[Note: This working draft was prepared in March 1997 by Robin O'Malley,
U.S. Department of the Interior, with input from a wide range of interested
parties, to provide a basis for discussion among those interested in the Inter-American
Biodiversity Information Network.]
Summary
Biological information is necessary for sound decisionmaking about the use, conservation, and study of natural resources. Much information exists concerning the extent and condition of biological diversity across the Americas, but locating, identifying, and gaining access to that information is often difficult. Difficulties arise despite significant efforts to make information available over the internet -- some information is not yet available or has not been converted to electronic format; there are inconsistencies in how information is described when it is made available, and in the use of biological terms such as species and natural community names; and access to information technology is inconsistent, both between countries and among different sectors in individual countries.
The Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) is an initiative of the countries of the Americas. Its purpose is to "promote compatible means of collection, communication, and exchange of information." IABIN members can achieve this goal if they take action to
Charge to Create an Inter-American Network
In December 1996, leaders of the governments of the Americas, meeting at the Santa Cruz (Bolivia) Summit on Sustainable Development, agreed to:
Information about biodiversity is gathered and maintained by a large number of public and private institutions throughout the Americas. Scientists, managers in public and private agencies, and the public must have access to this information, and to tools that help locate, analyze, combine, and manipulate it, in order to improve the quality of decisionmaking and the quality of life. In addition, the value of any specific piece of information is often increased when it can be combined with information from other sources.
Distributed or Centralized?
Reliance upon those who collect or maintain information about biological diversity as "stewards" of those information resources is fundamental. These individuals and institutions know best both the biological resources, and the nature, quality, and condition of the resulting information, and are most likely to maintain the data appropriately.
Such distributed stewards are the fundamental building block of a powerful biodiversity information network. To complement this highly disaggregated approach, it is important for institutions or individuals to assist in organizing information along thematic or geographical lines. These efforts make it much easier for users to find and use data.
Thus, the preferred model for effective sharing of the best information is one that relies upon distributed stewards and a system of thematic or regional clearinghouses, directories, or pointer systems.
Focus of the Network
Theme 1: Basic Agreement on Terminology and Standards
Effective sharing of information is greatly enhanced by common understanding regarding terms, nomenclature, and operating standards. Many individuals and institutions collect or provide access to information about specific biodiversity components. Achieving some level of consistency with respect to common terminology and operating approaches will greatly increase the degree to which these systems can communicate with each other, users can find the information they need, and data can be combined and aggregated where appropriate. Issues include technical standards by which information is described, formatted, and transmitted, as well as issues involving pricing, protection, and use of data. For example, use of common standards for describing data sets (metadata) makes it much easier for outside users to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and agreement on common references such as lists of species names allows data collected at different locations to be readily compared.
Part Two of this document includes several proposed IABIN actions under this theme.
Theme 2: Increasing Data Availability and Compatibility
There is an enormous amount of information being collected in the Americas. Increasing access to this information -- and thus increasing its value, the scope of its use, and the ability to aggregate it with other data -- is a key goal of IABIN. Identifying information that is currently not being collected, but would be valuable to biodiversity decisionmakers or scientists, is also a key objective of IABIN.
However, increasing access to information or identifying and filling gaps will require significant investments of time, money, and other resources. Effective investment by nations and external funding agencies requires establishing priorities among a wide range of information types that could be gathered or served.
Part Two of this document contains both a proposed approach to setting priorities for IABIN focus, and several proposed IABIN actions under this theme.
Theme 3: Technical Infrastructure for Sharing Information
Access to computers and the Internet is far from universal. While addressing this need is not unique to the biodiversity information arena, it is important to ensure that the needs of those managing biodiversity and those managing information about biodiversity are assessed and these needs made known. This information can be of use both to those concerned with overall information and telecommunications infrastructure, and by those in a position to finance information projects that support biodiversity conservation and management.
Part Two of this document includes several proposed IABIN actions under this theme.
Theme 4: Working with Others
Coordination is critical to the success of IABIN, or any network effort. Existing institutions are already undertaking significant efforts to collect and provide access to information. IABIN's activities should not duplicate these efforts, but rather should strengthen, link, complement, and enhance these efforts.
