Present efforts to survey the fauna of lowland tropical South America, especially the Amazon Basin, are woefully inadequate, even though it is now commonly accepted that moist tropical forests are the heart of animal biodiversity. The conservation and management of faunal diversity requires that key groups be well-understood taxonomically and zoogeographically, but even the best-collected animal groups (birds and primates) do not present a sufficiently high collection density for the necessary analyses. Effects on the fauna stemming from economic activities or human occupation of the Amazon Basin are more a matter of conjecture than of documented experience. Few researchers are presently involved in faunal surveys of the Amazon, and those based in the Amazon are out-matched by the high species richness of the area and poor collections and libraries available to them. Although field workers and collectors are needed in the field, access to natural history museums and research libraries in the First World is also necessary for them to work effectively. What is needed now is a mobilization of collectors, field biologists, taxonomists, and zoogeographers, to generate the information needed for biodiversity conservation. Mass collecting of animals, especially key groups of invertebrates, computerization of new and existing museum collections, publication of taxonomic and faunal revisions and catalogs, computerized bibliographic and data bases, and international cooperation among researchers and their institutions are needed if an Amazon faunal survey is to provide timely information for the biological conservation, management and sustainable utilization of animal biodiversity. The training of zoologists and animal taxonomists in Third World countries is much below desirable levels. Human, institutional, and material resources currently available for faunal studies in the Amazon are insufficient, and the required investments will require international cooperation. The training of collectors and "parataxonomists" is, likewise, a necessity. The high biodiversity countries of South America must invest in training professionals and in support for research institutes, museums of natural history, and universities. In real terms, research in biodiversity has a much higher possibility of contributing to the well being of theses countries than "high-tech" areas.
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