Annual
Report2011
www.gbif.org

GBIF’s vision
A world in which biodiversity information
is freely and universally available forscience, society and a sustainable future.
GBIF’s mission
To be the foremost global resource forbiodiversity information, and engendersmart solutions for environmental andhuman well-being.

01

GBIF Annual Report 201102

Foreword

During 2011, there was significant growth in thenumber and variety of published research articles
referencing the use of data sourced through GBIF.
Similarly, GBIF-mediated data are now an importantcomponent in many web tools, aiding decision
making in support of international conventions.
GBIF is increasingly providing the research
infrastructure for which it was established.

Joanne Daly
Chair of the Governing Board

Donald Hobern
Executive Secretary

We are very pleased to present the GBIF Annual
Report for 2011, covering GBIF’s tenth year andconcluding GBIF’s second phase, which ran from2007 to 2011. This report shows how much has beenachieved, and reminds us how the entire field of
biodiversity informatics has been transformed overthe last decade.
GBIF has successfully established an effective
global data-publishing network and by the closeof 2011 GBIF was mobilizing more than 300 million
records documenting the distribution of theworld’s biodiversity. This is evidence of the workof countless scientists and amateurs collecting
specimens and recording their observations, but
it also demonstrates the commitment of GBIF’s
Participants around the world to presenting thisinformation in the digital forms needed to support
21st century science and policy.
The mobilization of these data is a result of many
important developments since 2001. From atechnical standpoint, the global community has
established flexible data standards for biodiversity
data and efficient approaches to data publishing,supported by freely-available software tools
and centralized indexes. In addition, we haveseen an ever-increasing number of institutions,organizations and individuals embracing openaccess principles and freely contributing theirdata for the common good. All of this has been
supported and reinforced through training andmentoring activities involving most of GBIF’s
Participants.

All of this places GBIF in an excellent position as it
begins to implement its 2012-2016 Strategic Plan.
With the global spread of its network and strong
connections with many other national, regional andglobal projects and organizations, GBIF has both themandate and the capability to deliver biodiversity
data to support science everywhere. The efficiencyof the network gives confidence that GBIF will beable to respond to technological developments ingene sequencing and remote sensing which are set
to increase massively the flow of relevant data. As
a consequence, GBIF can underpin international
efforts to understand, monitor, conserve andsustainably use global biodiversity.
Much remains to be done. The world’s natural
history collections still hold vast amounts of critical
historical data which have not yet been digitizedin an accessible form. Ecological datasets include
important and complex information that is difficult
to standardize at a global level. Many countries are
not yet making their data accessible. Finances tosupport all of these activities are inadequate forthe task. These are the challenges that need to beaddressed during GBIF’s third phase.
We are excited to be involved in such a dynamic
and exciting field and to benefit from such a richinternational collaboration. This annual report
gives us many reasons to celebrate what GBIF hasachieved globally, and to work together to achieveeven more in the coming years.
Finally, we would like to acknowledge thecontribution to these achievements of Dr Nick King,
who completed his term as Executive Secretary of
GBIF in December 2011.
Joanne and Donald

03

Contents

foreword2

10 years of gbif

42011 highlights

5

a tool for science and society
GBIF cited in scientific literature
Data use case examples
2011 awards for innovative use of GBIF-mediated data

6
6
7
10

the 18th meeting of the gbif governing board (gb18), buenos aires

11

data publishing in 2011

12

Records indexed by GBIF – some facts and figures
New publishers and datasets
Promoting a data publishing culture

an informatics infrastructure
Improving GBIF’s Integrated Publishing Toolkit
Data processing improvements
Publishing checklists through GBIF
Accommodating data growtha connected community
GBIF participation in 2011
Regional nodes collaboration
Welcome Box and BIF-building package
Mentoring between GBIF Participants
GBIF capacity enhancement projects
Some news stories from around the GBIF community in 2011
GBIF training in 2011

collaboration and communication
Action plan for information on invasive alien species
Technical collaboration with Encyclopedia of Life
GEO-BON engagement and the 2020 Aichi Targets
Other collaborations in 2011
Online Resource Centre
Communications in 2011
Secretariat changes

12
15
16

17
17
18
19
19

20
21
21
21
22
23
24
25

28
28
29
29
30
30
30
31

end notes

32

appendices

33

04

10 years of GBIFThe Global Biodiversity Information Facility came into being as an intergovernmental initiative in March
2001. Two years earlier, science ministers from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) had endorsed a recommendation from a scientific panel* to set up a body “to coordinate … thestandardization, digitization and global dissemination … of the world’s biodiversity data.”
A decade into its existence, how far has GBIF fulfilled the original vision of those who proposed it? This tableprovides a summary.

What was proposed by the 1999
OECD panel

Progressto dateSummary

A facility enabling users “to navigate
and put to use vast quantities of
biodiversity information, thereby
advancing scientific research in areas
such as agriculture, biomedicine,
biotechnology, environmental
management, pest control, health,education, and conservation, among
others”.

Achieved

GBIF currently facilitates access to more than 300 million records
from nearly 9,000 datasets worldwide. As shown in section 1 of thisreport, GBIF is cited as the source of data for scientific research inmany of the areas specified in the 1999 report. The GBIF Data Portal
received more than one million visits in 2011. While ‘vast quantities’of information have indeed been put to use, great challenges still lie
ahead to improve the coverage, scope and quality of data content.

Interoperable biodiversity databases,
including development of data
standards, linkages with molecular
databases.

Major
progresstowards
achieving

Major progress in developing common standards, e.g. withwidespread uptake of Darwin Core Archive (see section 3),
links with molecular data still work in progress.

Electronic catalogue of names ofknown organisms, to be reasonably
complete within 10 years.

Achieved, in
partnershipwith others

Through collaboration with the Catalogue of Life, containing over
1.3 million species, and other initiatives, this objective has beenaccomplished. Major achievements include development of the
GBIF taxonomic ‘backbone’ and infrastructure for sharing species
lists (see section 3), but more work remains for full completion.

Digitization of most natural history
collections in 10 years, ‘repatriation’of data from developed to developingworld.

Partially
achieved

Great progress in publishing specimen data (see section 2). Morethan 20 million records from developed-world institutions relating
to developing-world biodiversity freely available through GBIF,
contributing to ‘repatriation’ of data. However, major collections
remain undigitized. Promising technical advances and innovative
approaches to digitization being adopted by GBIF Participants.

‘Species bank’ to provide rich,searchable information about all
species.

Major
progressby others

Programme taken up by Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), a GBIF Associate
Participant.

Digital biodiversity literature
resources to be captured in GBIF
information content.

Major
progressby others

Programme taken up by Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL).

Training to advance skills in
biodiversity informatics, including indeveloping countries.

Achieved

Active programme to provide training in GBIF Participant countries,
both face to face and through online resources. Eleven training
events in five continents in 2011 involved over 370 professionals(see section 4).

* final report of the oecd megascience forum working group on biological informatics. january, 1999.

05

2011 highlights

GBIF was cited as the source of data for more than 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers in 2011. It helped to advanceknowledge of the impacts of climate change on biodiversity, the spread of invasive alien species and agricultural
pests, and links between biodiversity and human health, among other research areas.
Better decisions on siting industrial installations with minimum impact on biodiversity may result from a new tool 		made possible through access to data worldwide via GBIF.

a tool for science and society

a tool for science and society (p 6)

data publishing in 2011 (p 12)

An innovative system for publishing peer-reviewed ‘data papers’ provided new incentives and academic recognition
for those who publish and describe biodiversity datasets.
GBIF joined forces with professionals carrying out environmental impact assessments around the world, to help
preserve and publish vital biodiversity data.

A new software package (IPT v2) made it simpler to publish data through GBIF, lowering the technical thresholdfor owners of datasets to make them globally accessible.
Improvements in processing and organization of species names led to better performance for users of the GBIF
Data Portal.
A new scalable computing platform will enable future expansion of data processing power and volume.
GBIF started to support publication and registration of species checklists.

an informatics infrastructure

an informatics infrastructure (p 17)

data publishing in 2011

The volume of data made accessible online through GBIF continued to grow, passing 300 million individual records
in 2011.

a connected community (p 20)

Regional training events supported from core GBIF funds involved 179 people from 25 countries.
Mentoring grants and capacity enhancement projects enabled the publication of several biodiversity datasets,
portals and decision-making tools in African countries.
An information package released in 2011 will help new managers of GBIF nodes to take the first steps towards
setting up a biodiversity information facility.

A workshop convened at the GBIF Secretariat led to a joint programme for the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD), which will give decision makers more consistent and comprehensive information about invasive alien species.
A technical collaboration with the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) enabled more streamlined publishing and integrated
data visualization between the two initiatives.
Participation in the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO-BON) helped set out the 		
information requirements and capabilities for achieving the 2011-2020 Strategic Plan for Biodiversity.
A new GBIF Online Resource Centre provided a searchable repository for manuals and other documents useful for
the whole biodiversity publishing community.

collaboration and communication

collaboration and communication (p 28)

a connected community

A new steering group with representatives from six regions enhanced collaboration between GBIF national nodes
at regional level.

06
04

A tool for science and society

A clear indication of GBIF’s progress is the extent to which its services are being used and cited by scientists
and policy makers. Monitoring of scientific literature during 2011 has revealed an increasing level of useof GBIF-mediated data, in subject areas critical to meeting policy objectives such as the Aichi Biodiversity
Targets for 2020.
In summary, during 2011:
more than 200 research papers were identified as using data accessed via GBIF, most commonly throughecological niche modelling;areas of scientific study making use of GBIF-mediated data included conservation, species distributions,
impacts of climate change, invasive alien species spread, agriculture and human health;a new tool used GBIF-mediated data worldwide to help estimate ecological values at fine scales, aiming tominimize the impact of industrial installations through better siting decisions;
GBIF-mediated data were used in the compilation of a Red List of Rhododendrons; andJens-Christian Svenning, the Danish winner of the 2011 Ebbe Nielsen Prize, used GBIF-mediated data to
study large-scale relationships between climate and species distributions.

GBIF cited in scientific literature
During 2011, the GBIF Secretariat stepped up
monitoring and analysis of the discussion and useof GBIF services in scientific literature. Using theMendeley academic social network, articles since2008 mentioning GBIF were retrieved, interpreted
and tagged.
The headline results of this monitoring are shown in
Figure 1. Of the studies traced for 2011, 206 used GBIFmediated data in their methodology. This compareswith 157 ‘GBIF-used’ papers for 2010, and 101 for 2009.

Figure 2 shows a geographical breakdown, in termsof the affiliations of the authors of those papers
using GBIF-mediated data. The United States, United
Kingdom and Australia contributed the largest numberof studies, but the top ten countries also included four
GBIF Participants from emerging economies: Mexico,
Argentina, South Africa and Colombia. It should be
noted that some studies from non-English language
publications may not show up in this survey, so thescientific use of GBIF in some countries may be underrepresented.
To search the publications mentioning and using
GBIF, tagged by country and subject, readers candirectly browse the GBIF Public Library.
A selection of significant 2011 papers in key subject
areas is shown on the following pages.

07
05

Data use case examples

number of citations

Cultural values of biodiversity, humanhealthgbif mentioned
gbif discussed
200

gbif used as source for data

Title: Ecological niche modelling ofcustomary medicinal plant species used
by Australian Aborigines to identify
species-rich and culturally valuableareas for conservation.

other
150

Publication: Ecological Modelling1

100

50

2008

2009

2010

2011

figure 1. a summary of gbif citation in monitored scientific publications,
2008-2011.

number of publications

coast banksia (banksia integrifolia)© j. gaikwad

data publishing in 2011

Lead author: Jitendra Gaikwad,
Customary Medicinal Knowledgebase(CMKb), Macquarie University, Australia.

0

a tool for science and society

250

Summary: Modelled suitable ecologicalniches for more than 400 medicinal
plant species, using global and national
occurrence records from GBIF andAustralia’s Virtual Herbarium.
Results used to identify potential‘bio-cultural diversity hotspots’ forpriority conservation.
canavalia rosea © j. gaikwad

50

an informatics infrastructurelead authors
co-authors
40

Species composition

30

Title: Multiscale analyses of mammal
species composition – environment
relationship in the contiguous USA.
Publication: PLoS ONE2
Lead author: Rafi Kent, Technion
Institute, Haifa, Israel.

20

10

ia
sp
ai
n
m
ex
ic
o
ge
rm
an
y
ca
n
ar ada
ge
nt
so
in
ut
a
h
af
ri
co ca
l
sw om
b
it
ze ia
rl
an
d
br
az
il
no
rw
ay

tr
al

a

uk

au
s

us

figure 2. number of scientific publications in 2011 citing use of gbifmediated data, ranked by country according to affiliation of lead author(green bars) or at least one co-author (orange bars). top 13 countries
only shown.

bobcat (lynx rufus) © l. blumina connected community

0

Summary: Used all georeferenced
mammal data for the ‘lower 48’ UnitedStates available through GBIF, morethan 300,000 records of 284 species, toquantify link between the number andidentity of species in a given area, andenvironmental factors such as climate
and land use. Found that climate wasmost influential at larger scales, withland use and land cover increasingly
important at finer resolution.