The primary means for ensuring the appropriate role for IABIN is broad consultation with and involvement of the entities currently engaged in this work. Planning for IABIN should involve a wide range of governmental and nongovernmental entities.
Part Three of this document contains proposals for implementation of
IABIN that are consistent with this approach. The Appendix contains a brief
listing of possible partners or related efforts, with whom IABIN should
link.
THEME 1: BASIC AGREEMENT ON TERMINOLOGY AND STANDARDS
Describing and Searching for Information
Describing Information: In order for users to find the information they need, that information has to be labeled or described so it can easily be found and recognized. The basic labeling of information served in the internet -- descriptions of what the data is, what area or biological component it describes, how and when it was collected, what accuracy standards apply, etc. -- is called metadata.
The U.S. government has established metadata standards for documenting both geospatial and biological data sets so that they can be located, compared, and reviewed in a consistent way. U.S. Federal government agencies are required to document their geospatial data holdings using this standard, and there are plans to expand this requirement to include biological metadata as well. The geospatial standard is now being refined through the International Standards Organization process, and the biological metadata standard was reviewed favorably by a committee of the American Institute for Biological Sciences (AIBS).
Searching for Information: These efforts are made even more powerful when combined with standard approaches to formatting internet-based searches. For example, an agreement was reached in December 1996 among the G-7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States, along with the European Commission) to adopt a standard that specifies how electronic network searches should be expressed, and how results are returned. This standard, referred to as ISO 10163 (and ANSI Z39.50 in the US) is adaptable to all languages and supports both full text and complex bibliographic searching. No central authority or master index is required; the standard is designed with a fully distributed system in mind.
Widespread use of standard metadata and search formats enables both distributed searches and the maintenance of thematic or regional clearinghouse efforts. If an item is clearly labeled, and if its label (e.g. metadata) is designed with the search format in mind, it is much easier to find, and once found, to know whether the information is useful.
Clearinghouses: Comprehensive information on existing biodiversity-related data holdings is generally not available for the hemisphere. Individual countries and some international efforts are in various stages of developing this type of catalog information (metadata) on data holdings (i.e., what sources exist, what the data contents are, where they are, how they can be accessed, etc.) Examples of efforts underway include the US National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) and National Biological Information Infrastructure clearinghouse efforts, CONABIO (Mexico) or the Clearinghouse Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Developing this type of information on a comprehensive basis is a major, ongoing commitment. Without more comprehensive information on existing data holdings and the extent to which these data can be accessed and used, it is difficult to both to find information and to make well-founded decisions about where to focus future investments in a) collection of new data to fill in the significant "gaps" in our collective knowledge and b) increasing (electronic) access to existing data sources; for example, computerizing information that is currently only available in non-computerized form.
The challenge to IABIN in this area is to help encourage and build on existing "clearinghouse" efforts and activities at the national and international levels, with the objective of helping to foster a distributed "virtual" hemispheric clearinghouse which could begin to provide a more inclusive view of the biodiversity-related data sources that exist. This approach would not develop any new or duplicative "IABIN clearinghouse," but would link existing clearinghouses. Such clearinghouses would be organized around geographic areas -- such as the US or Mexican efforts, or around specific biodiversity themes -- birds, amphibians, etc.
Possible IABIN Actions: IABIN could:
One of the major difficulties involved in the collection, exchange, and use of biological information is the lack of ready access to standardized information on species names. Thus, the same species may be referred to under different names in different databases. Without access to a scientifically credible, standardized reference system or "authority file" on species names, it is difficult and costly, if not impossible, to compare, combine, and exchange species-related information among different distributed systems. The verification and tracking of species names that is required to develop this type of standardized authority is a highly resource-intensive enterprise that individual agencies or institutions have not been able to support.
