“The field of knowledge is the common property of all mankind”

Thomas Jefferson, 1807

Conservation Commons

IABIN Council Meeting6-8 April, 2005

AgendaWhat is the Conservation Commons?

• Brief timeline, Principles, Endorsements• Facilitating Framework – staff (0)

Information sharing tools – role of the Conservation Commons• GBIF• SIS• WDPA

Discussion – Challenges• Future activities• How can you get involved?

Conservation depends on the logical synthesis of data, information, expertise and technology

Invasive

Species

Satellite Images

ScienceJournals

People

Climate

Measures

EnvironmentalLaw

Threats

PracticesLand Use

Traditional Knowledge

BCIS

Biodiversity Knowledge Commons

START Gland May 04 28 organizations discuss common approaches to sharing data, information & knowledge

LAUNCH - IUCN World Congress Nov 04

Formally recommended by IUCN General Assembly CGR3.Rec037

Principle 1 – Open Access

The Conservation Commons promotes free and open access to data, information and knowledge for conservation purposes.

Principle 2 – Mutual Benefit

The Conservation Commons welcomes and encourages participants to both use resources and to contribute data, information and knowledge.

Principle 3 – Rights and Responsibilities

Contributors to the Conservation Commons have full right to attribution for any uses of their data, information, or knowledge, and the right to ensure that the original integrity of their contribution to the Commons is preserved. Users of the Conservation Commons are expected to comply, in good faith, with terms of uses specified by contributors and in accordance with these Principles.

Principles Endorsed by …• American Museum of National History

• BirdLife International• Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)• Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental (CRIA), Brazil• Conservation International• Fauna & Flora International• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)• Global Invasive Species Database (GISD)• Invasive Species Specialist Group of SSC• IUCN - The World Conservation Union• London Museum of Natural History• NASA – Earth Science Directorate• National Commission of Biodiversity, Mexico (CONABIO)• NatureServe

• PALNet• Red Hat - Open Source Affairs• Smithsonian • Society for Conservation GIS• Social Insects Specialist Group of SSC• Species Information Service (SIS)• South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI)• The Nature Conservancy (TNC)• TRAFFIC International• United Nations Development Program (UNDP)• University of Maryland – Global Land Cover Facility• UNEP - WCMC• WWF Brazil• WWF International and more …

ExamplesStructured Data

GBIF www.gbif.net (data portal prototype)

SIS www.iucn.org/themes/sscWDPA www.unep-wcmc.org

DocumentsConserveOnline www.conserveonline.orgPalNet www.parksnet.org

Global Biodiversity Information Facility

What is GBIF ?

An international megascience project designed to

Make the world’s biodiversity data freely and universally available via the Internet, and especially to

Share primary scientific biodiversity data for science, society and a sustainable future

…to help deal with the unequal distribution of biodiversity information

… to repatriate biodiversity data to countries of origin… to also help overcome the digital divide

GBIF was established …

Biodiversity and information about it are unevenly distributed….

biodiversity hotspotholder of large amounts of biodiversity data

Everything GBIF does is in partnership with others

                         

IUCN/Species Information Service

CBD: GTI, 2010 indicators, CHM

Tangible benefits for the members: • Funding opportunities: Seed money awards (DIGIT +

ECAT): $ 2.75 mill in the last 2 years.• Capacity building & Training opportunities (DiGIR,

uses of biodiversity data) -> Modeling workshop.• Mentoring projects (Node-Node support &

collaborations are fostered)• Awards: Ebbe Nielsen (young professionals in

biodiversity informatics• Demo Projects: prototypes and proofs of concept.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs)

• GBIF’s data policy: free and open data access• Distributed system with proper attribution to data

source(s) • Data use and data sharing agreements in place

(available on line at www.gbif.net)• Data ownership and quality resides with the data

providers• GBIF DOES NOT IMPOSE ANY OWNERSHIP to the

data it serves !

Species Information Service (SIS)

A flexible data management tool:• Basis for sharing biodiversity information

from many IUCN sources• Developed by and is part of IUCN Species

Survival Commission• Relates species to their habitats and

ecosystems overtime• Contains up-to-date information • Globally accessible

SIS data entry module

Basic output

Species distribution

Species status

Global species richness of amphibians (n=5,600) per half-degree cell (data from IUCN Global Amphibian Assessment)

WDPA:

The World Database of Protected Areas

Consortium Members

The World Database on Protected Areas

Attribute data:20+ variables including country, name, established date, extension [Has], IUCN category, PA designation, management agency, sources of data, GIS data, etc.

The World Database on Protected Areas

WDPA 2005 status

Protected AreasTotal number of

PAswith Boundary

data

National level IUCN categories I - VI 70,382 20,772

National other categories 38,404 19,546

TOTAL 108,786 40,318

International Conventions 2,633 913

Regional Conventions 3,300 1,392

The World Database on Protected Areas

There is no standard

What can you contribute? How can you get involved?

Promote Open Access

Publish your results in open access journals

I

Endorse the Principles

WDPA

GBIFConserveOnline

SIS

PALNet

NASA PA Archive

Get involved inInter-operability projects

Your Database?

GISD

“If I have seen further, it is by standing on

the shoulders of giants”

Sir Isaac Newton