The study would not be possible if we did not have such freeaccess to the data as provided by the GBIF portal.”					– Rafi Kent, Technion Institute.

collaboration and communication

mountain lion (puma concolor)© photodisc

08
04

Climate change impacts, conservation

Human health

Title: Predictions of 27 Arctic pelagic
seabird distributions using public
environmental variables, assessed withcolony data: a first digital IPY and GBIF
open access synthesis platform.

Title: Using remote sensing to map therisk of Human Monkeypox Virus in theCongo Basin.

Publication: Marine Biodiversity 3

ivory gull (pagophila eburnea)© jomilo75

atlantic puffin (fratercula arctica)© a. trepte

Lead author: Falk Huettmann, Instituteof Arctic Biology, University of Alaska,
USA.
Summary: Used presence records
obtained through GBIF on 27 seabird
species from north of the Arctic Circle tobuild predictive models on a scale neverattempted before for Arctic bird species.
Concluded that sea surface temperature
was by far the most important factor
influencing distributions, leaving these
species vulnerable to climate change aswell as a range of other human-related
impacts.

Agriculture
Title: Threats to cassava production:
known and potential geographic
distribution of four key biotic
constraints.
Publication: Food Security 4
Lead author: Beatriz Campo,
International Center for Tropical
Agriculture, Cali, Colombia.
Summary: Records published through
GBIF of occurrence locations for two
pests and two viruses affecting cassava
production were used, along with otherevidence, to model their potential
distribution. Hotspots for potential pest
and disease outbreaks were identified
in northern Brazil, the African Rift Valley,
southern India and southeast Asia.
women spreading cassava chips to dry,democratic republic of congo© k. wiegand

Publication: EcoHealth 5
Lead author: Trevon Fuller, Center for
Tropical Research, UCLA, USA.
Summary: Established that the presenceof rope squirrels (Funisciurus sp.)was the best predictor of outbreaksof Human Monkeypox Virus. Usedoccurrence data for the squirrel
published through GBIF to help model
risk areas for the disease in a region of
the Democratic Republic of Congo, andthus concentrate surveillance efforts.

Invasive alien species, climate change
impacts
Title: Climate change and American
Bullfrog invasion: what could we expect
in South America?
Publication: PLoS ONE 6
Lead author: Javier Nori, Centro de
Zoologica Aplicada, Universidad
Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina.
Summary: Used occurrence data
for American Bullfrog (Lithobates
catesbeianus) from GBIF and associateddatabases including HerpNet andCONABIO, to model its potential
spread in South America according todifferent climate models for 2050 and
2080. Confirmed the vulnerability of
the Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot
to bullfrog invasion, and warned oflikely future invasions in the AndeanPatagonian forest, eastern Paraguay andnorthwestern Bolivia, where invasive
populations have not been found yet.
north american bullfrog(lithobates catesbeianus) © c.d. howe

09
05

GBIF provides the most comprehensive data site that we use to support our Red List
assessment process. It also provides a very straightforward and easy download process,enabling us to quickly upload the data into our own databases and begin cleaning andprocessing the data prior to mapping.”– Douglas Gibbs, Conservation Initiatives Manager, Botanic Gardens Conservation International.
Local Ecological Footprint Tool (LEFT)
a tool for science and society

During 2011, a team from the Oxford Biodiversity Institute in the
United Kingdom developed a tool to help corporations make smarter
decisions on siting their installations, making extensive use of thedata available through GBIF. 7
The Local Ecological Footprint Tool (LEFT) project is funded by the
Norwegian energy company Statoil. It responds to the demand frombusinesses that have a concession area for extraction or mining,
and want to know at a very fine scale which part of the area they
can impact with the least ecological risk.

data publishing in 2011

To provide that planning guidance, LEFT generates detailed maps
for any land area of the world, showing the distribution of ecologicalfeatures across the landscape at a resolution of 300 metres. Eachgrid cell is assigned an ecological value, based on biodiversity,vulnerability (threatened species), fragmentation, connectivity andresilience – helping companies to decide which areas to avoid.
The biodiversity component is calculated by modelling the expectedoccurrence of species, based on records found through GBIF within
the same ecological region. Local conditions of climate, soils, etc.
are used to map suitable habitats across the wider landscape.

Testing the tool in areas with years of intensive species surveys in
Madagascar, Honduras, South Africa and the Canary Islands, theteam found a close match between the predictions using GBIFmediated data and the diversity of habitats as observed in the field.

The Red List of Rhododendrons– Kathy Willis, Oxford Biodiversity Institute.

The rhododendron assessment is part of a long-term
project to assess the major taxonomic groups oftree species, led by Botanic Gardens Conservation
International (BGCI), a GBIF Associate Participant,in collaboration with Fauna and Flora International,
the Global Trees Campaign, Royal Botanic Garden
Edinburgh and IUCN/SSC.

collaboration and communication

GBIF was absolutely essential fordeveloping this tool, we could
not have managed without it....
The beauty of GBIF is how simple
and straightforward it is to use.”

More than 130 separate datasets are cited frominstitutions all over the world, including herbaria,
natural history museums, surveys and even field notes
published through the GBIF network and accessed via
the GBIF Data Portal.

a connected community

An assessment of more than a thousand taxa of
rhododendrons, over 300 of them threatened withextinction in the wild, was published in 2011 by
the Global Tree Specialist Group of the IUCN
Species Survival Commission (SSC). The Red List of
Rhododendrons8 used data accessed through GBIF
to help map the occurrence of the species in theirnative ranges, mainly in Asia.

an informatics infrastructure

The reports generated by the LEFT tool automatically include
reference to each of the institutions whose data published through
GBIF contributed to the analysis.

102011 awards for innovative use of gbif-mediated data

jens-christian svenning

An ornithologist from Mexico and amarine biologist from Ireland were the2011 winners of the Young ResearcherAward.10

A Danish scientist whose research may help to predictthe response of biodiversity to future climate change
was the 2011 winner of the Ebbe Nielsen Prize,
awarded annually by GBIF to recognize novel use of
biosystematics and biodiversity informatics.9
Jens-Christian Svenning, professor of ecoinformatics
and biodiversity at Aarhus University, was selected
for his work in the field of macroecology, which deals
with the relationship between organisms and theirenvironment at a large scale.

césar antonio ríos-muñoz

Svenning intends to use the €30,000 prize to fundstudies on integrating biodiversity informatics, ecology,
climate modelling and phylogenetics (the study of
evolutionary relatedness among species) to gain abetter understanding of what determines species
diversity, abundance and distribution.
The award was presented at the 18th GBIF Governing
Board meeting in Buenos Aires, Argentina (see facingpage).

conor ryan

We cannot study the impacts of climate change on
biodiversity without access to large amounts of spatial
data on occurrence of species…. GBIF offers a portal
where a large amount of such data can be accessed.”– Jens-Christian Svenning, 2011 GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Prize winner.

César Antonio Ríos-Muñoz and Conor
Ryan, both PhD students, each received€4,000 to help fund research proposals
making innovative use of data madeavailable through the GBIF network.
Studying at the Universidad Nacional
Autónoma de México, Ríos-Muñoz has
been investigating the evolutionary
processes leading to the current
distribution of species in Mesoamerican
lowland tropical forests. Using species
occurrence data published through GBIF,
he analyses current geographic
distributions employing niche modelling
techniques, and projects them backwards
to climate conditions thought to haveexisted during the Pleistocene era.
Conor Ryan, a specialist in marine
mammals at the Galway-Mayo Instituteof Technology, investigates methods ofidentifying the prey of cetaceans andother marine predators, using otoliths(calcareous particles found in the innerear). A database available through GBIF
provides an online catalogue of otolith
images from nearly 700 fish species,
and a shape recognition tool.11 Ryan’s
research tests whether this tool iseffective in identifying the prey species
even when the otoliths have passed
through various stages of digestion.

11

The idea that birthed GBIF ten years ago remains as simple and powerful now as it was
then: to make the world’s biodiversity information freely and universally available forscience, society and a sustainable future.”– Leonard Krishtalka, Chair, GBIF Science Committee, opening the 2011 GBIF Science Symposium.

The 18th meeting of the Governing
Board (GB18) and associated eventswere held in Buenos Aires, Argentina,
from 28 September to 7 October, 2011.

Key Governing Board outcomes
The GBIF Governing Board approved
the appointment of Donald Hobern
as its new Executive Secretary(see Secretariat changes on p 31).

		 Joanne Daly was re-elected as Chair		 of GBIF.
		 The GBIF Work Programme for		 2012-2013 was approved.12
		 A revised budget for 2012 was		 approved.
The Nodes Steering Group was
given official status through an
addendum to the terms of referenceof the Participant Node Managers
Committee.13

		 The Welcome Box for GBIF nodes
		 was presented (see p 21).
		 The Online Resource Centre was		 presented (see p 30).

The 2011 GBIF Science Symposium, GBIF
at 10: Reaping Benefits for Science andSociety, was organized on 5 October as
an associated event of GB18.14

Priorities were identified by the nodes
on a number of themes from the work
programme. Sixty people participatedin the event, representing 33 countries
and five organizations. Topics
discussed included demand-driven data
mobilization, analysis of data gaps, data
citation, improving data quality and
the GBIF portal, metadata, developing
applications, funding, training,regional coordination and others.
Recommendations from the meetingwere ratified by the Governing Board.

Training course on biodiversity
data publishing
A three-day training course for nodes
was held at the MACN, in the days
before the Nodes’ Global Meeting.
The event provided node managers
with information on new biodiversity
data publishing options, building data
discovery and publishing strategies andon data quality and fitness for use.
The course, held in parallel sessions inEnglish, French and Spanish, attracted
43 participants from 36 countries andorganizations. It was led by trainers fromaround the GBIF community, supported
by a wider group that helped withpreparing and translating materials.

gbif science symposium 2011 © j.l. campos

Dr Rovira recalled that Charles Darwin
himself was one of the pioneer
naturalists to record Argentina’s
biological diversity, and said the country
was now striving to improve data
availability in the light of technologicaladvances. She highlighted how GBIF
helped Argentina put in place a national
network of biodiversity information,
supporting conservation.
Jens-Christian Svenning, winner of the2011 Ebbe Nielsen Prize (see p 10),
outlined his work at the symposiumin a presentation entitled On climate
and Earth’s biodiversity – insights fromecoinformatics studies.
The other presentations highlighted
GBIF’s work and impact in its first
decade, from the point of view of eightnational and thematic Participant nodes.
They summarized the experiences ofArgentina, India, South Africa, Australia,
Spain, GBIF partners Sud Expert Plantes(SEP) on the Capacity Enhancement
Programme for Developing Countries(CEPDEC), VertNet and the ScientificCommittee on Antarctic Research(SCAR).
The symposium ended with a lively
panel discussion on expectations for
GBIF’s next decade.

collaboration and communication

In their evaluation of the event, nodemanagers noted particular interestin the sessions on the handling of
metadata and the use of the Darwin
Core Archive format. There was also
an enthusiastic response to having
the sessions and resources in different
languages.

The symposium was opened by the
GBIF Science Committee Chair Leonard
Krishtalka, and by Marta Rovira,President of Argentina’s National Councilof Science and Technological Research(CONICET).

a connected community

		
		
		
		
		

A meeting of GBIF nodes was held at theMuseo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales“Bernardino Rivadavia” (MACN), whichis also the host institution of Argentina’s
GBIF node.

an informatics infrastructure

		
		
		
		

2011 Science Symposium

data publishing in 2011

Participants at the board meeting,held on 4 and 6 October, included
representatives from 30 countries,
12 international organizations andobservers. Meetings of the advisorycommittees, the Nodes’ Global Meeting,a training event in three different
languages, and the annual GBIF Science
Symposium were organized
as associated events.

Nodes’ Global Meetinga tool for science and society

the 18th meeting of the gbif governing board (gb18), buenos aires

12

Data publishing in 2011

GBIF’s tenth year included some important milestones in the continuing effort to mobilize biodiversity dataworldwide, and to make them freely available via the Internet to science and society.
In summary, during 2011:
the total number of indexed records passed 300 million;
more than 50 additional institutions began publishing data through GBIF;
metadata describing a biodiversity dataset was for the first time published as a peer-reviewed‘data paper’ in an academic journal; andpublishing of biodiversity data from environmental impact assessments via GBIF was endorsed
as best practice by the relevant global professional body.

