Managing databases on biodiversity

Implementing the development of national and international biodiversity information networks to enhance the collection, sharing, analysis and distribution of data and information required for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

This strategy features in the framework of Agenda 21 as formulated at UNCED (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), now coordinated by the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development and implemented through national and local authorities. Agenda 21 recommends updating, analysing and interpreting data derived from identification, sampling and evaluation activities.

The World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge (UK), maintains databases on threatened and endangered plant and animal species, critical sites and habitats of conservation concern, protected areas of the world and utilization and trade in wildlife species and products. It periodically produces reports on their status and trends and also produces a wide variety of specialist outputs and reports based on analysis of its data. It provides an information service to the conservation and development communities, governments and the UN agencies, scientific institutions, the business and commercial sector and the media.

The aim of the All Species Inventory is, within the span of our own generation, to record and genetically sample every living species of life on Earth. It intends to enlist people from all over the world to complete this project in one generation, meaning 25 years.

1. A substantial amount of data and information that is necessary for the conservation of biodiversity and the sustainable use of biological resources exists. This is held by many governmental and non-governmental agencies in herbaria or museum collections, on electronic databases, and in libraries or other resource centres. However, much of this information is in a form which cannot be easily used by managers, researchers, decision-makers or the general public. The situation is aggravated by the fact that many of the initiatives to collect data and information on biodiversity are uncoordinated.

1. Managing information
2. Developing databases
3. Conserving global biodiversity

1. Monitoring plant species conservation
2. Maintaining databases on marine living resources
3. Compiling directory of endangered species
4. Compiling database of domestic animal genetics
5. Compiling data base of wild animal genetic resources

1. Reviewing conservation issues
2. Preserving gene resources
3. Monitoring critical habitat status
4. Improving knowledge on ecosystem processes
5. Conserving species
6. Conserving animal genetic resources

1. Monitoring status of forest resources
2. Facilitating collection of geophysical data
3. Creating clearing-house mechanism for biodiversity information
4. Collecting research data
5. Classifying species

1. Lack of information on biodiversity

1. Biodiversity Clearing House Mechanism
2. Species 2000: Species Locator
3. Internet Biodiversity Service
4. Global Biodiversity Information Facility
5. Catalogue of Life
6. Planetary Biodiversity Inventories: A Response to the Taxonomic Crisis
7. ARKive
8. US Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species Programme
9. An overview on biodiversity information in databases
10. Antarctic Biodiversity Database
11. Databases
12. Scratchpads: Biodiversity Online
13. World Database of Key Biodiversity Areas
14. The role of biodiversity databases in coastal conservation and resource management
15. Africa Biodiversity Management
16. The National Invasive Species Database
17. Biodiversity Projects database
18. Managing biodiversity information: development of New Zealand's National Vegetation Survey databank