The Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) is an initiative of the Summit of the Americas on Sustainable Development, approved by the Presidents of the Americas in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, in December 1996. The Network was launched in April 1999 in Brasilia at a major four day meeting in which more than 20 countries participated as well as representatives of a wide variety of governmental and non-governmental sectors. Further information is available at the IABIN web site: http://iabin.org.bdt.br.
Decisions concerning biodiversity management and the sustainable development of the Americas must be based on good information and a sound understanding of the lessons learned from others' experiences. In today's world, biodiversity challenges can have international health and security implications. Within 24 hours, species can be transported anywhere in the world, either accidentally or intentionally. Actions in one country can have impacts throughout the region. Therefore, international cooperation in the management and exchange of biodiversity information is critical.
Nearly every country in the hemisphere is engaged in an effort to inventory biodiversity and create a biodiversity information clearing-house at the national level. IABIN is a critical forum to ensure that these national efforts develop in a complementary way and build on common tools and systems. By promoting the exchange of data, tools and experiences among nations, IABIN provides a venue for the assessment of regional and global environmental trends.
IABIN is an Internet-based mechanism that will support this exchange of information and lessons learned among organizations and agencies concerned with biodiversity and its conservation, and through this exchange, support sound decision-making for sustainable development. IABIN will be a decentralized network of information resources; directories and tools to identify, locate and use those information resources; communications mechanisms to allow the exchange and transfer of data and information; and people -- the experts who are most closely involved with biodiversity in the countries of the Americas. Participation in IABIN is voluntary, although all organizations -- government, non-governmental, academic, and commercial -- are encouraged to participate. The potential users of IABIN include all sectors of government and civil society: policy makers, land managers, planners, researchers, educators, private individuals and school children.
IABIN resources will remain the property of, and in the custodianship of, the
providers of the resources; the network, however, will allow others throughout
IABIN to access those resources. Each government or institution is responsible
for the development and maintenance of its own resources; IABIN, as a network,
will promote the use of compatible formats, centralized (virtually or physically)
directories, and common tools such as biodiversity thesauri, taxonomic authorities,
metadata creation software, and identification, retrieval and analysis software.
Although compliance with standards or implementation of tools will be entirely
voluntary, it is envisioned that the benefits arising from a network of compatible
resources and tools will provide a strong incentive for adoption of IABIN "best
practices" at national and local levels.
Background for Museum Collections Contract
A rich store of information on Neotropical biodiversity is held in the museums and research institutes of Europe. Whereas the holdings of some, such as the British Museum, are well known, significant numbers of specimens from the New World are held in small- to medium-sized collections throughout Europe. Countries known to hold large collections of Neotropical material not commonly used in systematic studies include Spain, Holland, England, France, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, Poland, and Russia, among others. In many instances, the existence of these collections is discovered only accidentally. However, it is estimated that the information from these "lost" and often orphaned collections would represent a significant addition to the body of New World biodiversity information. Because the specimens in European institutions are generally older (pre-1900), they provide important baseline information on biodiversity patterns prior to large-scale disturbance in many areas. In the case of Mexican bird specimens, one well-studied example, up to 30% of known specimens are currently held in European museums. Potential users of this information would include taxonomists and all those interested in species distributions.
The work described in these TORs is to develop an Internet-based directory
of New World (primarily vertebrate) holdings in European collections. The project
will also develop recommendations and strategies for how specimen-level information
in European museums and collections could be computerized, connected via the
Internet and made available to IABIN participants. The project will demonstrate
the economy of scale provided by IABIN and provide a resource that can be readily
used throughout the hemisphere.
Contract Components and Specific Products
The work to be carried out under these contracts can be divided into the following activities and products:
1) Preparation of a work plan. In the first three weeks of the contract, the Consultant should prepare a detailed work plan which would outline which museums or private collections are to be physically visited, additional means of collecting data on museum holdings (e.g., from the literature, by questionnaires, through existing inventories or repertories of vertebrate specialists, etc.), how the data are to be organized, and structure of the final report. In preparing this work plan, Dr. Townsend Peterson (University of Kansas) and Dr. Adolfo Navarra (Universidad Nacional Autonomo de Mexico) have offered their assistance.
The choice of museums to be targeted should take into account the underlying goal of the contract which is to make available to scientists as much information as possible on New World holdings which might otherwise go undocumented. There should thus be a premium on obscure holdings which might otherwise go completely undocumented balanced with an emphasis on the larger holdings so that resources are not unduly allocated to visiting tiny museums with relatively insignificant holdings. The work plan could include a questionnaire that will be submitted to curators all over Europe, developed based on consultations with Drs. Peterson and Navarra.
The initial focus of the contract is to be on holdings in museums of Western Europe but to the degree that the Consultant can use the resources of the contract to contact museums in Eastern Europe or in the Former Soviet Union, this would be very valuable.
2) Collection of the Information on Holdings. The actual information on New World holdings would be carried out through a combination of methods: visits to the museums themselves, obtaining information through questionnnaires, and inventorying information already available in other media (the Web, published data, grey literature, etc.). The focus of the contract is to be on collections of vertebrate specimens from the New World. In the case of significant non-vertebrate holdings, their very existence, even if in very broad terms, vould at least be documented, if this proves possible.
The goal is not to collect specimen information but rather information on the holdings themselves. However, wherever specimen-level information is available in electronic format this should be noted, or ideally, arrangements should be made for IABIN-based access to the data. The information to collect must include at a minimum the number of specimens, collector, taxonomist or curator who made the identifications, place of collection (this information should be georeferenced by latitude and longitude in addition to providing place names), taxonomic category, condition of the collection, accessibility of the collection to researchers, contact information, etc.
It should be noted that it is expected that Drs. Peterson and Navarra will participate in the collection of information at a few selected large museums where their experience will be expected to save considerable time and resources in carrying out the search. They will make one trip to Europe and will participate for one to two weeks at such key institutions. The World Bank will directly cover arrangements for their travel and lodging but the Consultant should plan on closely collaborating with them.
3) Preparation of the Directory itself in such a structure that the resulting database can be placed on a server and easily searched through the IABIN interface. Metadata for this database should be prepared in consultation with the IABIN team carrying out the review of metadata protocols for IABIN. The creation and posting of the Directory should be announced widely through appropriate media. The Directory should be in both Spanish and English.
4) Preparation of a Final Report with paper and electronic copies of the Directory and also detailed recommendations for further computerizing the information in European museums. Recommendations should also be provided for carrying out similar work in other areas of the world. The Final Report should be in both Spanish and English.
The Consultant is responsible for ensuring that the Directory and Report are
placed on an Internet-accessible server and that they can be easily accessed
from the IABIN home page. The Consultant will be responsible for soliciting
offers from different institutions to provide the server space on which the
final information will be posted but is not responsible for providing that space
itself. The USGS Centre for Biological Information (CBI) may be one possibility.
Duration of the Contract
The contract should start 1 June 1999 and should end 31 December 1999.
Supervision of the Contract
The Consultant should report directly to Mr. Douglas J. Graham of the World Bank. His contact information is Tel. 202-676-9373; Fax 202-522-0262; email dgraham@worldbank.org.
Mr. Graham in turn will liase with key IABIN focal points and with IABIN's
emerging governance structure.
Other Considerations
The funds to support this contract are provided by the Government of the Netherlands
and are administered by the World Bank. Wherever appropriate, the contribution
of the World Bank and the Government of the Netherlands should be acknowledged.
All information collected shall become the property of the World Bank which
has indicated already its interest in ensuring that the final data and the final
report pass immediately into the public domain.
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