Efforts are underway to develop and provide electronic access to standardized information on individual taxonomic groups, and to develop multi-taxa systems with a national, regional, or international scope. Several US Federal agencies have developed the Interagency Taxonomic Information System (ITIS) to make standardized information on accepted scientific names and synonyms, common names, etc. on plants and animals accessible over the Internet. ITIS' focus is primarily on US species, but it includes worldwide coverage for some taxonomic groups. (See: http://www.itis.usda.gov/itis/). ITIS is also collaborating with Species 2000, which has a worldwide focus; the goal is for ITIS to provide data for Species 2000 on some groups and vice versa.
ITIS also includes a PC-based "taxonomic workbench" that lets experts certify their own data against the ITIS standards, and allows quality-controlled data entry and update into ITIS on a distributed basis. Software tools are also needed to enable interface and linking of"authority file" systems and other databases. The objective would be to allow for rapid, "on-the-fly" conversion of synonymous species names in different systems, allowing comparison or merger of data from multiple sources.
It is important to note that given current technology, there is no need to have one centralized database that included all standardized species names for the hemisphere.
Possible IABIN Actions: IABIN could:
THEME 2: INCREASING DATA AVAILABILITY AND COMPATIBILITY
How Should IABIN Establish Priorities?
IABIN is an initiative involving all the nations of the Americas. Its actions, therefore, should reflect priorities that are shared by many or most of its partners. In the paragraphs that follow, two rationales for establishing priorities under IABIN are described, both of which flow from the hemispheric scale at which IABIN is organized. Both should be used in establishing a range of priorities for IABIN action.
IABIN should identify information needs that are shared by a wide range of IABIN partners. This might lead IABIN to focus attention on biological resources that are shared by many nations; e.g. migratory birds or fish, and/or information needed by many nations; e.g. basic vegetation, land cover, soils, and related data; access to museum collections information; information on taxonomic expertise.
IABIN should address coordination of information collection and management activities that are common to a wide range of IABIN partners. This principle might lead IABIN to focus on ensuring the comparability and compatibility of activities being undertaken at the national level by many nations; e.g. reporting and planning such as is contemplated by the Convention on Biological Diversity and initiatives, such as MABNet Americas, in which it would be beneficial to expand and extend an activity now undertaken in one or a few areas.
Several areas for possible IABIN focus are described below.
Taxonomic Expertise Directory
Taxonomists and systematists are a fundamental element of any biodiversity information network. However, taxonomists are located in widely distributed academic, government, and private institutions, and finding appropriate experts is difficult. The possibility clearly exists for establishing broad electronic expertise directories, building upon existing efforts such as those described below.
The USGS Biological Resources Division and the Association of Systematics Collections have initiated development of a taxonomic expertise directory ("Taxonomic Resources Expertise Directory" or TRED). The effort involves both software development for the creation, maintenance, and updating of a directory, and initial population of the directory.
In addition, the World Conservation Union (IUCN) serves as coordinator for the Species Survival Commission, a network of 7000 volunteer member scientists, field researchers, government officials and conservation leaders from 179 countries. SSC members provide technical and scientific counsel for biodiversity conservation projects throughout the world and serve as resources to governments, international conventions and conservation organizations. The SSC works primarily through its 110 Specialist Groups.
Possible IABIN Actions: IABIN could:
There are a range of sources of land cover information for the western hemisphere. In the US, both Federal agencies and academic centers are developing 1 kilometer land cover maps for the entire western hemisphere; a consortium of US agencies is collaborating preparing a 30 meter land cover map for the entire US. There are several Canadian agencies that produce land cover maps, including a nationwide Canadian map. The Autonomous University of Mexico City is active in land cover research and produces land cover data. Most of these efforts rely upon advanced very high resolution radiometer (AVHRR) or thematic mapper (TM) data.
There are many schemes for the classification of land cover data for
mapping. It is important to have collaboration between mapping agencies
of contiguous countries, so that regional, and eventually, hemispheric
LC data sets can be composed, based on harmonized classification schemes.
Possible IABIN Actions: IABIN could:
There is substantial practical utility to sharing information regarding biodiversity status and trends of parks and protected areas as well as management experience and approaches to involving and interacting with local residents. Sharing such information and experience throughout the Americas would provide an information resource of importance to scientists as well as managers.
