Mission
The mission of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) is to explore and develop the potential of DNA barcoding for research as a practical tool for species identification. CBOL works through bottom-up projects and top-down initiatives.

Strategy
The CBOL Secretariat will pursue its mission by identifying and catalyzing international partnerships among the following stakeholders in barcoding:

• The Taxonomic Community: Natural history museums, herbaria, zoos, aquaria, and universities, and the taxonomists that work therein;
  


• The User Community: Governmental and intergovernmental agencies, conservation organizations and other NGOs, private sector companies, and other organizations that use taxonomic information in pursuit of their applied missions;
  


• The Service Community: Research organizations and private sector companies in the areas of genetics, bioinformatics, and biotechnology that can provide services to barcoding projects and the Barcode Initiative; and
  


• The Funding Community: Public and private foundations, governmental and intergovernmental agencies and other organizations that support basic and applied research.

The CBOL Secretariat will pursue its mission through the following goals for 2007.