Records indexed by GBIF – some facts and figures
GBIF’s core business is to facilitate the sharing of primary biodiversity records, each representing the occurrenceof a single organism in a particular place at a particular time. Institutions endorsed as data publishers by
GBIF Participants (countries, organizations or economies15) make the records in their datasets available to be‘harvested’ into a central index. This enables the data to be discovered and accessed, for example using thesearch and download functions of the GBIF Data Portal.
Mobilization of biodiversity data through GBIF is work in progress, and the figures on these pages present asnapshot of the state of those efforts by the end of 2011.

number of specimens/occurrence records (millions)
340
320
300
280
260
240
220
200
180
160
140
120

occurrence records indexedgeoreferenced records (without errors)
n
d
2010

j

f

m

a

m

j

j

a

2011

s

o

n

d

j
2012

figure 3. distribution of georeferenced occurrence records indexed by
gbif at end 2011.

figure 4. total number of records indexed during 2011.

The darker, redder colours on this map represent areas
with higher density of records. While it confirms wide
geographical coverage of the species records, it shows
also that the concentration of data does not reflect thetrue distribution of biodiversity – with some of the most
biodiverse, tropical regions still relatively sparse in thenumber of records published.

The number of records indexed by GBIF passed 300
million in August. The lower line represents records withcoordinates not flagged as suspicious. These figures are
the best estimates, but identifying and removing duplicate
records referring to the same actual occurrence is always
a challenge.

13

by origin of biodiversity
europenorth america
oceania
south america
africahigh seas

data records breakdown

asia
8%

)

ions

ill
ds (m

er

b
num
140

ecor
of r

6%
5%

31%

4%
3%

120

all records

100
43%

80

a tool for science and society

by kingdom/type60

unknown/otherdata types

20

6%

observation

0

10%

22%

animalia

specimenplantaeother kingdoms

10%

figure 5. primary biodiversity records by kingdom and record type, at end 2011.

specimen records
only

8%

17%
27%

9%

by host publisher
2%

2%

1%
6%

38%

3%

1%

5%

an informatics infrastructure

In terms of sheer numbers, observations of animals dominate therecords indexed by GBIF, while for plants there is a more even split
between observations and specimens. Where the basis of records is notclearly defined, they appear as ‘unknown’, and a smaller number are
based on other types of record including cultures, fossils, germplasm(e.g. seeds), animals in zoos and living plants in botanical gardens.

data publishing in 2011

40

1%

7%

observation
records only
44%

figure 7. location of species occurrences.

europenorth america
south america
africainternational networks
asia

figure 6. published records by location of host institution.

North American and European institutions continue to host the great
majority of records indexed by GBIF. However, the specimens andobservations they represent include biodiversity from many otherregions.

collaboration and communication

oceania

North America and Europe also accountfor the great majority of records interms of the location of all species
occurrences. However, the geographicalspread is much more even for specimen
records (middle chart). Observation
records (lower chart), especially of
North American and European birds,
overwhelm the numbers. Records
labelled as ‘high seas’16 here are thoseoccurring outside Exclusive Economic
Zones (EEZs), i.e. more than 200
nautical miles (370 kilometres)from land.

a connected community

35%
46%

14

data records breakdown by gbif participant
indexed occurrence records (millions)16

120

indexed by end 2011indexed by end 2010

14

100

12
80

10
8

60

6

40

4
20

2

na
da
fk
or
ea
ir
el
an
ne
d
w
ze
al
an
d

pa
n

re
p.
o

ca

ja

ic
o
m

ex

um

k
ar

lg
i
be

ca
ri

nm
de

n

co
st
a

ca

sp
ai

ri

so

ut

h

af

rw
ay

an
y
rm

ge

fin
l

no

d

s

an

nd

ce

la
er

ne
th

fr
an

au
s

tr
al

u
st nit
at ed
es
ki un
ng it
do ed
m
sw
ed
en

ia

0

6

4

4

2

2

0

0
ta
i
se
ne
ch
i

sc

in

bi
o
in geofo g ocrm ra eapsy ati hic n
st on
em

bi
co
lo
m

bo
lu
xe
m

sw
it
ze
r

la

an
po
l

tr
au
s

ifi
on c ca om
re nta mit
se rc eear tic
ch

8

6

ie
nt

8

na
tu
re
s

10

pe
i

10

te bio
rn ve
at rs
io it
na y
l

12

a

12

ur
g

14

nd

14

d

indexed occurrence records (millions)16

iaindexed occurrence records (millions)
16

er
ve

figure 8a. number of records published by gbif voting participant countries (top 20). note that the three highest-publishing countries to the left are shown
on a different scale.

figure 8b. number of records published by gbif associate participant countries(top five).

figure 8c. number of records published by other gbif associateparticipants (top five).

Institutions from the United States, United Kingdom and Sweden led the way in terms of the number of records publishedthrough GBIF. Australia, Finland, Costa Rica, Belgium and Mexico showed especially sharp increases during 2011. Apparent drops
for some countries and networks do not reflect a decline in data publishing, but result from removing duplicate records found in
the 2010 index total.

total number of species

995,520

number of species with no georeferenced
occurrences

404,618

41%

number of species with at least one
georeferenced occurrence

590,90259%

number of species with at least 10
georeferenced occurrences

227,648

23%

number of species with at least 100
georeferenced occurrences

62,0956%table 1. species represented in the gbif index

Nearly one million species are currently included inoccurrence records indexed by GBIF. For comparison,some 1.3 million species appeared in the 2011
Catalogue of Life. The table shows that well overhalf the species (59%) have at least one record withgeographical coordinates, and nearly one-quarter(23%) have ten or more georeferenced occurrences.

15

During 2011, 53 institutions were endorsed as new
data publishers by GBIF Participants, bringing thetotal number of publishers to 370. Together, thesenew publishers shared 74 datasets containing
a total of nearly 27 million records. A full list of
the new publishers can be found in Appendix 3,
but some highlights of the year’s data publishingactivity are shown on this page.

In Tanzania, The Institute of Traditional Medicine
at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied
Sciences published more than 4,000 records fromits herbarium collections. These include medicinal
plant species recorded by local healers in various
parts of the country, collected and researched at
the Institute for possible use as drugs in Tanzania’s
health care system. The dataset was digitized andpublished through the GBIF node (TanBIF) as aresult of the CEPDEC Tanzania pilot project (seep 23). More information: http://www.muchs.ac.tz/
itm/index.htm

New publishers

In Mexico, the Comisión Nacional para el
Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad(CONABIO) added 267 new datasets to the GBIF
index during 2011, comprising a total of more thana million records and nearly doubling the amountof data so far published by the institution, whichhosts the GBIF national node. Among the most
extraordinary species recorded in CONABIO’s
datasets is the Axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum),a critically endangered salamander (see photo,
middle right), threatened with extinction
by pollution and invasive fish species.
More information: www.conabio.gob.mx

specimen of a purple-crested
turaco (tauraco porphyreolopha
chlorochlamys) in the copenhagenzoological museum © n. ioannou

collaboration and communication

In Denmark, Copenhagen University’s ZoologicalMuseum, part of the Natural History Museum of
Denmark published nearly ten thousand records
from the Aves Tanzanian collection, one of theworld’s largest collections of bird material from
Tanzania, including specimens from the country
dating back to the 1940s. The records cover 18
orders, 64 families, 283 genera and 621 species.
The dataset includes 1,475 image links, madeavailable through a multimedia server operated
by DanBIF, the GBIF national node in Denmark(see photo, bottom right). More information:
http://www.multimedia.danbif.dk/

the critically endangered axolotl
salamander (ambystoma mexicanum)© m.á. sicilia manza connected community

In Australia, the Birds Australia organization (from2012 known as Birdlife Australia) began sharing its
huge Birdata dataset through GBIF, adding morethan seven million records to the network. The
dataset is the gateway to the Atlas of Australian
Birds, compiled by more than 7,000 volunteers
since 1998, covering nearly 800 species fromacross the country, coastal waters and associatedislands, and including repeat surveys to help trackchanges over time. More information: http://www.
birdlife.org.au/projects/atlas-and-birdata

New datasets

an informatics infrastructure

In Cameroon, the Institut de Recherche
Agronomique pour le Développement Cameroun(IRAD Cameroun) published 1,249 records of
60 species from the insect collection of theInternational Institute of Tropical Agriculture,
Cameroon Station (see photo, top right). The
specimens were collected mainly in the humid
forest area of Cameroon using various methods
such as light traps, bait traps, lure traps andincubation of infested plant material. The records
were published as a result of the collaboration
between the GBIF Capacity Enhancement
Programme for Developing Countries (CEPDEC) andthe French programme Sud Expert Plantes (SEP)(see p 23). More information: http://data.gbif.org/
datasets/resource/12992

In Belgium, the Flemish government’s ResearchInstitute for Nature and Forest (INBO) published adataset known as Florabank1, with more than three
million plant records, now accessible through the
GBIF network. It brings together distribution datafor vascular plants in Flanders and the Brussels
Capital Region, dating back to the 19th century.
The database is an initiative of INBO, the Flo.
Wer NGO, and the National Botanic Garden.
More information: www.inbo.be

part of the insect collectionof the international institute oftropical agriculture, cameroon
station © m. tindo

data publishing in 2011

In Estonia, the Natural History Museum of the
University of Tartu published three datasets
including some 90,000 records of animal, plantand fungus specimens. They are from collections in
the museum itself, the Estonian University of Life
Sciences and Tallinn Botanical Garden. It is the firsttime non-fossil biodiversity data hosted in Estonia
have been published since the country became a
GBIF Participant. More information:
http://natmuseum.ut.ee

a tool for science and society

New publishers and datasets

16

Promoting a data publishingcultureA number of initiatives aimed at providing
incentives and guidance to encourage thepublication of biodiversity data came tofruition in 2011.

Data papers
A partnership between the GBIF
Secretariat and Pensoft Publishers,
supported by the European Union’s
Virtual Biodiversity Research and AccessNetwork for Taxonomy (ViBRANT),developed a workflow to publish
biodiversity data papers. These arepeer-reviewed papers derived directlyfrom a metadata document, thedescription of a biodiversity dataset
published through GBIF.
The data paper manuscript is generated
automatically when metadata arecompiled using the GBIF Integrated
Publishing Toolkit (IPT). The paper
and the associated dataset then goes
through a rigorous review process prior
to publication.
The aim of the data paper concept is toprovide incentives and due recognition
for those publishing data and enriched
metadata. By facilitating subsequentcitation of datasets in other, moreconventional publications, it will also
help build a clearer picture of how andwhere biodiversity data are being used.
Finally, the peer review process can help
to add quality to the dataset itself (seeseparate panel on this page).

EIA data publishing
A best practice guide on publishingprimary biodiversity data fromenvironmental impact assessment(EIA)17 was produced by GBIF, in
collaboration with the International
Association for Impact Assessment(IAIA). The publication responds toconcern that vital data gathered in
the preparation of EIAs, relating tooccurrence of species at and arounda proposed project site, are often
discarded and lost at the end of the
project planning process.

The guide provides information forenvironmental assessment professionals
on preparing datasets and publishingthem using global standards andprotocols. Pilot projects in South Africa
and India have helped to develop
tools to facilitate the publication of
biodiversity data from EIA through the
GBIF network.
A similar publication for mobilizing
biodiversity data from local government
bodies is being prepared in 2012, incollaboration with Local Governments
for Sustainability (ICLEI) and theConvention on Biological Diversity(CBD).

Data publishing framework
A comprehensive framework to
encourage and facilitate the sharingof biodiversity data was publishedin a special supplement of the peerreviewed journal BMC Bioinformatics.18
The papers included in the supplement
built on the recommendations of the
GBIF Data Publishing Framework Task
Group, detailed in the 2010 Annual
Report.
Some of the 24 recommendations of
the Task Group have already been taken
up by GBIF and others, including the
publication of data papers as describedon this page, and the first version ofa biodiversity informatics potential
index, aiming to prioritize investment
in filling data gaps. Others are in thepipeline, including a data usage index tomonitor the use of data shared through
GBIF; new data citation guidelines toensure all those involved in collecting,adding value to and publishing data
are acknowledged in a single citation;and proposals for a data hosting
infrastructure to help find publishinginstitutions for ‘orphan’ datasets.

