1 Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and

1 Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data William Ulate Rodríguez Biodiversity Informatics Unit Campinas, 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

2 Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Costa Rica Today Evolution of key indicators from the 2000 UNDP Human Development Report INDICATOR UNIT 1940 1960 1980 2000 UNDP Human Development Index Coefficient N. D. 0, 55 0, 71 Population 1. 000 656 1, 199 2, 276 3, 943 Poor Homes % N. D. 50 19 21 Life expectancy Years 46, 9 62, 5 72, 6 77, 4 Child Mortality 1. 000 123 68 19 10, 2 % 73 84 90 95 1990 US$ 0, 702 1, 08 2, 022 4, 028 Literacy Per capita PIB 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Costa Rica Today National Income for some of the Main Products 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 3

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data 4 What is INBio? National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica l Non-governmental non-profit organization l Declared of public interest l Created in 1989 l Strategic alliance with SINAC l www. inbio. ac. cr 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Mission “To promote a greater level of awareness of the value of biodiversity, as means to ensure its conservation and improve the quality of life of human beings. ” 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 5

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data SINAC National Conservation Areas System l Collections from Protected Areas l Partnership alliance l Information needs l Capacity building l Parataxonomists 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 6

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Categories l l Digitalization Access and Interoperability Electronic Catalog of Names Outreach and Capacity Building 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 7

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Digitalization Information on four levels: 1. Specimens 2. Species 3. Ecosystems 4. Genes 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 8

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Digitalization 1. Information on specimens GBIF as a first step. Resources vs. workload. Growing trust. 2. Information on species. Beyond basic collection information. Standards and Protocols 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 9

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Digitalization 3. Information on ecosystems UNESCO’s classification EML (CI’s TEAM) 4. Information on genes A few years ago, Genomics’ goals viability was considered almost unreachable and could be easily underestimated… 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 10

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Categories l l Digitalization Access and Interoperability Electronic Catalog of Names Outreach and Capacity Building 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 11

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Access and Interoperability Global and Thematic Networks Using XML, Web services, SOAP, Di. GIR More data structured & accessible – ABCD (Access to Biological Collection Data) Schema – TDWG’s SDD (Structure Descriptive Data) subgroup Semantic Web (ontology) – Plant Ontology Consortium (POC) – Inga bella 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 12

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Categories l l Digitalization Access and Interoperability Electronic Catalog of Names Outreach and Capacity Building 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 13

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Electronic Catalogue of Names Global Taxonomical Impediment Several taxonomical hierarchies – Species 2000, ITIS, Nomencurator Morphological and molecular taxonomy To develop in situ conservation actions we understand it might not be necessary to know all biodiversity that is being protected, but we might need to know it to assure we are being successful. 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 14

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Categories l l Digitalization Access and Interoperability Electronic Catalog of Names Outreach and Capacity Building 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 15

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data 16 Outreach and Capacity Building Mutual Trust among stakeholders How to take that information to decisionmakers hands at the right time? Being there Are initiatives really generating information for end-user needs? Needs defined by end-users come out either too specific or too ambiguously (don’t know/anything) 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data 17 Outreach and Capacity Building l Technology should help by. . . – Accelerating the publishing process – Bringing feedback on the access to information providers – Granting access to scientifically validated information l Impact on conservation might be a relevant reward to information providers and the means to get to the users’ real needs. 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

18 Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Atta Effective queries to Atta’s dynamic Web-reports during the first 16 months of operation between May 2001 and Oct. 2002 Total external queries: Total Countries: 1. U. S. A. (3443) 11. Venezuela (50) 21. 2. C. R. (2864) 12. Japan (49) 22. 3. Spain (294) 13. Belgium (46) 23. 4. Mexico (289) 14. Argentina (39) 24. 5. Colombia(100) 15. Netherlands(37) 25. 6. Canada (92) 16. U. K. (34) 26. 7. Germany (85) 17. El Salvador (28) 27. 8. Guatemala(80) 18. Sweden (21) 28. 9. Brazil (62) 19. Austria (16) 29. 10. Peru (62) 20. Chile (15) 30. 3 -6 March, 2004 7. 9 thousand 40 countries (54% from America) Australia (14) Ecuador (13) Nicaragua (12) Russia (12) France (11) Puerto Rico (11) (10) Korea (8) Switzerland (8) Honduras (7) Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 31. Italy (7) 32. Norway (7) 33. Panama (5) 34. Portugal (5) 35. Israel (4) 36. Bolivia (3) 37. Cuba (2) 38. S. Africa (2) 39. Malasia (1) 40. Ucrania (1)

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Atta Effective queries to Atta’s dynamic Web-reports during the first 16 months of operation between May 2001 and Oct. 2002 Most wanted: 1. Plants 2. Insects 3. Mollusks 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 19

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Atta (Querying statistics from May 2001 to Oct. 2002) Very different types of Institutions (367): – Academic Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin Universite Catholique de Louvain – Museums Australian Museum – Conservation institution The Nature Conservancy – International Cooperation Commission of the European Communities – Agricultural Research U. S. Department of Agriculture and Agrifood Canada – Pharmaceutical Numico Research (The Netherlands) – Internet Service Providers Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co. , Inc Jaring (Malasya) Andinatel S. A. (Ecuador) 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 20

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Biodiversity Information Challenges 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 21

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Biodiversity Information Challenges l Mutual Trust l Intellectual property rights. l Scientific culture: won’t share until published l ITC capacity and network culture l Communications infrastructure l Lack of standards on information quality l Doubts in quality or difficult to verify 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 22

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Biodiversity Information Issues 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 23

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Biodiversity Information Issues 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 24

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Biodiversity Information Challenges We need: – scientifically validated, – relevant, – representative, – up-to-date, – multiple scales, – accesible information. 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 25

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data Biodiversity Information Challenges l Friendly tools that generate reports for decision-making (politicians, policymakers, resource managers, etc. ) l Capacity building at individual, institutional and country levels l Relevance in conservation and sustainable development. 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 26

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data 27 Biodiversity Information Challenges We are betting that sharing public information will bring more knowledge and we expect to increase know-how in return to share it again. 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data THANK YOU 3 -6 March, 2004 Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data 28