IMPACT

SUMMARY
Biodiversity Information|
BID for Development

BID programme areas in sub-SaharanAfrica (above), the Caribbean (left) and
the Pacific (below).
EEZ boundary information licensed under
CC BY-NC-SA from Flanders Marine Institute(2018) Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase:
Maritime Boundaries and Exclusive Economic
Zones (200NM), version 10
https://doi.org/10.14284/312

BID-funded country (with EEZ)
BID-eligible country (with EEZ)CONTENTS
3

Foreword

4

Data Mobilization

7

Data Use

10

Capacity Enhancement

13

Sustainability

This document is funded by
the European Union
www.europa.eu

FOREWORD

While progress in sharing, transferring and applying scientific knowledge
about the world’s biodiversity is steadily improving, gaps in information about
the distribution of the world’s biodiversity still impede effective policymaking
decisions.
Such deficiencies are acutely felt in species conservation, protected areasplanning and resource management, but the data also underpin biodiversityrelated intergovernmental processes like the UN Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD), the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC), as well as all dimensions of sustainable development.
GBIF—the Global Biodiversity Information Facility—is an international networkand research infrastructure aimed at providing anyone, anywhere accessto data about all types of life on Earth. Starting in 2015, the GBIF network
began addressing geographic gaps in knowledge through the Biodiversity
Information for Development, or BID programme. Supported by a €3.9
million grant from the Directorate-General for International Cooperation andDevelopment (DEVCO, or EuropeAid) of the European Union, BID has boosted
biodiversity informatics across sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and thePacific (ACP).
Between 2015 and 2017, GBIF issued four calls for project proposals through
BID, resulting in 63 funded projects across the three regions: 50 in Africa,
8 in the Caribbean and 5 in the Pacific. These projects have increased theavailability of biodiversity data for use in policy while implementing an effective
and transformative approach to capacity enhancement that has firmly placed
new regional communities of practice within GBIF’s international network.
—Philippe Mayaux
Head of Sector
Biodiversity and ecosystem services
DEVCO/EuropeAid

3

DATA MOBILIZATION

When the BID programme launched, its target regions of sub-Saharan Africa,
the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) each represented areas with significant
gaps in biodiversity information. By building local capacity, BID aimed todeliver greater amounts of biodiversity information through the publicationof additional data from the region’s institutions, By nearly any measure, theprogramme has achieved the goals set out for it at the beginning.
The majority of institutions from the ACP countries that now publish data
into GBIF began doing so after the start of the BID programme, providing one
measure of increased institutional capacity. The total number of registeredpublishers from the three regions increased from 56 to 222 during BID’s
implementation and includes every data publisher registered from the PacificIslands.

Figure 1 Growth in the number of institutions registered as a result of the BID
programme

Figure 1
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%

222

188

56

54

13
2

0%

COMBINED
ACP
DuringAFRICACARIBBEAN

Before

4

21

PACIFIC

Between April 2016 and April 2019, the number of datasets published byinstitutions from ACP nations and overseas territories grew from 63 to 743—
an increase of nearly 1,200 per cent. Each region saw large increases in theamount of data published as a result of the BID programme. Seventy-two
per cent of all publishers from the ACP region shared datasets with GBIF as
deliverables for the BID programme.
Figure 2 Percentage of datasets published before and after the start of BID
PACIFIC

6100

CARIBBEAN

16

81

AFRICA

196

354

COMBINED ACP

218

535

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Number of datasets before BID

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

Number of datasets from BID programme

GBIF supports four classes of datasets—metadata-only, checklists,
occurrences and sampling-event—moving from simplest to most structured
and complex. The most prominent of these are species occurrences, which
provide evidence of a named organism being observed or collected at agiven time and place. The 396 occurrence datasets published by BID-funded
projects represented 74 per cent of the 535 new datasets mobilized throughthe programme, comprising a total of 1,305,401 records, with 86.3 per cent ofthem (1,058,757) carrying georeferenced locations.
Taxonomically, most of the data from BID projects records the occurrence ofeither animals (58.1 per cent) or plants (41.7 per cent). The records comprise
39,797 taxonomic names found within the GBIF taxonomic backbone across all
kingdoms, and 43 per cent of the BID-mobilized data represent the first record
in at least one country. In addition, the data published by BID grantees added
the first records for 2,392 taxonomic names—species and higher-level taxa forwhich there were no occurrence records in GBIF.org prior to BID.

