"INTER-AMERICAN BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION NETWORK (IABIN)" BARCODING IN SOUTH AMERICA MEETING _________________ Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil Mar 19 – 20 th, 2007 Iván A. Valdespino, IABIN

PANAMA 9,520 plants 1,144 end. MINN. 1,700 plants 1 end. 40 – 90% of all species live in Tropical Forests MADAGASCAR 10% of all known plants 5 times more tree species than in the USA ECUADOR 20,000 plants 4,000 end.

Why IABIN? Information relevant to a nation’s biodiversity conservation effort extends beyond that nation’s borders Biodiversity conservation requires timely, accurate and scientifically credible information Emphasis on sustainable development Nations of the Americas, generally, work individually

34 national governments, academia, non-governmental and inter-governmental organizations, natural history collections and private sector Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) - Background

IABIN Council (Next Meeting – May 9-11 th in Punta del Este, Uruguay) Official Focal Points (34 countries) IGO representatives (CHM, GBIF) NGO representatives IABIN Executive Committee 8 countries + 1 IGO/NGO  Secretariat Consensus decisions Governance

Create infrastructure for a distributed information sharing network Institutional structure Standards (taxonomy, metadata, etc.) Interface development Identify existing resources Increase Internet access and connectivity Fill information gaps relevant to decision- making IABIN MAIN GOALS Sharing biological knowledge across international borders

IABIN CATALOG Thematic Networks Tools for Decision Making Species Bibliography Databases Information Systems Information Systems Projects / Inst. / Specialist Projects / Inst. / Specialist Specimens Ecosystems Protected Areas Invasive Species Pollinators Integration: Biodiversity / Geospatial / Socioeconomic Information

IABIN informatics infrastructure Modified from M. Lane, GBIF, 2005  To conserve earth's biodiversity it is necessary to create and use biodiversity information systems capable of managing diverse data, including biological, ecological, socio-economic, and geospatial in an integrated and interoperable manner

IABIN Collaboration with Other Initiatives GBIF CBD Clearing-House Mechanism Man and the Biosphere Program IABIN IABIN, SIAM/CCAD, PBIF, PAIGH, etc. NBII, REMIB, CBIN, etc. Conservation Data Centers U.S. GAP State Information GLOBAL REGIONAL NATIONAL LOCAL

Works with primary data Point occurrence data with the basic attributes: Identification Location Time Primary data Secondary information Slide by A. Townsend Peterson

Data Applications © de la Torre & Lobo, 2006

Predicting geographic distributions with primary data makes possible... Projecting species invasions Designing reintroduction programs Understanding the effects of global climate change and other types of change Understanding rare and endangered species’ distributions Designing biodiversity conservation plans Many models such as Bioclim, GARP

Data Refinement and Use data information knowledge action Increasing refinement & utility of data the real world observations Envir. decision making conservation restoration biology resource mgmt utilization Policy & strategy government corporate individual ©Jim Croft

Summary Overall approach: build on existing strengths - adopting, adapting and implementing technical standards, reference authority archives, methods and approaches that have been successful elsewhere focus on supporting regional needs for decision- making - providing information exchange capacity directed at solving identified problems

Summary Technical standards: clearly identify and document user needs for information exchange and interoperability services and related applications before choosing and implementing technical standards always emphasize agreed “open” standards and systems rather than proprietary solutions

A network… is a collaborative effort Where we IABIN and CBoL can initiate collaboration: Link primary and DNA barcoding data Standards and protocols Information technologies Development of information / Decision making products Summary

Some of our partners: CCAD, CI, CIAT, City of Knowledge, Ecociencia, EROS-USGS, Fund. Boticario, GBIF, INBio, IUCN, I. von Humboldt, NASA, NatureServe, NBII, OBIS, PAIGH, STRI, SERVIR, SIAM, TNC, UNEP-WCMC, WB, WWF. Secretariat Iván Valdespino, Director Rita Besana, Data Content Manager Boris Ramírez, TN Coordinator Ciudad del Saber, Edificio 801, Clayton, República de Panamá Telephones: & Fax: www. iabin.net

Principal Activities of IABIN TNs Create Thematic Working Groups (TWG) Define information use policies Discuss and adopt architecture, standards and protocols specific to the TN Development of:   Multilingual data entry tools (data providers, servers)   Data search and retrieval tools   Capacity building (training, multilingual training material)   Value-added decision making tools   Web site to allow searches and access to available information Maintain and operate TN Integrate specific TN with other IABIN TNs Create and maintain an expert database and directory Promote metadata creation for TN Support participants and partners involvement in IABIN TNs Coordinate activities with IABIN Secretariat