A century of Indian bird
records described in first
GBIF ‘data paper’
The first-ever peer-reviewed data paper
based on biodiversity metadata waspublished by Pensoft in the 150th issueof the open-access ZooKeys journal,
in November 201119. It was derived
from a literature-based dataset of morethan 2,400 bird records from northeast
India, published through GBIF, and wasdeveloped through a project under the
GBIF mentoring programme.
A team led by Sujit Narwade of theBombay Natural History Society (BNHS)
described bird observations in eleven
Indian states between 1909 and 2008,
centred on the Himalayan biodiversity
hotspot. They were drawn mainly fromthe Journal of the Bombay Natural History
Society (JBNHS).
The paper, entitled Literature based
species occurrence data of birds ofnortheast India describes which bird
families are included in the dataset, as
well as the range of dates, coordinates andaltitudes of the occurrences, among otherinformation.
The data paper underwent a rigorous
review process lasting nearly threemonths before being accepted for
publication in ZooKeys. The reviewers not
only addressed the metadata description,
but also suggested improvements to thedataset itself, adding a layer of quality
control to the data available to users of
GBIF web services.
top photo: rufous-bellied niltava(niltava sundara) © umeshsrinivasan

1705

An informatics infrastructure

Substantial progress was made in informatics during 2011, including:a tool for science and society

A fundamental part of GBIF’s work is to build, improve and sustain a stable and well-functioning
informatics infrastructure. Challenges include: the complexity of creating unambiguous, uniquerecords in the face of constantly-changing taxonomy and multiple data aggregators; reconcilingthe need for data quality control with operating a highly-distributed system of data publishing;
and accommodating ever-growing volumes and types of data, including genomic and ecologicalinformation.

rolling out the second version of GBIF’s Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT v2), widely
recognized as greatly simplifying the data sharing process;substantial improvements to the GBIF taxonomic backbone, helping to return more consistent
results from species searches;

adopting a scalable platform, using a cluster of computers working in parallel that can be
expanded according to need, enabling GBIF to accommodate future growth in the volume ofdata processing.

Improving GBIF’s Integrated Publishing
Toolkit

The IPT is the recommended platform for institutions tomake their data available for harvesting into the GBIF
index, using the Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) standard,
although other protocols (e.g. DiGIR, BioCASE, TAPIR)
continue to be supported.

standard metadata documents (data about
datasets, using the GBIF Metadata Profile) can besubmitted as data papers to scholarly journals(see p 16);

		
		
		
		

support has been added for publishing taxonomic
checklists, regional species lists, red lists andother species lists using the DwC-A standard(see p 19);

		
		
		
		

IPT installations can be shared by several data
publishing institutions while keeping clear
attribution for each dataset (see side panel on
the following page); and

		
		
		
		
		

extensions to the Darwin Core Archive, giving
additional information not currently indexed
centrally by GBIF, can be added to local IPT
installations – and included in metadata
descriptions recorded in the GBIF Registry.

collaboration and communication

		
		
		
		

a connected community

The GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT), a
software platform to simplify data publishing on
the Internet, underwent a major overhaul in 2011.
It is now much more stable, efficient and easy to use.

Among the major innovations introduced in IPT v2 are:an informatics infrastructure

the ability to publish and register species checklists, enabling their subsequent indexing anddiscovery through the GBIF Data Portal; anddata publishing in 2011a range of processing improvements to reduce delay between the updating of datasets and theappearance of those changes in the GBIF Data Portal; and to flag suspect geographicallocations of species occurrences;

18
04

how biodiversity data are published through gbif%

IPT v2 – notes from a user

60
publishers (%) 2011
publishers (%) 2010

50
40
30
20
10

er
ot
h

a
ip
t+

dw
c-

ir
ta
p

r
gi
di

bi

oc
a

se

0

figure 9. usage of data publishing protocols, by percentage of publishers

occurrence records (%) 2011%

occurrence records (%) 201040

A couple of months ago, Canadensys [a Canadian network
dedicated to sharing data from biological collections] wascontacted by Wildlife Sightings, a citizen science organization
based in Nova Scotia. They were interested in publishing
their data to the GBIF network. We have had similar
requests before, but until now we always had to decline
them because we didn’t have the time or technical resources
to support them. Publishing data was challenging and thedifferent components involved didn’t really interact.
With the arrival of IPT v2, this has changed completely. We
finally have a complete publication workflow, where all thecomponents are working together. The technical thresholdfor publishing data has decreased considerably: our hosted
IPT allowed Wildlife Sightings to publish their data to the
GBIF portal in less than two months and it has enabled
other Canadian biodiversity data publishers to publish
more quickly as well. In addition, the registration processensures that all credit goes to the data publishers (and not
Canadensys), so the social threshold of publishing on ahosted service has decreased as well.
The complete publication workflow is what I have dreamed
about since I first started working with GBIF in 2006.

30

I would like to thank the GBIF development team forcreating such an easily customizable tool.”
20–Peter Desmet, Biodiversity Informatics Manager,
Canadensys.
10

top photo: cecropia caterpillar (hyalophora cecropia)© p. lindgreen, www.junponline.com

ot
he
r

a
dw
cip
t+

ir
ta
p

di
gi
r

bi
oc
a

se

0

figure 10. use of data publishing protocols, by percentage of occurrence
records

The availability of the DwC-A standard and compliant
tools such as IPT v2 has resulted in significant growthin the volume of data published via GBIF. For example,
this was instrumental in enabling Australia to increase
the number of records published from five million to 20
million in 2011 (see figure 8a, p 14).
By the end of 2011, 43 instances of the new IPT version
had been registered with GBIF. This helped to increase
substantially the proportion of publishers using DwC-A,
either through IPT v2 or other software (see figure 9).
For the first time in 2011, DwC-A accounted for thelargest number of occurrence records indexed by GBIF
(see figure 10).

Data processing improvements
During 2011, improvements in workflow reduced theaverage processing time for data published via GBIF
from five or six days to two days. This has enabledmore frequent publication cycles, so there is a shorter
delay between a host institution adding or changing
data and a user being able to see those changes in the
GBIF Data Portal.
Smarter interpretation of geographical coordinates
has enabled the Data Portal to present much cleaner
results for user searches. New processing introduced
in 2011 excluded many errors which previously showed
up when searching for records from a particular country(see panel on following page).
The ‘taxonomic backbone’ used by GBIF to organize
species records has been redeveloped to provide moreconsistent results when users search for species in the
portal. This backbone is based on authoritative checklist
sources, including the Catalogue of Life 2011 and theIntegrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).

19
05

Publishing checklists through GBIFThe Indexing for Life (i4Life) project aims to link andharmonize the various species catalogues used by six
major biodiversity programmes: GBIF, the European
Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), LifeWatch, the IUCN Red
List, Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) and the Consortium for
the Barcode of Life (CBOL). GBIF’s major contribution
to this activity has been to develop and promote the
Global Names Architecture (GNA) profile, a data standard
allowing species checklists to be published using DwC-A.

data publishing in 2011

GBIF issued a number of awards in 2010 to assist withmobilization of species checklists. This contributed tothe publication of more than 70 checklists in 2011. They
include the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species, theGlobal Invasive Species Database, International Plant
Names Index and World Register of Marine Species,
as well as a variety of more specific regional andtaxonomic lists (for a full list, see Appendix 2).

an informatics infrastructure

During 2011, the major benefits that came from publishingchecklists were improved organization of data and better
performance for users of GBIF services. The checklist
data will be more clearly visible from 2012/13 as therevised Data Portal begins to deliver much richer
species information than is currently available.

Accommodating data growth

Knowledge organization systems project begun

The second map shows how a US search actually appeared before
2011: the ‘shadow’ has been partially removed, because interpretation
excludes those records where the coordinates lie outside the bordersof the named country. However, errors remain due to continuing bugs,
and records from US territorial waters are excluded.
The third map shows the search result following the 2011 processing
improvements. All geospatial errors have been removed, and marine
records within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the United States,
i.e. within 200 nautical miles off the coast, are interpreted as US records,
giving a much clearer picture of the biodiversity resources of the country.

collaboration and communication

The various informatics standards developed for biodiversity
data publishing often use different terms to describe similar
or identical concepts. This can create barriers to integrating
datasets across different systems. To help address the issue,
GBIF began a project in 2011 to develop a new Knowledge
Organization System, for managing the terms and concepts
used to describe biodiversity information resources. The
project is led by knowledge systems engineer Dag Endresen,
recruited with funding support from the European Union’s
Virtual Biodiversity Research and Access Network for
Taxonomy (ViBRANT).

The first map shows an uncorrected view of all records published to
the GBIF network with the United States specified as the country ofoccurrence. Among many other errors, notice there is a ‘shadow’ or
mirror image of the US in east Asia. This is because records wherelongitude values are wrongly given as positive instead of negative are‘flipped’ to the other side of the world.

a connected community

In 2011, GBIF adopted a technology based on the
Hadoop platform to accommodate future data
growth. It allows the addition of more machines tothe processing infrastructure, as an alternative toacquiring bigger and bigger servers. The resulting
cluster of machines, distributed in different locations,can support increases in processing speed and involumes of data handled.
This framework has also allowed the standardizationof the processing for other initiatives, such as acollaboration with the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) to
serve data published through GBIF to maps on the
EOL species pages (for details see p 29).

a tool for science and society

how gbif ‘cleaned up’ map of us biodiversity records

20

A connected community

GBIF is, above all, a global collaborative effort, depending on a wide range of programmes andstructures to ensure its Participants have the capacity and tools to contribute to and benefit fromfree and open access to biodiversity data.
The tenth year of the organization’s existence proved a good moment to reflect on the progress
made by the community of Participant nodes, and to set some new priorities for the future,especially in development of regional structures.
In summary, during 2011:
the number of GBIF Country Participants grew to 57, and the number of participantorganizations and economies grew to 47;
a Nodes Steering Group was formally established, with representatives from six regions, andthree regional nodes meetings were held;a ‘Welcome Box’ was released to support new node managers in the first stages of setting
up a biodiversity information facility;
four mentoring grants were awarded to help GBIF Participants share skills and experience;
GBIF-supported capacity enhancement projects led to the publication of several African
datasets, as well as development of a GIS-based decision tool in Tanzania;
GBIF nodes in Norway and India collaborated in a pilot capacity-building project for the new
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 		
around the use of camera-trap data in conservation planning;regional training events in South America, Africa and Asia involved 179 people and 25
countries and organizations, under a new programme of regional training support; andtwo global training events were organized.

voting participants
associate country participants

figure 11. gbif country participation at the end of 2011.

21

GBIF participation in 2011

Regional nodes collaboration

The Welcome Box is a set of documents and resources
to assist new node managers in the first steps ofsetting up a biodiversity information facility (BIF).
The first version of the Welcome Box was launched in2011 at the Governing Board meeting in Buenos Aires(see separate panel on p 11) and includes informationon collaboration opportunities, requirements forestablishing a GBIF national node, opportunities forengagement and guidance on available support. All of
the resources are provided on a CD-ROM and throughthe GBIF Online Resource Centre.
At the end of 2011, approximately half of GBIF’s Country
Participants still did not have a functional national
BIF. The Welcome Box is the first of a suite of tools
being developed, to help participants to establish
a BIF.

some of the resources in the welcome box

an informatics infrastructure

Significant progress was made in 2011 towards bettercollaboration between GBIF nodes at a regional level.
Three independently financed regional nodes meetings
were organized in Africa (South Africa), Europe(France) and Latin America (Uruguay). These meetingscomplement the global-level activities of the GBIF
Participant Nodes Committee, and provide a setting
for identifying regional priorities and opportunities inrelation to the GBIF work programme, based on sharedinterests and existing regional collaboration processes.

Welcome Box and BIF-building package

data publishing in 2011

Kenya moved from Associate Country Participant to
Voting Participant in 2011, and five other countries(Benin, Colombia, Ghana, Madagascar and Uganda)
announced their intention to move from Associate
to Voting Participant at the beginning of 2012. Thisbrought the participation totals by the end of 2011 to:
33 Voting Participants (i.e. countries making a financial
contribution); 24 Associate Country Participants;
and 47 Other Associate Participants (for full list,
see Appendix 5).

a tool for science and society

The year saw a modest further expansion in the
network of countries and international organizations
making up the community of GBIF Participants. The
Central African Republic and the Republic of Congojoined as Associate Country Participants, and theInternational Barcode of Life Consortium (iBOL) joinedas Other Associate (i.e. organizational) Participant.

The GBIF Governing Board officially established a
Nodes Steering Group with representatives drawn fromsix regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North
America and Oceania. This steering group provided
significant input to the development of the 2012-2013
Work Programme, organized regional meetings andmade a variety of contributions to the work of theSecretariat and the GBIF Science Committee.

a connected community
collaboration and communication

22

Mentoring between GBIF Participants
The GBIF mentoring programme helps leverage and enhance capacity
across the network by promoting partnerships between nodes forthe transfer of expertise. Since its start in 2003, the programme has
provided small grants to support 15 projects, involving 24 countries.
Four mentoring project grants were awarded in 2011.
		
		
		
		
		
		
		

A grant was provided for GhaBIF, the node for Ghana, to be
mentored by NLBIF (The Netherlands) in hosting and exporting
digitized specimen records to GBIF. The project also has anexperimental component, testing the gathering and publishingof citizen science data. In 2011, two staff members from GhaBIF
were trained in ecological niche modelling, and data publishingefforts were begun.

		
		
		
		
		
		
		

In a project begun in 2011, a new GBIF Participant, the Central
African Republic, is being mentored both by GBIF France andCameroon. The project aims to contribute to setting up a national
BIF, developing a node strategy and training node staff on GBIF
tools. It will train holders of collection and observation data indigitization and data publication techniques, and define a data
mobilization strategy for the country.

