The verb tense that describes an action that started in the past and continues up to the present is the <u>"Present Perfect".</u>
The present perfect is formed by the verb "have/has" and the past participle of a verb. In this case, the present perfect verb is <u>"has collected"</u>.
With the present perfect tense we use for or since in order to focus on the duration of the action. In this example, we use the phrase "for several years".
