The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF): Building the biodiversity informatics commons

Background/Question/Methods Current global environmental changes are unprecedented in cause, in that they are increasingly understood to be human-induced. As the architects of these changes, we are also the solution. Finding solutions will not be easy, and more so if we do not have enough scientifically-sound data readily accessible, nor the tools to analyse these. Mobilising global environmental datasets is increasingly made possible through IT developments, and in particular, mobilising the billions of primary biodiversity records already in existence, and increasingly being captured around the world, is a critical component of establishing baseline knowledge of species and ecosystems, allowing time-series analyses of changes and modeling of future environmental trends to improve decision-making. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF; www.gbif.org), is a multi-lateral science research initiative (of currently 51 countries and 40 international organisations) established at the behest of OECD Science Ministers to mobilise these data. In order to do so, working through partnerships, GBIF has catalysed agreements on many of the standards, protocols and infrastructure required to make disparate datasets discoverable, compatible and accessible worldwide. Over 175 million records from over 7600 datasets from more than 270 biodiversity institutions worldwide are now accessible through the GBIF data portal (data.gbif.org). A global biodiversity informatics commons is thus now a reality, allowing access to previously inaccessible records and datasets, and analyses which were previously impossible. Increasingly, GBIF is now also developing the ‘crosswalks’ between major online datasets in multi-media formats, opening new opportunities for enhanced and enriched analyses and modeling.

Results/Conclusions With ‘proof of concept’ secured, in order to enhance our ability to analyse our world and find solutions to the growing ecological crisis, the call is made for participation by all who hold and collect biodiversity information to make their data freely available for use. In addition, the call is being made to all funding agencies, both public and private, to mandate within their grants that the data generated are captured to these global standards and made freely available.