		
		
		
		
		
		

UgaBIF, the national node for Uganda, was mentored by the GBIF
Associate Participant ETI Bioinformatics in developing a web
portal on the country’s biodiversity, and in developing plans forthe mobilization of biodiversity data. UgaBIF staff were trainedin data management, and the portal launched towards the endof 2011.20

		
		
		
		
		
		
		

The Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), which hosts
the node for Costa Rica, mentored Chile, a GBIF Participant since2009. The focus during 2011 was on supporting a national
assessment of databases of biological specimen collections.
IT staff and network managers will be trained in data management
tools, and infrastructure will be developed to establish abiodiversity information network in Chile.

The year also saw further outputs from mentoring projects funded in
2010.
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), which hosts the Indian nationalnode, was mentored by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) in
building a strategy to mobilize data. An action plan for an Indian
BIF was developed, and personnel trained on the IPT v2 during
a workshop in Kolkata on mobilization of data from natural
history collections (see Regional Training section on p 25).
The mentoring project also led to the publication of the first
GBIF data paper (see p 16).

		
		
		
		
		
		
		

Kenya was mentored by GBIF Finland in the setting up of abiodiversity information facility, resulting in the official launchof the national node, KenBIF. A stakeholders’ meeting was heldin Nairobi, at which the nodes from Finland, Spain, South Africa
and Tanzania shared their experiences on node governance, data
sources and mobilization and data sharing, all of which havehelped KenBIF plan their next steps.

Camera trap project
showcases capacity
building for IPBES
A project involving GBIF nodes inIndia and Norway, launched in 2011,
will demonstrate how digitized datafrom camera traps can be used tohelp conservation policy. It is a pilot
project initiated by the Norwegian
government to address the capacity
building component of the new
Intergovernmental Science-Policy
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES).21
The project focuses on developing
strategies for the conservation of tigers
and associated species in India’s Rajaji
National Park, and snow leopards in
Sikkim. A substantial amount of new
data and metadata records are expected
to be published through GBIF, andnational workshops will be organizedin India on the digitization of cameratrap photos and data management forscientists and technicians.
The main objective of the pilot projectis to build capacity for the sharing of
biodiversity data in India to be used inpolicy and decision-making. It includes
a mapping of relevant biodiversity
data originating from India and held
in Norway’s natural history museum
collections.
The project is led by the NorwegianInstitute for Nature research (NINA) in
collaboration with the Wildlife Instituteof India (WII), Norwegian Biodiversity
Information Centre (NBIC), theUniversity of Oslo (UiO) and the GBIF
Secretariat in Copenhagen.
top photo: camera trap image of tiger
from rajaji national park, india© a. harihar & i. hussain

23

GBIF capacity enhancement projects

		 plant records from the National Herbarium of		 Cameroon;		 insect records from the International Institute		 of Tropical Agriculture, Cameroon (see New
		 Publishers on p 15) ; and		 records of flowering plants from the Mount Nimba
		 area in Guinea.
The SEP-CEPDEC project also facilitated a regional
training event in Benin, in collaboration with Togo
and Burkina Faso (see p 25) .

an informatics infrastructure

Ninety-five people were trained in the use of the TanBIF
GIS tool in two workshops. Some of the trainees willthemselves become trainers to help others use thetool. Its use was showcased in a study looking at
the habitat suitability for the invasive Parthenium
plant, also known as feverfew. Native to the Americas,
Parthenium has had major impacts on crop production
in parts of Africa, India and Australia. The results ofthe study indicated that the most vulnerable areas in
Tanzania were those rich in biodiversity, such as theEastern Arc Mountains, Serengeti National Park andArusha National Park.22

		 records of plants from the National Herbarium
		 of Benin, based at the University of Abomey-Calavi;
data publishing in 2011

A major product of the project for 2011 wasdevelopment of a decision-making tool based on the
open-source Quantum-GIS software. The tool uses
ecological niche modelling to help users to predict
species distributions more easily, and consequently
to make more informed decisions (see Training
Resources, p 25).

a tool for science and society

A project to enhance access to and use of dataon Tanzania’s biodiversity through the Capacity
Enhancement Programme for Developing Countries(CEPDEC), financed by the Danish government,
continued its activities in 2011.

The CEPDEC project also supported a workshop on
using the GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT v2),
in Dar es Salaam in June 2011, and resulted in the
publication of nine datasets to the TanBIF portal(for an example see New Publishers on p 15).
  The three-year collaboration between the GBIF CEPDEC
and the French programme Sud Expert Plantes (SEP),
formally concluded in 2010, continued to produce
results in 2011. Through support from the project anumber of datasets were published, including:rhododendron acrophilum, mt. mantalingajan, palawan, philippines. grown at royal botanic garden edinburgh © g. argent

a connected community
collaboration and communication

24

some news stories from around the gbif community in 2011
Second version of Ireland’s
Biodiversity Maps released
Ireland’s GBIF Node, the National
Biodiversity Data Centre, released thesecond version of its online data portal
Biodiversity Maps.

Germany, stored on a 1980s Mac
computer; and an extensive surveyof mosses from the Canary Islands,
compiled for a PhD thesis and stored on
3.5 inch floppy discs.
More information: http://rebind.bgbm.
org/

The system, built on an ESRI platform
and using Microsoft Silverlight software,
now provides the biodiversity mappingneeds for the terrestrial and marine
environment of Ireland.
Eighty datasets, comprising two million
observations of 12,000 species (onethird of all known Irish species) are now
mobilized, and feeding automaticallyinto the GBIF data portal.
More information: http://maps.
biodiversityireland.ie

German research team targets ‘atrisk’ data on biodiversity
A German-based project, launched in2011, aims to rescue biodiversity data
which are not integrated in institutional
databases, are kept in outdated digital
storage systems, or are not properly
documented, and are therefore at riskof being lost.

The National Science Foundation (NSF)
awarded a five-year, US$ 10 million
grant to Florida State University andthe University of Florida to coordinate
the digitization of the nation’s
biological collections.
The project, called Integrated Digitized
Biocollections or iDigBio, involves 92
institutions in 45 states.

© c.m. vizitiu

Australia’s Volunteer Portal is open
for business
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), in
partnership with the Australian Museum(AM), developed an online volunteer
portal for members of the public tohelp capture non-digital (typed or
handwritten) information that describes
collection material within Australianmuseums.
The aim of the project is to encourage
volunteers to work on transcribing
specimen labels, field notes andexpedition diaries from various
Australian museums, turning them into
digitized records.
By the end of 2011, over 100 volunteers
had joined the programme and around
7,000 individual tasks were completed.
More information: http://volunteer.ala.
org.au/The reBiND (Biodiversity Needs Data)
project, run by the Botanic Garden
and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem,
started identifying threatened
databases for archiving, and will makethem accessible via the GBIF network.
Among the first datasets ‘rescued’ by
the project were observations froma private beetle collection in South$10 million grant to coordinate
digitization of US collections

The information in the digitizedcollections will include field notes,
photographs, 3-D images andinformation on associated organisms,
geographic distribution, environmental
habitat and specimen DNA samples.
The natural history data will be madeavailable to anyone online, and GBIF
is collaborating with the project toensure the data can be published to
the network.

White House advisers call for new
eco-informatics body
The United States President’s Councilof Advisors on Science and Technology(PCAST) proposed a new national
informatics facilitating body, with thesuggested name of EcoINFORMA.
In its report published in July 2011, theadvisers argued that the United Statesshould continue to support and provide
data and expertise to global data
initiatives including GBIF, to strengtheninternational global-change research
focused on ecosystem services andtheir sustainability.
The report also noted that global
observing and informatics systems,
such as GEO-BON and GBIF, wererequired to supply the newly
established Intergovernmental
Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

specimen label of hawk moth © ala

25

GBIF training in 2011

Regional training support
In 2011, GBIF moved to a system of public calls fortraining proposals with a regional dimension. This ispart of the GBIF regionalization strategy. The regional
component of such events may receive financial
support, either for trainers or trainees.

Training Workshop on Species Catalogues for
Latin America by GBIF Spain.23
Montevideo (Uruguay), March 2011.
Partners: AndinoNET, Argentina, Chile, Colombia,
Costa Rica, Cuba, IABIN, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru
and Spain.
Number of participants: 20

		
		
		
		
		
		

Training Workshop on Biological Georeferencing
by SABIF.24
Cape Town (South Africa), April 2011.
Partners: Ghana, Kenya, Mauritania, South Africa
and Tanzania.
Number of participants: 23		Resources produced by the GBIF network in 2011 tosupport training included:
		 IPT v2 user manual27, explaining how to install the		 tool and providing examples of use;		 presentations and exercises linked to the IPT v2
		 from the experts’ workshop held in Copenhagen		 in June28 (see left);
		
		
		
		
		
		

presentations and exercises on new data
publishing methods for names and occurrencedata, and metadata for biodiversity datasets, inEnglish, Spanish and French, from the training
event held in Buenos Aires in September29(see panel on p 11);

		
		
		
		
		
		

training DVD about the TanBIF decision-making
support tool30 containing training materials, user
manuals, Tanzanian datasets, and a customized
version of Quantum GIS, which includes an Open
Modeller plug-in for ecological niche modelling(see section on CEPDEC, p 23); and

		
		
		
		

the French version of the GBIF training manualon the digitization of natural history collection 		data consisting of six separate texts and runningto 600 pages.

A full list of GBIF publications from 2011 can be foundin Appendix 4.The publications are all available via the
GBIF Online Resource Centre.

collaboration and communication

		
		
		
		
		
		
		

Training resources

a connected community

In 2011, four projects were awarded training support,
involving 179 individuals and 25 countries andorganizations.

Second National Meeting about Biodiversity
Data Sharing by GBIF Benin.26
Cotonou (Benin), August 2011.
Partners: Benin, Burkina Faso and Togo.
Number of participants: 102

an informatics infrastructure

The second global training event, associated with
the Governing Board meeting in Buenos Aires, was athree-day course for GBIF nodes on biodiversity data
publishing and fitness for use. Details are given in thepanel on p 11.

		
		
		
		
		

data publishing in 2011

Two global training events were organized in 2011.
The first was an experts’ workshop on the installation
and use of the new version of the Integrated Publishing
Toolkit (IPT v2, see p 17). Held in Copenhagen in June,
the workshop helped specialists from around the GBIF
community to become trainers in their regions, or tooffer helpdesk support for the community. Twenty-one
participants from 19 countries and organizations weretrained in the workshop.

Strategies for Digitization and Mobilization of
Natural History Collections Data by GBIF India.
Kolkata (India), June 2011.25
Partners: ACB, Australia, ICIMOD, India, Japanand Republic of Korea.
Number of participants: 34

a tool for science and society

During 2011, GBIF continued to place strong emphasison training to help develop a decentralized, global
network of biodiversity information facilities. The
approach of ‘training the trainers’ and support forregional training collaborations were reflected in theevents organized during the year (for a summary, see
map on next page).

		
		
		
		
		

26

GBIF training, mentoring and capacity enhancement in 2011

training courses organized by the gbif secretariat
1 gbif integrated publishing

2 biodiversity data publishingtoolkit v2.
copenhagen, denmark
june 2011,21 participants

and fitness for use in the
gbif network.
buenos aires, argentina
september 2011,43 participants

regional training courses supported by gbif core funds
3 species catalogues

4 biologicalfor latin america.
organizer: piib
montevideo, uruguay
march 2011,20 participants

5 digitization ofgeoreferencing.
organizer: sabif
cape town, south africa
april 2011,23 participants

natural history
collections data.
organizer: gbif india
kolkata, india
june 2011,34 participants

6 biodiversity data

sharing.
organizer:
gbif benincotonou, benin
august 2011,
102 participants

10

15
12

15

mentoring project grants awarded in 2011
12 ghabif mentored

by nlbif

13 central african

14 ugabif mentored by

15 chile mentored byrepublic
mentored by
gbif france andcamerooneti bioinformatics

inbio, costa rica

3
2

27

some national and organizational training courses held during 2011
7 integration of large

8 tools for biodiversity-

918

9 modelling and mapping

10 sharing biodiversity

species distributions.
organizer: nlbif
amsterdam,
the netherlands
june 2011,35 participants

data for urban
authorities.
organizers:
gbif, iclei, cbd
montreal, canada
august 2011,20 participants

11 biodiversity data

management principles.
organizer: arcos
kigali, rwanda
december 2011,20 participants

data publishing in 2011

117

related decision making.
organizer: tanbif
arusha, tanzania
june 2011,
40 participants

7

12

13

an informatics infrastructure

16
5

6
13

a tool for science and society

biodiversity databases
for macroecologicalresearch.
organizer: gbif finlandjoensuu, finland
may 2011,
13 participants

13

17
11

14
18

a connected community

8

4

16

16 wildlife institute ofindia mentored by
the atlas of living
australia

17 kenbif mentored by

gbif finland

continuing capacity enhancement projects
18 tanzania supported through the cepdec

programme, funded by the danish
government

for more details, see pp 22-23.

collaboration and communication

continuing mentoring projects

28

Collaboration and communication

Through its Participants and Secretariat, GBIF continued to engage with a wide range of institutions andnetworks during 2011, both through formal partnerships and a range of ongoing collaborations. A list of
GBIF’s formal affiliations and accreditations is shown in Appendix 8. Several new communication features
were launched during the year, to improve coordination between the Secretariat and the Participants, andto enhance the visibility of data publishing and scientific uses of GBIF-mediated data.
Significant collaborative projects and communication milestones during the year included:
the GBIF Secretariat helped to convene a joint work programme under the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) to strengthen the information available to decision makers on invasive alien species;
technical collaboration with the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) resulted in automatic harvesting of occurrence
data for EOL species maps, and a more streamlined process for publishing data to both EOL and GBIF;
a joint workshop with partners in the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network(GEO-BON) helped clarify existing observation capabilities for meeting the CBD’s 2020 targets;
the GBIF Online Resource Centre (ORC) was launched, acting as a searchable repository for manuals anddocuments useful to the whole biodiversity data publishing community;
GBIF increased its presence on social media and was featured in numerous online and print publications; andthe bimonthly newsletter GBits was relaunched with more attractive layout and new content including
regular features on new data publishers, science use cases and stories contributed from around the GBIF
network.

