Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) runs the International Barcode of Life project, a collaborative effort which aims to use DNA barcoding to generate a unique genetic barcode for every species of life on earth. The iBOL calls its online, open-access database of every single living thing on earth the "largest biodiversity genomics initiative ever undertaken".
The science behind the Consortium's initiative has met with considerable controversy, with responses ranging from enthusiastic endorsement to strident rejection. The extent to which barcoding can complement existing taxonomic methods in cataloguing the planet's biodiversity is debated. Tracking animal products to enforce laws regarding selling and trade of certain species has however been a compelling argument. In effect, the value of the project to law enforcement justifies it whether or not is is ever of value to science.
Advocates argue that [1] barcoding the DNA of animals across the globe could protect them from illegal poaching or over-hunting. The International Barcode of Life project, by assigning a barcode to each individual species' unique DNA, lets anyone with a special scanner read it to know exactly what species they're dealing with. For instance, in a fish-mongers' stall one could watch what food vs. endangered species were being caught and sold. Or a wild animal quickly identified to help to determine the distribution of an endangered species
Over 87,000 species have been barcoded already in over 25 countries. By the end of the first phase in 2015, over half a million species will be part of the Barcode of Life Data System.
On September 14, 2007, a team of scientists (50 countries) initiated a global database project for Earth's 1.8 million known species (from tiny genetic material). David Schindel, a Smithsonian Institution paleontologist, executive secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life stated that it will create a global reference library: "a kind of telephone directory for all species." 30,000 species had been put in the database to reach 500,000, 5 years. The consortium is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History. The 2003 research paper of geneticist Paul Hebert of University of Guelph, Ontario proposed a database of DNA barcodes identifying all species.[1]