5

Figure 3 Number of occurrence records shared in BID datasets, by kingdom

Chromista
158

Bacteria
189

Plantae
462,043

Animalia
697,101

Virus
2

Fungi
96

Unmatched
1,104

Finally, BID datasets mobilized data for 1,194 species assessed to be globallythreatened (Critically Endangered, Endangered or Vulnerable) under the IUCNRed List—22 of which had no occurrence records in GBIF before BID.

Figure 4 Number of global threatened species with new records from BID

IUCN Threat Category

CR
CRITICALLYENDANGEREDEN
ENDANGEREDVU
VULNERABLE

Kingdom

Number of
Number of
species included species with firstin BID occurrence
occurrence
datasets
records in GBIF

Animals99

2

Plants44

0Animals

153

2

Plants188

8

Animals300

4Plants

410

6

1,194

22

Total

6

DATA USE

The primary goal of the BID programme is to increase the availability of
biodiversity data for use in scientific research and policymaking, The results
thus far are encouraging.
From the programme’s start to December 2018, users of GBIF.org requested
a total of 816,479 downloads that contained data from publishers in the ACP
regions. During this period the number of downloads containing data frominstitutions in the BID-eligible countries of Africa increased by nearly an orderof magnitude, rising from 84,523 to 735,332 downloads, and all downloads
from users in the Caribbean and Pacific have come since BID’s start. The
proportion of data from BID datasets varied from region to region: 33.1 per centin Africa; 99.5 per cent in the Caribbean; and 94.3 per cent in the Pacific.
Figure 5 Number of downloads containing data from ACP publishers before andafter BID implementation
900
800

thousands of downloads

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
COMBINED ACP

AFRICACARIBBEAN

PACIFIC

Before BID

84,52384,52300During BID

816,479

735,332

36,01945,128Percentageof downloads
containing
data from BID

42.7%

33.1%

99.5%

94.3%

7

The demand for data from users within the ACP regions has increased
considerably, suggesting that greater availability of data has increased thedemand for it. The growth rate in the number of downloads of data from ACP
regions by users in ACP regions considerably exceeded global trends during thesame time period.
Initial research uses of BID-mobilized data are promising, given the latency
that typically exists between data mobilization and use. To date, 63 peerreviewed publications have cited 187 datasets from BID projects at least once inpapers covering a range of topics, including conservation, ecology, taxonomy,
agriculture and climate change (see Table 1 below). Seventeen datasets havealready received more than 20 individual citations. The inclusion of citations
from non-peer reviewed publications like reports, web pages, and media
articles increases the total number citations of BID datasets to 202.
The greater time lag between data mobilization and research-based policy
makes measuring the integration of BID-mobilized data into decision-making
during the programme’s initial implementation period more difficult. However,
several projects that have been successful in integrating data made available by
the BID programme for national-level activities like reporting, spatial planning
decision tools and biodiversity monitoring systems are highlighted in thecompanion guide, Best practices for mobilizing policy-relevant data.
BID-mobilized data has also been used extensively in a range of otherpublications, training and outreach activities. Most projects (56 per cent)stated in interviews that they had used the mobilized data to create newmaterials for educational and training purposes.

8

Table 1 BID datasets with more than 20 research citations (November 2019)•

Census of medicinal plants of Benin
https://doi.org/10.15468/p4cwmb•

Census of medicinal and agroforestry plants of Benin
https://doi.org/10.15468/y8jm57•

Diversité et distribution des plantes envahissantes au Bénin
https://doi.org/10.15468/bdv8ee•

Threatened species recorded in protected areas and riparian land in Sudano-guinean and Sudanianagroecological zones
https://doi.org/10.15468/szhrlq•

Census of the threatened species of Benin
https://doi.org/10.15468/fbbbfl•

Distribution de quelques espèces de plantes agroforestières et médicinales au Bénin
https://doi.org/10.15468/kpwam2•

List of the specimens of the Vanuatu National Herbarium
https://doi.org/10.15468/rwy7qc•

Herbier National de Guinée
https://doi.org/10.15468/vnatbk•

Inventory of Bonou, Kilibo and Lama forests (South and centre Benin)
https://doi.org/10.15468/yucybm•

Inventory of natural and agroforestry stands characterized by Xylopia aethiopica (Dunal) A. Rich. (south-Benin)
https://doi.org/10.15468/exwp2m•

