19th International CODATA Conference
Category: Poster

Access to past and present of the living world - The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

Walter G. Berendsohn & Susanne Oehlschlaege (s.oehlschlaeger@bgbm.org)
Freie Universität Berlin, Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem (BGBM), Department of Biodiversity Informatics and Laboratories, Germany

The mission of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is to make the world's primary data on biodiversity freely and universally available via the Internet. GBIF works on the development of worldwide capacity to access the vast amount of already existing biodiversity data by means of an interoperable network of biodiversity databases and information technology tools. The globally co-ordinated approach provides the framework for a rapid expansion of the network and is opening new possibilities for the utilisation of research data.

GBIF was founded in 2001. In September 2004, participation has grown to 40 countries and 26 organisations committed to contribute data to the GBIF information structure and to work towards an interoperable network. An important aspect is the sharing of biodiversity data with the countries of origin of the materials in collections. The total number of objects in natural history collections world-wide has been estimated at 1.5 billion, with an unknown number of additional observation data. The international GBIF-Portal (www.gbif.org) was already providing access to more than 43 million data records from 82 data providers in September, and the amount of data is constantly increasing. For simultaneous data access, GBIF makes use also of software developed in Germany in the course of the EU-funded BioCASE project (Biological Collection Access Service for Europe). Other European projects such as ENBI (European Network of Biodiversity Information) also join forces with European institutions and GBIF Nodes to mobilize biodiversity information resources.

The German federal government makes a substantial annual contribution to support the running of the international GBIF Secretariat and the GBIF work program. To foment the national contribution, GBIF Germany (GBIF-D, www.gbif.de) has been set up as a system of seven Nodes, each responsible for a range of taxonomic groups. The involved 48 institutes look after 64 funded sub-projects and already contributed more than 3,500,000 specimen and observation records to the GBIF network.

Universal availability of global primary biodiversity data and effective data access can help to focus on the filling-in of the huge gaps in knowledge that still exist. It will influence the setting of priorities for research and conservation management and foster the linkage of data systems on all levels of biodiversity, from molecule to ecosystem.