Action plan for information on invasive
alien species

The programme identified nearly 50 action points. GBIF
is taking the lead on several of these, including:

A workshop was held at the GBIF Secretariat in
Copenhagen in September bringing together eightorganizations managing information on invasive alien
species (IAS), to develop a joint work programme.
This wide-ranging programme, subsequently approvedby the CBD’s Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technicaland Technological Advice (SBSTTA), will improveinformation access for decision makers by combining
and harmonizing data on IAS from a wide range ofdifferent databases and networks.31

		 supporting data elements on invasive alien species
		 within the DwC-A formats used by data publishers
		 in the GBIF network;

The information services involved are: GBIF; theInvasive Species Specialist Group of the Species
Survival Commission of the IUCN; the CABI Invasive
Species Compendium; FishBase; Delivering Alien
Invasive Species Inventories for Europe; the European
Network on Invasive Alien Species; the Global Invasive
Species Information Network; and the Inter-American
Biodiversity Information Network Invasives Information
Network.

		 promoting the use of the GBIF Integrated
		 Publishing Toolkit (IPT) to publish data for IAS;
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		

‘tagging’ species in the GBIF Data Portal to makeit easier to extract country lists of invasive alien
species, and making the millions of existing
records on IAS available to other information 		
systems;
promoting the publication of names of invasive
alien species within the Global Names Architecture,
to facilitate consistent recording and sharing ofdata on these species; and		 helping identify gaps in data on IAS and developing		 strategies to mobilize them.

29

GEO-BON engagement and the 2020 Aichi
Targets

Two significant new capabilities resulted fromcontinuing technical collaboration during 2011 between
GBIF and the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), a GBIF
Associate Participant, which launched a new versionof its website in September (http://eol.org).

GBIF continued to be actively involved in the Group on
Earth Observations - Biodiversity Observation Network(GEO-BON) in 2011. Among the significant outcomesfrom this collaboration, a workshop organized by
NASA, IUCN, United Nations Environment Programme- World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEPWCMC), GBIF, DIVERSITAS and European Biodiversity
Observation Network (EBONE) at the Universityof Wageningen, Netherlands, produced the report
Adequacy of Biodiversity Observation Systems to
support the CBD 2020 Targets.32

The interface between the GBIF index and theoccurrence maps on EOL’s species pages has now been
automated, so that the occurrence points seen by EOL
users will always reflect the latest update of the data
published through the GBIF network.

The document revealed the relevance of GBIF inproviding information for many of the targets, andbecame one of the principal information documents for
the CBD’s Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group Meeting on
Indicators for the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 20112020, held in High Wycombe, UK in June.

– Erick Mata, Director, Encyclopedia of Life.

collaboration and communication						a connected community

I am delighted that our collaboration with GBIF is entering a new phase withthe launch of EoLv2. Both organizations strive to make scientific data on
species available to users around the world, and our established partnershiphelps significantly to streamline the dissemination and integration of thisdata to provide even greater global access to knowledge about life on Earth.”

an informatics infrastructure

The development aims to allow GBIF nodes, forexample, to make species-level information accessible
to EOL as they publish their occurrence data to the
GBIF infrastructure. The Costa Rican GBIF node,Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), has
successfully tested this by serving a combination of
species information for use by EOL, and occurrence
data which have been harvested by GBIF.

The report was the first attempt to assess theadequacy of global observation systems for themonitoring of biodiversity, specifically in relation to
the information needs of the twenty Aichi Targets
defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD) for the period 2011-2020.

data publishing in 2011

In addition, EOL can now harvest information from GBIF
content partners and others using the DwC-A format
and a new EOL ‘transfer schema’ that can express thecomplex associations between entities required for its
750,000 species pages, while avoiding duplication with
the GBIF publishing workflow. This will streamline data
publishing and enable GBIF and EOL to collaborate insupporting data publishers.

a tool for science and society

Technical collaboration with Encyclopediaof Life

30

Other collaborations in 2011

Online Resource Centre

GBIF has continued to provide web services for theEuropean approach to the Global Earth Observation
System of Systems (EuroGEOSS), in particular to theDigital Observatory for Protected Areas (DOPA).

The Online Resource Centre was launched at the 18th
meeting of the Governing Board (GB18) held in Buenos
Aires, Argentina in October 2011. The resource centre isa single, user-friendly access point to documents, tools
and links that are of relevance to GBIF and the wider
biodiversity informatics community.

GBIF became a member of the Species 2000 network,
which aims to create a validated checklist of all species
through the Catalogue of Life. In becoming a member,
GBIF contributes to the development and direction of
the catalogue.
Continuing collaboration with the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) resulted,
amongst other things, in the installation of the GBIF
Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) on the Red List
database.
A technical collaboration with the European
Environment Agency (EEA), a GBIF Associate
Participant, helped in the development of a new
citizen-science based platform to help track the spreadof invasive alien species. The NatureWatch programme,part of the EEA’s Eye on Earth platform, includes asmartphone application enabling users to registeroccurrences of invasive species.
GBIF served on the framework committee of the Eye on
Earth Summit which took place in Abu Dhabi, United
Arab Emirates in December 2011. The summit resulted
in the launch of several special initiatives including a
Global Network of Networks (GNoN), in which GBIF isa named stakeholder.

the gbif online resource centre

The resource centre has a simple, clean interface,supports diverse resource types and has multilanguage capability. It has been designed to enable thecommunity to play a central role by rating resources
and publishing their opinions as well as sharing themthrough social platforms.

Communications in 2011
Several additions were made to GBIF’s communications
resources in 2011. GBIF started to make more active
use of social media technologies, including the creationof a new Facebook page. The GBIF Twitter feed (@gbif )is now embedded on the re-designed home page of thewebsite www.gbif.org. The GBIF LinkedIn group also
saw renewed activity during 2011, and ended the yearwith more than 500 members representing a wide crosssection of the biodiversity information community
worldwide.

gbif on social media sites

31

a tool for science and society

The bimonthly newsletter GBits underwent a complete
redesign in 2011, aiming to present a more readable
and attractively-presented summary of activities
across the network. Prominent new features include a
description of new institutions publishing data through
GBIF, and a greater focus on examples of scientific useof GBIF-mediated data. GBits had more than 2,100
subscribers at the end of 2011. Greater collaboration
between the new communications team at the GBIF
Secretariat and Participant nodes has resulted in morenews being shared around the network.

donald hobern

Secretariat changes
Donald Hobern, previously Director of the Atlas of Living
Australia, was appointed as the Executive Secretary of GBIF
and Director of the GBIF Secretariat, with effect from February
2012. He succeeds Nicholas King who was Executive Secretaryfrom 2007 to 2011.

Announcing the appointment, the GBIF Chair Joanne Daly said,“I am delighted that Donald has decided to come back to GBIFat this critical and exciting time.

“Donald is the right person for GBIF at the right time, and thisappointment confirms that it has a great future.”
Joanne Daly also paid tribute to Nicholas King, commenting:“Nick has worked tirelessly and with great skill, ensuring that
GBIF has fulfilled the mission of its current phase, to move intofull operation as a global facility for the benefit of science andsociety.”collaboration and communication

In 2011, the GBIF Secretariat also welcomed Burke Chih-Jen
Ko as Informatics Liaison, Jan Legind as Data Administrator,
Katja Christensen as Nodes Capacity Officer for the durationof Mélianie Raymond’s maternity leave, Tim Hirsch as Senior
Programme Officer for Engagement, Sampreethi Aipanjiguly as
Communications Officer, Dag Endresen as Knowledge Systems
Engineer and Olaf Bánki as Senior Programme Officer for
Participation. Juan Bello stepped down as Senior Programme
Officer for Nodes during 2011.

a connected community

More proactive promotion of news releases on GBIF’s
work has resulted in increased coverage in various
online science news sites. An interview with the GBIF
Chair Joanne Daly and Executive Secretary Nicholas
King in the magazine International Innovation set out
the organization’s major activities and priorities in its
tenth year. The interview is available online33.

“He pulled off a remarkable achievement in building the Atlasof Living Australia in a very short time, showing leadershipin bringing together disparate parties to construct an amazing
portal for Australian biodiversity data. That achievement was
only possible because it was built on the backbone provided by
GBIF, to which Donald himself had contributed so much.

an informatics infrastructure

Donald Hobern previously worked in the GBIF Secretariat
between 2002-2007, most recently as Deputy Director for
Informatics.

data publishing in 2011

nick king32

End notes

1. Gaikwad, J., Wilson, P.D. & Ranganathan, S., 2011. Ecological nichemodeling of customary medicinal plant species used by Australian
Aborigines to identify species-rich and culturally valuable areas
for conservation. Ecological Modelling, 222(18), p.3437-3443.
Available at:
http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0304380011003759
The GBIF Secretariat is grateful to Angel Hjarding for her work in
identifying, analysing and tagging the use cases cited in this report.

16. A small percentage of records labelled as ‘high seas’ may berecords for which no country has been assigned due to data
discrepancies.
17. Cadman, M., Chavan, V., King, N., Willoughby, S., Rajvanshi, A.,
Mathur, V., Roberts, R., and Hirsch, T. (2011). Publishing EIA-Related
Primary Biodiversity Data: GBIF-IAIA Best Practice Guide. IAIA
Special Publication Series No. 7. August 2011. Pp. 6. Accessible at
http://links.gbif.org/eia_biodiversity_data_publishing_guide_
en_v1

2. Kent, R., Bar-Massada, A. & Carmel, Y., 2011. Multiscale Analyses ofMammal Species Composition – Environment Relationship in theContiguous USA. J. Wright, ed. PLoS ONE, 6(9), p.e25440. Available
at: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025440

18. Roberts, D. & Moritz, T., 2011. A framework for publishing primarybiodiversity data. BMC Bioinformatics, 12(Suppl 15), p.I1. Available
at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/12/S15/I1

3. Huettmann, F. et al., 2011. Predictions of 27 Arctic pelagic seabird
distributions using public environmental variables, assessed withcolony data: a first digital IPY and GBIF open access synthesis
platform. Marine Biodiversity, 41(1), p.141-179. Available at:
http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/s12526-011-0083-2

19. Narwade, S. et al., 2011. Literature based species occurrence dataof birds of northeast India. ZooKeys, 150(150), p.407-417. Available
at: http://www.pensoft.net/journals/zookeys/article/2002/
abstract/literature-based-species-occurrencedata-of-birds-ofnortheast-india

4. Herrera Campo, B.V., Hyman, G. & Bellotti, A., 2011. Threats tocassava production: known and potential geographic distributionof four key biotic constraints. Food Security, 3(3), p.329-345.
Available at: http://www.springerlink.com/index/10.1007/s12571011-0141-4

20. http://www.ugabif.go.ug/

5. Fuller, T. et al., 2010. Using Remote Sensing to Map the Risk of
Human Monkeypox Virus in the Congo Basin. EcoHealth, 8(ii), p.1425. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21069425
6. Nori, J. et al., 2011. Climate Change and American Bullfrog Invasion:
What Could We Expect in South America? A. Stow, ed. PLoS ONE,6(10), p.e25718. Available at: http://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.
pone.0025718
7. Willis, K. J. et al., 2012. Determining the ecological value oflandscapes beyond protected areas. Biological Conservation.
Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/
S0006320711003995

21. Hanssen, F. et al., 2012. Capacity building for Intergovernmental
Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Progress
report 2011: Indo- Norwegian pilot project on capacity building in
biodiversity informatics for enhanced decision making, improved
nature conservation and sustainable development. - NINA Report801. 24 pp. Available at: www.nina.no/archive/nina/PppBasePdf/
rapport/2012/801.pdf
22. Kohi, E.M. et al., 2011. Modelling the spread of invasive Parthenium
weed in Tanzania: A showcase report for uses of TanBIF GIS tools.
22 pp. In press.
23. http://www.gbif.org/participation/training/events/training-eventdetails/?eventid=107
24. http://www.gbif.org/participation/training/events/training-eventdetails/?eventid=108

8. Available online at http://www.globaltrees.org/rl_rhododendrons.
htm

25. http://www.gbif.org/participation/training/events/training-eventdetails/?eventid=111

9. The Ebbe Nielsen Prize was established in honour of the late Ebbe
Nielsen, a Danish entomologist who was among the inspiring
founders of GBIF. More information is at http://www.gbif.org/
communications/news-and-events/ebbe-nielsen-prize/

26. http://www.gbif.org/participation/training/events/training-eventdetails/?eventid=109

10. More information on the award and previous recipients is at
http://www.gbif.org/communications/news-and-events/youngresearchers-award/

28. http://community.gbif.org/pg/pages/view/13016/resources-fromthe-ipt2-workshop

11. The AFORO website with an online catalogue of otolith images forshape analysis is at http://www.cmima.csic.es/aforo/

27. http://www.gbif.org/orc/?doc_id=2935&l=en

29. http://www.gbif.org/participation/training/events/training-eventdetails/?eventid=114
30. Available at http://www.gbif.org/orc/?doc_id=2969&l=en

12. The GBIF Work Programme 2012-2013 is available at http://www.
gbif.org/orc/?doc_id=4394
13. The addendum to the terms of reference for the Participant NodeManagers Committee is available at http://imsgbif.gbif.org/CMS_
NEW/get_file.php?FILE=693d470600b66366f205df00bb478c
14. Presentations of the 2011 GBIF Science Symposium are available
through http://www.gbif.org/communications/news-and-events/
gbif-symposia-and-workshops/. A summary of the event is at
http://www.iisd.ca/ymb/gbif/sc2011/
15. Economy is the term applied to Chinese Taipei, which hosts a GBIF
node under the category of Other Associate Participant.

31. UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/15/INF/14, available at http://www.cbd.int/
doc/?meeting=sbstta-15
32. GEO-BON, 2011. Adequacy of Biodiversity Observation Systems to
support the CBD 2020 Targets. A report prepared by the Group on
Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO-BON),
for the Convention on Biological Diversity. 106 pp. Available at:www.earthobservations.org/documents/cop/bi_geobon/2011_cbd_adequacy_report.pdf
33. http://www.research-europe.com/index.php/2011/08/dr-joannedaly-chair-and-dr-nick-king-executive-secretary-global-biodiversityinformation-facility/

33

Appendix 1 – Data records published by node

Node

Total

With coordinates

Publishers

Data Sources

625,529
20,696,960
4,725,197
1,776,119
5,801,465
5,743,266
154,186
10,006,160
14,520,543
9,289,596
450,889
1,622,479
2,887,429
1,648,194
151
3,122,264
12,002,976
1,507,817
8,214,262
50,014
82,774
107,300
265,966
7,780,969
5,933,888
32,284,998
10,03336,067,468
104,962,049

311,110
20,391,433
4,378,925
1,600,538
5,743,427
5,548,189
91,937
9,698,792
10,710,865
6,876,453
431,049
1,621,358
376,923
334,15602,748,777
10,983,549
945,727
8,143,574
0
4,702
1,603
61,4407,095,003
3,975,598
29,764,539
9,458
35,213,230
86,190,468

9
13
6
11
2
3
3
9
32
18
1
1
3
21
1
4
4
1
4
4
5
1
3
2
6
3
1
11
97

38
101
45
86
5
50
6
52
60
8,895
4
81
198
137
1
407
42
5
69
6
7
1
5
21
168
49
14
357
283

Associate Country Participants
AndorraAustria
Benin
Cameroon
Colombia
GuineaIndia
Luxembourg
Madagascar
Nicaragua
Pakistan
PolandSwitzerland
Togo

75,1422,616,676
7,375
6,203
557,763493
5,818
752,825
17,7600773
1,572,737
1,458,990
7,978

75,1422,430,510
7,048
5,740
410,769
468
4,071
724,755
5,833
0176
1,278,483
1,231,231
7,978

1
11
1
2
3
1
1
1
3
1
1
28
4
1

7
14
1
2
10
1
3
1
3
0
3
98
12
1

Other Associate Participants
BioNET-ASEANET
BioNET-EASIANET
Bioversity International
CABI Bioscience
Chinese Taipei
Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF)
Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network
International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology
NatureServe
Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NORDGEN)
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)
Society for the Management of Electronic Biodiversity Data
World Federation for Culture Collections

13,0291,682
1,857,460
229,305
1,158,793
94,678219,430
3,939
759,536
37,162
12,176,146
2,300
276,442
4,702
43,8894,775
1,680
627,9680844,352
0
214,595
3,909
0
6,022
11,708,177
2,219
276,340
4,534
0

1
2
2
1
5
1
1
1
1
1
6
1
1
1
1

1
1
4
3
30
1
8
3
1
1
186
2
74
1
18

Voting Participants
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
CanadaCosta Rica
Denmark
Estonia
FinlandFranceGermany
Iceland
IrelandJapan
Korea, Republic of
Mauritania
MexicoNetherlands
New Zealand
NorwayPeru		
Portugal
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
SwedenTanzania
United Kingdom
United States

34

Appendix 2 – Checklists published in 2011

For more information on these checklists, search by name on data.gbif.org
1.

The Integrated Taxonomic Information System

43. Passiflora vernacular names

2.

CATE Sphingidae

44. Kihansi Gorge Amphibian Species Checklist

3.

CATE Araceae

45. Birds of Tanzania

4.

GBIF Backbone Taxonomy

46. Andrade-C., M.G. AAT de las mariposas de Colombia: las5.

IRMNG Homonym List

6.

The Catalogue of Life

7.

Zoological names. A list of phyla, classes, and orders,

47. Checklist of the threatened species of Colombia (part)

prepared for section F, American Association for the

48. Sendoya S., Fernández F. AAT de hormigas (Hymenoptera:

Advancement of Science
8.

World Typhlocybinae database

9.

Interim Register of Marine and Nonmarine Genera

especies y subespecies de las familias Papilionidae y Pieridae
Instituto Alexander von Humboldt 1.0 2005 (Spreadsheet)

Formicidae) del Neotrópico 1.0 2004 (Spreadsheet)
49. Peces de la zona hidrogeográfica de la Amazonia, Colombia(Spreadsheet)

10. International Plant Names Index

50. Wikipedia Species Pages - English

11. Index Fungorum

51. Wikipedia Species Pages - German

12. World Register of Marine Species

52. Wikipedia Species Pages - Spanish

13. Fauna Europaea

53. Taiwanese IUCN species list

14. Mammal Species of the World, 3rd edition

54. COA Wildlife Conservation List

15. NCBI Taxonomy

55. Endemic species in Taiwan

16. GRIN Taxonomy for Plants

56. The National Checklist of Taiwan

17. Paleobiology Database

57. Vernacular names of Iberian fungi in Spain

18. USDA PLANTS Database

58. Inventario Nacional Biodiversidad Especies amenazadas

19. Common names of Chilean Plants(España)20. Database of Vascular Plants of Canada (VASCAN)

59. Leguminosae in Flora iberica

21. Aphid Species File

60. Mimosaceae & Papilionaceae Fl. Paisös Catalans

22. Phasmida Species File

61. Iberian Zygaenidae in Fernández-Rubio, F. 2005. Zygaenidae

23. Embioptera Species File
24. Plecoptera Species File
25. Blattodea Species File

(Lepidoptera).
62. Fauna Iberica vol 26.Museo Nacional de Ciencias naturalesCSIC. Madrid

26. Mantodea Species File

63. Catalogue of Afrotropical Bees

27. Coleorrhyncha Species File

64. The Tree of Life Web Project (ToL)

28. Psocodea Species File

65. The Rufiji Fish Checklist

29. Orthoptera Species File

66. Tanzania Plant Specimens

30. Coreoidea Species File

67. Inventory of Fish Species in the Wami River Basin

31. Dermaptera Species File

68. Birds of Lindi Forests Plantation

32. Afromoths, online database of Afrotropical moth species

69. Global Invasive Species Database(Lepidoptera)

70. IOC World Bird Names

33. True Fruit Flies (Diptera, Tephritidae) of the Afrotropical Region

71. The Clements Checklist

34. Global taxonomic database of Gracillariidae (Lepidoptera)

72. Amphibia and Reptilia of Yunnan

35. Belgian Species List

73. Gaoligong Shan Medicinal Plants Checklist

36. Invasive Alien Species in Belgium - HARMONIA database

74. China: Yunnan, Southern Gaoligongshan, Rapid Biological

37. ECAT Provisional Names
38. Global Compositae Checklist (GCC)
39. International Cichorieae Network (ICN)

Inventories Report No. 04
75. Pheasant Diversity and Conservation in the Mt. Gaoligonshan
Region40. Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment

76. Native Orchids from Gaoligongshan Mountains, China

41. Botanical survey & taxonomical classification on the natural

77. Flora of Gaoligong Mountains

vegetation of Hingawali, Navanga & Simana in Lindi District
42. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

78. Eastern Mediterranean Syllidae
79. List of plant names: Huai Kaeo Arboretum, Chiangmai

35

Appendix 3 – New publishers in 2011

Publisher						
ArtDatabanken		
Association des Naturalistes de la Vallée du Loing et du massif de Fontainebleau
Birds Australia		
Centre d’estudis de la neu i de la muntanya d’Andorra (CENMA),
Institut d’Estudis Andorrans		
Centre d’Observation de Surveillance et d’Information Environnementales (COSIE)
Centre National pour le Développement Rural - Madagascar (FOFIFA)
Cincinnati Museum Center		Conservatoire Botanique National Alpin		Crop Research Institute (CRI)		
				
Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport,
Northern Territory of Australia		
ECOCEAN USA		
Ecole de Faune de Garoua		
Eremaea		
Herbarium of Université de Montpellier 2, Institut de Botanique
Herbarium specimens of Bamboo collection Prafrance Générargue (BAMBO)
Herbier de l’Université de Limoges		
Herbier des conservatoires et jardins botaniques de Nancy		
Herbiers Universitaires de Clermont-Ferrand		
Institut Scientifique, Mohamed V University		
Institute of Research for Development		
IRAD Cameroun (Institut de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement Cameroun)
Isagen		Kokkola Nature Collection Kieppi		
Kuopio Natural History Museum		Lund Museum of Zoology		
Lycée Félix Esclangon. Comité du Patrimoine Manosquin. Herbier G. Fenoul
Musée cantonal de zoologie, Lausanne		Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle d’Autun, Herbarium		Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Bourges		
Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle de Nice		Museum d’Histoire Naturelle of Aix-en-Provence, Herbarium		Museum of Natural and Cultural History - University of Oregon
Natural History Museum, University of Tartu		Naturkundemuseum im Ottoneum Kassel		
New York State Museum (NYSM)		
NSW Department of Environment, Climate Change, and Water representing
the State of New South Wales		Ohio State University Fish Division		
Parc Botanique et Zoologique de Tsimbazaza (P.B.Z.T.)		
Research Institute for Nature and Forest		Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS)		
Société des Sciences Naturelles et Mathématiques de Cherbourg
South Australia, Department of Environment and Natural Resources
United States Geological Survey		
Universidad Nacional de San Agustín (Herbarium Areqvipense HUSA)
Universität Salzburg		
Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Faculté des Sciences Agronomiques
Université de Lomé		
University of Arkansas Collections Facility, UAFMC		University of Eastern Finland		
University of Oulu		Western Australian Herbarium		Wildlife Sightings		
Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg
				
				
				

GBIF Participant Datasets
Node		

Number of occurrence
records published

SwedenFranceAustralia
Andorra1
1
1
7

25,785,267
2,424
7,403,521
75,142GuineaMadagascar
USA
FranceBioversity
International
Australia

1
1
1
1
1

493
8,102
6,513
2,221
50,682

2

827,973

USA
Cameroon
Australia
FranceFranceFranceFranceFranceFranceFranceCameroon
Colombia
FinlandFinlandSwedenFranceSwitzerland
FranceFranceFranceFranceUSA
Estonia
Germany
USA
Australia

2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
1
1
1

83
4,985
986,699
21,781
189
84
13,6693,795
1,487
336,360
1,249
228,332
498
3,641
143,950
501
103
1,111
430
2,731
6,358
15,975103,265
40,927
14,312
4,288,512

USA
Madagascar
Belgium
UK
FranceAustralia
USA
Peru
Austria
Benin
Togo
USA
FinlandFinland
Australia
CanadaSociety for theManagement ofElectronic
Biodiversity Data

1
1
2
1
1
4
1
1
1
1
1
1
3
4
1
1
1

87,842
9,384
3,325,224
2,629,628
991
5,429,336
98,607
11,251
15,734
10,063
8,015
5,803
28,09835,760731,445
685
4,702