Species composition in twelve (12) Afzelia africana Sm & Pers populations in Benin
https://doi.org/10.15468/9wycdn•

Agroforestry plant species found in protected areas and riparian lands in Sudano-guinean and Sudanianagroecological zones
https://doi.org/10.15468/lcbrct•

Forest inventory for above ground carbon estimation in Biosphere Reserve of W
https://doi.org/10.15468/looi3y•

Census of secondary forest of Itchèdè-Toffo (Southern Benin)
https://doi.org/10.15468/mqurnm•

Répertoire des Forêts sacrées dans les Départements de l’Ouémé t du Plateau
https://doi.org/10.15468/iozuua•

Medicinial plant species found in protected areas and riparian lands in Sudano-guinean and Sudanianagroecological zones
https://doi.org/10.15468/qbb7sg•

Elaboration du tarif de cubage multispécifique
https://doi.org/10.15468/lzrybq

9

CAPACITY ENHANCEMENT

Developing human capital is an essential element for achieving BID’s goals
for data mobilization and use. Rigorous training curricula have improved
biodiversity data skills for local professionals while empowering them to give
back, share and mentor their peers and protégés. The result is a resilient
biodiversity informatics community of practice growing at local, regional andglobal scales.
At the start and end of project activities, projects completed a capacity selfassessment that provides a simple scoring system for evaluating strengths andweaknesses across individual, institutional and external enabling dimensions.
This step helps grantees’ project planning, providing a structure for identifying
the most critical capacity gaps to address at the project’s outset while setting abaseline for measuring and monitoring capacity-related outcomes.
Training is a critical component of the BID programme. The GBIF community
developed training courses on data mobilization, data use for decisionmaking and establishing a GBIF participant node. The design of the courses,
which include both on-site and online components, responded to the findingsof the projects’ needs assessments and aimed to increase the capacity ofparticipants within each target region to share and use GBIF-mediated data to
produce policy-relevant information products.
The Secretariat staff who led the training relied heavily on the support ofexperts drawn from across GBIF’s international network (www.gbif.org/
mentors) to build and expand new regional communities of practice. Theirservice both as project mentors and volunteer trainers directly supported 120
grantees, who brought a broad range of scientific, managerial and policymaking
backgrounds to their participation in a series of regional workshops.

Workshop photos (above, right to left)
Cape Town, CC BY 2018 GBIF Secretariat | Maheva Bagard Laursen (flic.kr/p/GpbQtn)
St. Augustine, Trinidad, CC BY 2018 GBIF Secretariat | Maheva Bagard Laursen (flic.kr/p/2gkk15e)
Auckland, New Zealand, CC BY 2018 GBIF Secretariat | Mélianie Raymond (flic.kr/p/LZg8wg)

10The volunteer pool likewise represents diverse geographic locations and typesof experience, fulfilling needs in various parts of the world. This community ofpractice also built up expertise from within the BID programme, with nearly 50
per cent (67) of the 136 GBIF mentors now coming from BID-funded countries:
60 from Africa, 4 from the Caribbean and three from the Pacific. These experts,
whether newly trained or long proficient, provided key points of contact tosupport less experienced project teams and bring them into within the wider
biodiversity informatics community.

67

86

mentors from BID countries

mentor & trainer badges

75

data skills badges awarded

Project representatives who completed the training courses received digitalbadges, attaining either basic or advanced levels based on their performance.
Ninety-eight BID participants took the courses offered in the regional data
mobilization workshops: 75 from Africa, 9 from the Caribbean and 14 from the
Pacific regions, along side an additional 22 others from non-ACP countries. The
regional data use workshops trained 85 participants in total: 50 from Africa,
12 from the Caribbean, 11 from the Pacific, and another 12 from non-ACP
countries.
Fifty-three per cent of the students who took the data mobilization course
received badges: 39 per cent (26) earned basic certification and 37 per cent(25) advanced. For the data use workshops, 26 per cent (19) of the students
earned at badges, with African participants receiving the majority (74 per cent).
Eighteen per cent of participants obtained advanced badges, with the rest
receiving basic badges.

11

O U T L I N E CUR R I CUL A O F THE B ID TRAIN IN G CO URS ES

Data Mobilization

Data Use for Decision-Making

Enhancing the capacity of the
project teams to plan and implement
biodiversity data digitization efforts
effectively and according to GBIF
standards

Enhancing the capacity of the project
teams to analyse and communicate
the results of data sharing activities
effectively to support and influence
policymaking decisions

Biodiversity Informatics Foundation
Understanding the basic theoreticalconcepts of biodiversity informatics.

