The International Code of Area Nomenclature (ICAN) was proposed by a group of few biogeographers to provide a universal naming system or
nomenclature
Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally ag ...
for areas of
endemism
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...
used in contemporary
biogeography. There are other proposals to palaeobiogeographic areas. The ICAN also serves as the
international standard rules for proposing and using "area of endemism" names.
The ICAN was ratified by the
Systematic and Evolutionary Biogeographical Association (SEBA) in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
in the only meeting of the group, during July 2007. This community was created and maintained by the same group of biogeographers that proposed the ICAN.
There is little agreement on the use of different methods and systems of nomenclature in Biogeography, and this proposal represents one of the various kinds of study in this science.
References
External links
ICAN Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:International Code Of Area Nomenclature (Ican)
Biogeography
Scientific nomenclature