Species 2000 is a "federation" of database organisations working closely with users, taxonomists and sponsoring agencies.

Memorandum and Articles of Association of Species 2000, 11 December 1997

The goal of the Species 2000 project is to create a validated checklist of all the world's species (plants, animals, fungi and microbes).  This is being achieved by bringing together an array of global species databases covering each of the major groups of organisms.

Each database covers all known species in the group, using a consistent taxonomic system.  The participating databases are widely distributed throughout the world and currently number 52.  The existing global species databases presently account for some 60% of the total known species, so substantial investment in new databases will be needed for full coverage of all taxa to be achieved. 

The programme in partnership with the Integrated Taxonomic Information system (ITIS) of North America currently produces the Catalogue of Life.  This is used by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and Encyclopedia of Life (EoL) as the taxonomic backbone to their web portals.