The MABNet Americas program (see appendix) is focused on the existing network of 101 Biosphere Reserves in 17 countries of the Americas. MABNet Americas has focused to date on gathering, sharing, and standardizing biodiversity information. Activities have included development and dissemination of software, as well as training of managers and scientists.
The utility of this effort could be increased through expansion of the network of sites both to include all existing Biosphere Reserves as well as other parks and protected areas. In addition, it might be useful to explore development of mechanisms that are appropriate for sharing information other than is currently addressed by existing MAB software, particularly concerning management experiences, socio-economic information, cultural perspectives, etc.
Possible IABIN Actions: IABIN could:
THEME 3: TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE FOR SHARING INFORMATION
The technical resources to access, analyze, and display biodiversity information is far from universal throughout the Americas. Internet access is limited in many countries. Telecommunications infrastructure is at times unreliable. Access to computers capable of managing digital images -- and thus making use of the world wide web -- is not universal.
Assessing the level of technological infrastructure available to various sectors (academic, government, private nongovernment) concerned with the management of biodiversity and biodiversity information is an important first step. There are two arenas in which such assessments might be useful. First, they would form the basis for informed investments, at the national, bilateral or multilateral level, in biodiversity information management. Second, they could also be incorporated in assessments of overall technological infrastructure, ensuring that the concerns and needs of the biodiversity community are adequately represented, along with sectors such as business, finance, government, emergency management, etc.
Possible IABIN Actions: IABIN could:
If the parties to IABIN wish to ensure that regional needs and perspectives are reflected in global efforts, that efforts within the region are adequately coordinated so as to maximize their utility, and that regional strengths and assets contribute in full measure to emerging global efforts, IABIN must move forward quickly to coalesce its vision and take concrete action.
Initial IABIN activities should have two goals:
There will be a major IABIN conference in late 1997 or early 1998 to inaugurate the network. This conference would provide an opportunity to bring to closure discussions on early IABIN actions (such as some described in this document). Thus, this meeting would crystallize the intervening work of many individuals and institutions. The meeting would also provide an opportunity to develop a longer range work plan for IABIN, and would be the first meeting of the governing body for IABIN (see below).
Network coordination and facilitation would be the responsibility of an intergovernmental working group of experts representing the Inter-American community. This group, established under governmental auspices, but involving both governmental and nongovernmental representatives, would be chartered for a four year period to finalize the IABIN Action Plan and facilitate its implementation. The first meeting of the IABIN working group would be held in conjunction with the IABIN conference. It would be the responsibility of the working group to secure funding for IABIN implementation from participating governments and international sources.
Possible IABIN Actions: IABIN could:
While development of a concrete agenda for the IABIN meeting is premature
at this time, several possible elements, aspects, and approaches have been
proposed. These are included for discussion purposes.
Many efforts are already underway to collect, organize, and share biodiversity information. IABIN must define its role in a fashion that complements these ongoing efforts, and provides a service that these existing initiatives cannot. Following are brief descriptions of several ongoing efforts to improve the sharing of biodiversity information. This list is by no means comprehensive. Its purpose is to identify a suite of broad initiatives with which IABIN must collaborate. It will remain an open and growing list.
The Biodiversity Conservation Information System (BCIS)
BCIS is a cooperative electronic information management structure and consolidated information base, now under development, involving 9 programs and partners of the World Conservation Union (BirdLife International, Botanical Gardens Conservation International, TRAFFIC, Wetlands International, IUCN's World Conservation Monitoring Centre, 3 IUCN Commissions, and the IUCN Environmental Law Centre). Its goal is to support environmentally sound decisionmaking and actions affecting the status of biological diversity and landscapes at the local, national, regional and global levels thru cooperative provision of data, information, advice and related services. The initiative includes development of indicators and standards, integration of quality control, and capacity building for data owners and managers. BCIS is expected to become operational and Internet-accessible in early 1997.
