuts, stalling hundreds of projects. Institutions like the Wyss Institute had organ-chip research suspended, undermining biotechnology and precision medicine. In August 2025, the US government announced measures to eliminate “improper, divisive or anti-American ideology,” cutting funding to Smithsonian museums and ordering a broad content review across the institution (Andrews et al. 2025). The impact extends globally: international research networks lose funding, scientists migrate, and collections tied to collaborations are abandoned or outdated.
Latin America faces similar patterns under extreme-right governments, often with local aggravating factors. In Brazil, under Jair Bolsonaro, scientific denialism and the deliberate dismantling of public research institutions placed hundreds of collections at physical and institutional risk. Lack of dedicated funding, declining human resources, and absence of public policies left zoological, botanical, microbiological, and archaeological collections in decay (Brunet & Lamas 2021).
In Argentina, Javier Milei’s government dissolved the Ministry of Science and Technology, cut scholarships, and vilified the national science system. Once-leading collections now operate in survival mode, with scientists warning of irreversible biodiversity losses (Fernández et al. 2024). In Venezuela, political and economic collapse has left collections in critical condition. Infrastructure However, political threats may come from many different political ideologies. In Venezuela, political and economic collapse, exacerbated by international embargo, has left collections in critical condition. Infrastructure loss, the exodus of scientists, and shortages of electricity and supplies have compromised specimen preservation and dismantled research networks (González et al. 2020).
These are not isolated cases but part of a regional dismantling pattern. Without collections, there is no solid basis for ecological studies, science education, conservation policies, or disease surveillance (Suarez & Tsutsui 2004). Some scholars call this calculated destruction of knowledge systems scientificide (Liaudat & Bilmes 2024).
Under far-right governments, scientific collections are no longer treated as public heritage but as obstacles to political agendas rooted in ideological control, disinformation, and the erasure of collective memory. The systematic defunding and delegitimization of science undermine environmental, health, and social crisis responses, and weaken democracy itself.
Defending collections is defending science, democracy, and environmental sovereignty. Stable funding, infrastructure, and protection are essential, alongside active resistance to scientific denialism. Without them, a nation loses not only its biological memory but also the ability to understand itself.
References
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