The destruction of most of the zoological collection of the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil, by a fire on 15 May, will affect zoology worldwide (see Nature 465, 272; 2010). Safeguarding and financing such important collections, including those housed in facilities in developing countries, should be an international concern.

More than 80,000 preserved snakes and 500,000 arthropods were lost. Holdings included undescribed species, holotypes used to name species, testimony specimens and extinct animals, all gathered over the past 100 years, plus materials on loan from other institutions.

Institutions that house collections from around the world need to help guarantee the security of other valuable collections by decentralizing national taxonomic records, while maintaining respect for national autonomy. Supporting the creation of small local collections to provide regional records of the biota would generate information on a wider range of specimens. Such a triple-redundancy system across international, national and regional collections would protect all this important information effectively.

The swift publication of knowledge relating to precious taxonomic collections remains a top priority.