Convention on Biological Diversity Clearinghouse Mechanism
(to be written)
MABNETAmericas
MABNet Americas grew out of the Decade of Discovery Initiative of the 1995 Miami Summit of the Americas as a hemispheric effort of the Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programs of the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Latin American countries. The goal is to develop an electronic communication network for organizing and sharing data and information from units of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Using a standard protocol, 34 biosphere reserves in 8 countries have provided lists of species and biodiversity data which are being made available on the Internet.
MABNetAmericas promotes common data standards for biological monitoring though its Biosphere Reserve Integrated Monitoring (BRIM) Program. The Smithsonian Institution MAB Biodiversity Program (SI/MAB) combines long-term forest biodiversity monitoring with courses that teach standard protocols for data collection, verification, and dissemination, based on the BioMon software package. MABFauna and MABFlora, software packages developed by USMAB, are used to create and manage inventories of vertebrates and vascular plants. They encourage standardized of reporting, and come with a companion program, Observe, which allows users to record and manage observations on a particular species obtained through survey or census work.
Copies of MABFauna have been sent to every biosphere reserve in the hemisphere, along with manuals and tutorials in either English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish. As inventories are received, they are validated, incorporated into the MABNetAmericas data base, and posted on the world wide web (www.mabnetamericas.org), along with other information on the monitoring activities in that reserve. While the focus of MABNetAmericas is on the biosphere reserve network, data from any site using MAB reporting protocols will be incorporated into the data base and posted.
Natural Heritage and Conservation Data Center Networks
The Nature Conservancy established, and serves as a critical; linkage for, Natural Heritage Centers (or Conservation Data Centers as they are known internationally), computerized biodiversity information centers that provide ready access to up-to-date information of significance for conservation and land use planning. More than 85 centers exist across the Western Hemisphere, operated mostly at the state or provincial level in the U.S. and Canada and at the national level in Latin America and the Caribbean. Centers use the Biological and Conservation Data System (BCD), a computerized data system developed by the Conservancy. BCD stresses the importance of agreed standards and protocols for information, which can then be deployed in a variety of technologies. The BCD currently tracks over 80,000 species, subspecies, and communities of plants and animals. The system now has more than 400,000 records of the locations of species in the U.S. and Canada alone. The network of BCD users employs the concept of local custodianship of data, with each center responsible for developing and maintaining its own detailed information. Through the use of common inventory procedures and information standards, this information can be shared either horizontally (i.e. between individual Heritage or CDC centers) or vertically (among state, national, and global levels). The Nature Conservancy serves as the hub, providing training and helping to coordinate inventory methods and information management systems to maintain and improve the system.
Interagency Taxonomic Information System (ITIS)
The ITIS project aims to provide a scientifically credible database of the names and taxonomic classifications of the organisms of North America and the global marine environment. ITIS is implemented in a relational database environment, and the ITIS prototype is accessible over the World Wide Web at URL: http://www.itis.usda.gov/itis/ . ITIS is supported by a number of U.S. government departments and agencies, with scientific assistance from the Smithsonian Institution and many academic cooperators. The goal is to have complete coverage of valid names, fully peer reviewed, and continuously improving. The ITIS project has also developed a PC-based system called the Taxonomic Workbench for the easy entry and manipulation of taxonomic data to populate portions of the ITIS database. ITIS will save time and effort for users who need an accessible and scientifically credible source of nomenclature and classifications that they can use in their work, and it should facilitate the exchange of biodiversity information by helping to promote the consistent use of nomenclature in biodiversity information resources.
The Biodiversity Information Network (BIN21)
BIN21 is an international organization established following the 1992 Earth Summit to support Agenda 21 and the Convention on Biological Diversity. The goal is to link and coordinate the activities of institutions and information sites concerned with biological diversity. The initiative seeks to link information servers ("nodes") on the Internet, and provide electronic forums for discussion of topics that contribute to the overall goal of BIN21.
Biological Informatics Working Group.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Megascience Forum established the Working Group on Biological Informatics in 1996, with a Subgroup on Biodiversity Informatics. The goal of the Biodiversity Informatics Subgroup is to promote international cooperation in the development and implementation of federated, interoperable databases and other informatics resources relating to biological diversity, and to foster the rapid development and general distribution of informatics tools for the field of biological systematics.
