Documents and Guidelines

CHAH and the Managers of Australasian Herbarium Collections (MAHC) have developed a series of resources and guidelines for the safe management and best practice within herbarium collections. These templates and guidelines are freely available for use and modification by the Herbarium Collections Community.

Guidelines and templates for Australasian Herbaria

General Information

Quarantine and Biosecurity restrictions apply for herbarium material sent to Australia. Please contact the institution before sending any material to receive the current biosecurity guidelines and Declaration and Parcel Label templates. Please also refer to BICON https://bicon.agriculture.gov.au/BiconWeb4.0 for import requirements (e.g., search for ‘herbarium specimens’).

Export or import of Australian native and CITES taxa: Scientific exchange of all CITES listed taxa from and to Australian institutions requires both the Australian and overseas scientific organisation to be CITES registered. Scientific exchange of any Australian native species not listed under CITES requires both import and export institutions to be either CITES-registered or registered with the Australian Government Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water as part of the Australian Scientific Exchange Program (loan, donation or exchange) for herbarium specimens or samples. For further details visit the following link: https://www.dcceew.gov.au/environment/wildlife-trade/non-commercial/research

Researchers intending to visit Australia to collect flora/wildlife should ensure they have the appropriate documented permissions to take and export specimens or samples.

Please note: the following documents are working documents provided freely to the Herbarium Collections Community and are updated as needed.

Herbarium Guidelines