Biodiversity Data Mainstreaming
Integrating data information products
within the prevailing policy landscapePlanning a Digitization Project
Understanding the different stages ofplanning a digitization project, and how
to adapt them to a specific situation.

Data Processing
How to prepare a “fit-for-purpose”
dataset from GBIF-mediated data

Biodiversity Data Digitization
How to best digitize relevant information using best practices and existingtools
and techniques.
Data Curation, Formatting andTransformation
Basic tools and concepts used for data
validation and cleaning, and how data
can be converted into Darwin Core.
Data Publishing Using IPT
Publishing data online using the GBIF
tool: the Integrated Publishing Toolkit(IPT).

Species Distribution MappingStandards and Protocols
Standards and protocols for mapping
species distributions
Ecological Niche Modelling
Using probabilistic methods fordeveloping ecological niche models
for varying environmental scenarios.
Assessing the Conservation
Status of a Species
Using GBIF occurrence data to assess
the conservation status of a species
using the IUCN Red List Threatened
Species Categories and Criteria.

12

SUSTAINABILITY

Establishing a flow of data, engaging potential users and providing hands-on
training are necessary to achieving the goals of a programme like BID, but suchactivities are not sufficient for sustaining the outcomes once the funding period
is over. To cement BID’s achievements, GBIF is seeking to link the emerging
regional communities of practice into broader initiatives.
The engagement of partners across the regions offered networking
opportunities with related initiatives, including the JRS Biodiversity
Foundation’s African Biodiversity Challenge, coordinated by the South African
National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) ; and the Connect project coordinatedby UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre and funded by the
Global Environment Facility (GEF). Collaboration with these partners provided
efficiencies by pooling training materials, trainers and mentors as well asshared workshop hosting—and multiplied the investment of each programme.
Trainees were strongly encouraged to transfer the skills that they gained in
BID training courses by replicating workshops in their own countries andinstitutions. To date, they have organized 73 follow-on workshops and hosted
at least 1,497 more students, extending the cadre of individuals and institutions
capable of supporting and engaging in ongoing data mobilization and use
activities in each of the ACP regions.
In addition, six BID-funded projects have indicated that they received cofunding from other sources to continue the work of developing or maintaining
thematic, national, or regional biodiversity data networks.
Additions to the distributed technical infrastructure needed to support data
networks in the three regions offer another indication of more lasting impactsof the BID programme. Seven new installations of GBIF’s Integrated Publishing
Toolkit (IPT) were created for or by BID participants, while another seveninactive IPTs were restored and now serve datasets published through the
BID programme. Many of these installations were carried out in collaboration
with partner GBIF nodes in countries outside the target regions (such as
France, Belgium and United States), reinforcing the benefits of making longstanding experience available to new grantees. In other cases, higher-capacity
institutions in the ACP regions chose to host datasets using their own IT
facilities, providing additional options for future data publication and access inthe target regions.

13

The BID programme also increased both the engagement and the number of
GBIF member countries and organizations (formally known as Participants).
Ten of GBIF’s existing national Participants in Africa participated in the BID
programme, and another ten African governments have joined GBIF as formal
members since the start of the BID programme:
Democratic Republic of Congo (2015)
Malawi (2015)
Niger (2016)
Nigeria (2016)
Mali (2017)

Cameroon (2018)
South Sudan (2018)
Zimbabwe (2018)
Liberia (2018)
Angola (2019)

Prior to the BID programme, GBIF had no formal Participants in the PacificIslands region. As a direct result of the BID investment, the GBIF network gained
a permanent presence in the region with the addition of the Secretariat of the
Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in 2017 and Tonga in 2019.
BID’s impact has also extended beyond its target regions. Course materials andcurricula have been translated and reused in programmes covering Asia andEastern Europe. Through other collaborations, GBIF has adapted the training
courses to support the crosslinking of molecular data, for example, teachingdata publishing skills alongside training in DNA barcoding data management.
As the programme’s first phase concludes, GBIF is now seeking to build on
the success of the programme and work with other multilateral and bilateralfunding agencies to extend BID’s tested approach into new thematic andgeographic priority areas.

14

To view the full range of projects
funded by the BID programme, visit:www.gbif.org/bid