The North American Biodiversity Information Network (NABIN)
NABIN is a regional initiative being developed under the NAFTA Environmental
Side Agreements coordinated by the North American Commission on Environmental
Cooperation (CEC). The goal is to improve access to biodiversity data and
provide a forum for cooperation among Canada, Mexico, and the United States.
G7ENRM. The G-7 Environment and Natural Resources Management Project
This effort seeks to facilitate electronic linkages and integration of sources of data and information on the environment and natural resources using a virtual library mechanism. The project expands existing efforts to design a global information locator service that will interconnect and facilitate access to catalogs and directories from around the world and facilitate the exchange and integration of data and information for a variety of applications. The project focuses on 3 major topics: 1) Climate Change; 2) Meta Information; and 3) Biological Diversity.
The National Biological information Infrastructure (NBII)
NBII is a broad cooperative effort led by the U.S. Geological Survey's Biological Resources Division to develop a distributed federation of biological information from a variety of national and international sources including government agencies, private organizations, natural history museums and herbaria. The goal of the NBII is to make this broad variety of biological information electronically accessible, together with the necessary tools, for interested users to find and retrieve the biological information they need, to integrate and combine information from different sources and to apply data to actual resource management issues.
The U.S. National Spatial Data Infrastructure
As part of a movement to streamline U.S. government operations and better manage resources, the concept of geographic data as a shared basic infrastructure to support complex decision making has lead to the development of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI). The NSDI, as established by Executive Order in 1994, is defined as "the technology, policies, standards, and human resources necessary to acquire, process, store, distribute, and improve the utilization of geospatial data." (Executive Office of the President 1994). This order directs Federal agencies and the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), an interagency coordinating body, to provide Federal leadership in the development of the NSDI.
Initial activities to implement the NSDI concentrate on standards development, data sharing through clearinghouses, and shared production responsibilities for certain basic framework themes of data. These priorities were established through a series of public meetings of individuals from the public and private sectors and are outlined in the "1994 Plan for the National Spatial Data Infrastructure" (Federal Geographic Data Committee, 1994a) and in the Executive Order.
Inter-American Geospatial Data Network
The U. S. Geological Survey and U. S. Agency for International Development are enhancing the geographic information infrastructure of the Western Hemisphere by establishing the Inter-American Geospatial Data Network (IGDN). In its efforts to strengthen the Western Hemisphere's information infrastructure, the IGDN is consistent with the goals of the Plan of Action that emerged from the 1994 Summit of the Americas. The IGDN is an online cooperative, or clearinghouse, of geospatial data. It conforms to the standards and guidelines of the Federal Geographic Data Committee to provide a consistent data discovery mechanism that will help minimize geospatial data duplication, promote data availability, and coordinate data collection and research activities. The IGDN server, being developed at the EROS Data Center, together with detailed metadata describing the geospatial data holdings of IGDN collaborators allows users to search and retrieve metadata, and in some cases the data itself, using the World Wide Web (WWW). Existing public-domain software tools enable users to perform queries for metadata standards, search engines, and the WWW itself, crates a virtual marketplace for geospatial data, with increased opportunity for data user and supplier alike.
Association for Biodiversity Information
The network of Natural Heritage Programs and Conservation Data Centres has recently formed the Association of Biodiversity Information (ABI) to facilitate network decision-making regarding data standards and data sharing. ABI's goals are to promote the development of multi jurisdictional data products and services, to expand the network of collaborating organizations, to identify data gaps that need to be filled, and to strengthen network members? ability to gather and disseminate biodiversity information.
Species 2000
Species 2000 is an international program that seeks to provide a uniform
and validated listing on the Internet of all known species of plants, animals,
fungi and microbes. Users will be able to use a Species Locator on the
Species 2000 homepage (http://www.sp2000.org/) for accessing an array of
participating databases to verify the scientific name, status and classification
of any known species. Species 2000 will be operated by a federation of
database organizations working closely with users, taxonomists and sponsoring
agencies.