36

Appendix 4 – Publications in 2011

Data publishing training manuals and guides
EnglishA beginner’s guide to persistent identifiers
Create your own Darwin Core Archive: step-by-step guideDarwin Core Archive Assistant: user guide
GBIF Darwin Core Archive: how-to-guide
GBIF Metadata Profile: how-to guideGetting started: overview of data publishing in the GBIF network
Improving EIA practice: best practice guide for publishing primary biodiversity data
Publishing and registering data with GBIF
Publishing species checklists: best practices
Publishing species checklists: step-by-step guideFrenchCréez votre proper Archive Darwin Core: guide pratique
Premiers pas: introduction à la publication de données dans le réseau GBIF
Publier et enregistrer des données avec le GBIF

SpanishCómo crear su propio Archivo Darwin Core: guía paso a paso
Primeros pasos: perspectiva general del proceso de publicación de datos en la red GBIF
Publicar y registrar datos en GBIF
Guía para principiantes sobre identificadores persistentes: resumen ejecutivo

Reference guides
Darwin Core Archive Format: reference guide to the XML descriptor fileDarwin Core quick reference guide
GBIF GNA profile reference guide for Darwin Core Archive: core terms and extension
GBIF Metadata Profile: reference guide

GBIF training manual I: Digitization of natural history collection data
FrenchLa généralisation des données
Lancer un projet de numérisation d’une collection
Les principes de qualité des données
Les usages des données primaires d’occurrence d’espèces
Principes de la bonne pratique sur le géoréférencement
Principes et méthodes de nettoyage de données

GBIF governance
GBIF annual report 2010
GBIF strategic plan 2012-2016: seizing the future
GBIF work programme 2012-2013
Participants report 2010

Data infrastructure
GBIF IPT v2 user manual
GBIF position paper on data hosting infrastructure for primary biodiversity data
Recommendations for the use of Knowledge Organisation Systems by GBIF (white paper)

37

Appendix 5 – GBIF ParticipantsParticipant

Member as of

Voting participants
Argentina
Australia
Belgium
CanadaChile
Costa Rica
Denmark
Equatorial Guinea
Estonia
FinlandFranceGermany
Iceland
IrelandJapan
Kenya
Korea, Rep. Of
Mauritania
MexicoNetherlands
New Zealand
NorwayPeru		
Portugal
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
SwedenTanzania
United Kingdom
Uruguay
United States

March 2002
February 2001
February 2001
March 2001
December 2009
May 2001
January 2001
March 2005
September 2003
April 2001
April 2001
February 2001
June 2001
December 2007
February 2001
July 2008
May 2001
August 2009
March 2001
February 2001
February 2001
February 2004
September 2002
June 2001
August 2001
February 2001
April 2003
February 2001
February 2001
September 2002
August 2001
January 2009
January 2001

Associate Country Participants
AndorraAustria
Benin
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Cameroon
Central African Republic
Colombia
Congo, Rep. Of
Cuba
Ghana
GuineaIndia
Indonesia
Luxembourg
Madagascar
MoroccoNicaragua
Pakistan
Philippines
PolandSwitzerland
Togo
UgandaSeptember 2010
September 2001
December 2004
August 2001
January 2007
March 2005
March 2011
September 2003
May 2011
August 2008
March 2001
March 2005
July 2003
October 2004
April 2008
January 2003
January 2003
June 2001
August 2001
March 2005
March 2001
February 2001
October 2009
October 2009

Participant

Acronym

Other Associate Participants
Albertine Rift Conservation Society
ARCOS
ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity
ACB
BioNet-ANDINONET		
BioNET-ASEANET		
BioNET-EASIANET		
BioNET-INTERNATIONAL		
BioNET-SAFRINET		
Bioversity International		
Botanic Gardens Conservation International
BGCICABI Bioscience		
Chinese Taipei		Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo
CYTED
Consortium for the Barcode of Life
CBOL
Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities
CETAF
Discover Life		
DIVERSITAS		
Encyclopedia of Life
EOL
Endangered Wildlife Trust
EWT
ETI Bioinformatics		
European Environment Agency
EEA
Finding Species		
Freshwater Biological Association – 		FreshwaterLife		
International Long Term Ecological Research
ILTER
Integrated Taxonomic Information System
ITIS
Inter-American Biodiversity Information
IABIN
Network
International Barcode of Life ProjectiBOL
International Centre for Insect Physiology
ICIPE
and Ecology
International Centre for Integrated
ICIMOD
Mountain Development
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
ICLEI
International Commission on Zoological
ICZN
Nomenclature
International Species Information System
ISIS
Major Systematic Entomology Facilities
MSEF
Natural Science Collections Alliance
NSCA
NatureServe		
Nordic Genetic Resource Center
NordGen
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
OBIS
Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum
PBIF
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
SCAR
Secrétariat Intérimaire du Volet
SINEPAD
Environnement du NEPAD
Society for the Management of Electronic
SMEBD
Biodiversity Data
Society for the Preservation of Natural
SPNHC
History Collections
Species 2000		
Taxonomic Databases Working Group
TDWG
United Nations Environment Programme –UNEP-WCMCWorld Conservation Monitoring Centre
Wildscreen		
World Data Center for Biodiversity
WDCBE
and Ecology
World Federation for Culture Collections
WFCC

Member as ofJanuary 2010
August 2009
October 2007
October 2002
October 2002
May 2001
July 2003
January 2007
August 2004
September 2001
March 2001
April 2006
March 2005
June 2007
February 2008
May 2007
December 2007
July 2008
March 2001
September 2010
December 2003
August 2003
July 2008
March 2001
May 2001
April 2011
March 2004
September 2009
October 2010
June 2005
May 2006
February 2006
December 2004
June 2001
March 2004
June 2001
August 2004
February 2008
July 2009
March 2009
January 2007
March 2001
March 2002
May 2001
January 2003
April 2005
October 2002

38

Appendix 6 – GBIF Governing Board and Standing Committees 2011

Elections for some of the committee positions were held at the 18th Governing Board meeting in October 2011.
New officers elected at that time will be presented in the 2012 Annual Report.
Node Managers Committee

Executive Committee
Chair
1st Vice Chair
2nd Vice Chair
3rd Vice Chair

Joanne Daly
Keiichi Matsuura
Wouter Los
Gladys Cotter

Committee Chairs
Science
Budget
Nodes
Rules

Leonard Krishtalka
Per Backe Hansen
Francisco Pando
Christoph Häuser

Ex-officio
Executive Secretary

Nicholas King

Standing Committees
Science Committee
Chair
Vice Chairs
		Work Area Chairs
DIGIT
ECAT
IDA		
Outreach
Training
Ex-officio
Chair GB
1st Vice Chair GB
2nd Vice Chair GB
3rd Vice Chair GB
Executive Secretary

Nodes Steering Group
Chair
Vice Chairs		
Regional Node
Representatives
		
		
		
		

Francisco Pando
Stephen Wilkinson
Francis Oguya
All Node Managers

Francisco Pando
Stephen Wilkinson
Francis Oguya
Guy Baillargeon
Cees Hof
Beth Mantle
Maria Auxiliadora Mora
Fatima Parker-Allie

Rules Committee
Leonard Krishtalka
Mark Graham
Tanya Abrahamse
Arturo H. Ariño
Yde de Jong
William Ulate
Thomas Kristensen
Townsend Peterson

Joanne Daly
Keiichi Matsuura
Wouter Los
Gladys Cotter
Nicholas King

Budget Committee
Chair
Vice Chairs		Members				
Ex-officio
GB Chair
Executive Secretary

Chair
Vice Chairs		Members

Per Backe Hansen
Edgardo Romero
Eli van der Heide
Bonnie C. Carroll
Shunichi Kikuchi
Lars Nilsson
Joanne Daly
Nicholas King

Chair
Vice Chair
Members
				Christoph Häuser
Mark Fornwall
E. Manrique Reol
William Alex Gray
Fabian Haas

39

Appendix 7 – GBIF Task
Groups 2011

Appendix 8 – GBIF Accreditations
and representations

Content needs assessment task group

GBIF accreditations

Co-chairs
		Members
		
		
		
		
		
Secretariat

1.

Daniel P. Faith
Ben Collen
Arturo H. Ariño
Henrik Enghoff
John Guinotte
Jeremy Kerr
Patricia Koleff Osorio
Leslie Underhill
Vishwas Chavan

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council (Major
Groups and Stakeholders/Global Ministerial Environment Forum)

2. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
3. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
4. United Nations Economic and Social Council (UN ECOSOC)
5. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)

Data publishing framework task group
Co-chairs
		Members
		
		
		
		
		
Secretariat

Tom Moritz
S. Krishnan
Donat Agosti
Philippa Benson
Matthew CockerillPeter Ingwarsen
Lyubomir Penev
David Roberts
Vishwas Chavan

6. Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Global Earth Observation
System of Systems (GEOSS)GBIF representations
1.

Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO-BON)
Steering Committee

2. Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) General Assembly
3. Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS) Governing Board

Multimedia resources task group
ChairsMembers
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
Secretariat

4. LifeWatch Policy & Science Board
Robert Morris
Vijay Barve
Mihail Carausu
Chris Freeland
Gregor Hagedorn
Patrick Leary
Dimitry Mozzherin
Annette Olson
Greg Riccardi
Ivan Teage
Greg Whitbread
Vishwas Chavan

5. Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Services (IPBES)
6. Trondheim Environmental Conferences
7. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES)
8. Conservation Commons Steering Committee (CMS)
9. Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (BIP)
10. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) GEO-5 Policy& Advisory Board
11. GEO BON Implementation Plan: Co-lead of Working Group on Data
Integration and Interoperability

40

Appendix 9 – Financial information

Preliminary financial statement 2011 in EUR

Basic Financial Contributions 2011

GBIF CORE FUNDS		

Voting Participants

Financial Contributors

		Argentina

CONICET - Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales

Australia

CSIRO Entomology

Belgium

Belgian Federal Science Policy Office

Chile

Comisión Nacional del Medio Ambiente

Costa Rica

Asociación Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (InBio)

Income Statement
IncomeEUROS
4,973,729

Work Programme 2011 - Informatics-1,551,120

Denmark

Danish National Research Council

Work Programme 2011 - Participation-853,526

Equatorial Guinea

CICTE - Council of Scientific and Technological Research

Governance - Committee costs-114,102

Estonia

Ministry of Environment

Staff expenditure - Management-748,756

FinlandFinnish Museum of Natural History

Running expenditure - Management-294,717

FranceDirection Générale de la Recherche et de l’Innovation

Secretariat facilities - Management-119,688

Germany

German Research Foundation (DFG)-3,681,909

Iceland

Ministry for the Environment

IrelandNational Parks & Wildlife Service-305,633

Japan

Japan Science and Technology Agency

20,062

Kenya

National Museums of Kenya

Total expenditure
Changes in foreign exchanges rates
Interest
GBIC Conference-100,000

Mauritania

Ecole Normale Supérieure de Nouakchott			

-385,571

MexicoCONACYT

Surplus906,249

Netherlands

Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

New Zealand

Ministry of Research, Science and Technology

NorwayThe Research Council of Norway

Peru		

Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana (IIAP)

PortugalFoundation for Science and Technology

Balance Sheet
AssetsOther receivables and VAT

20,588Cash and Cash at bank

2,378,721

Republic of Korea

Ministry of Education, Science and Technology

Total assets

2,399,309

Slovak Republic

Ministry of the Environment

Slovenia

Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology

South Africa

Department of Science and Technology

Retained funds and liabilities
Retained funds

1,164,796

Spain

Ministry of Education and Science

Provisions

272,237

SwedenSwedish Research Council

Supplementary funds

490,227

Tanzania

Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH)

United Kingdom

BBSRC, Polaris House, Swindon

Auditor

6,053

Prepayments re. 2012-2013

362,920

		

NERC, Polaris House, Swindon

Other payables

103,076

		

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

2,399,309

		Natural History Museum		

Joint Nature Conservation Committee

		

DEFRA

Total equity and liabilities
GBIF Supplementary Fund
Balance on 1 January361,213

Uruguay

Departamento Biodiversidad

Income437,638

United States

National Science Foundation

Expenditure-308,624			

490,227

Externally Received Grants 2011
For supplementary Funds

DKK

EUR

University of Copenhagen (IT equipment)

170,000

22,867

SEP CEPDEC Institut de Recherche pour

260,11335,000

University of Copenhagen (Salary Subsidy)

126,000

16,949EMODNET

74,436

10,013EuroGEOSS

260,447

35,000ViBRANT

560,759

75,430Open-Up

202,851

27,247

1,654,606

222,506

le Développement, France

Total external funding

41

Appendix 10 – GBIF Secretariat staff

Executive Secretary/Director

Nicholas King (until 31 December 2011)

Deputy Director for Management and International Relations

Hugo von Linstow

Office Manager & PA to the Director

Susanne Lønstrup Sheldon

ICT Support Manager

Anne Mette Nielsen

Financial Officer

Bo Thorsteinsson

Senior Programme Officer for Participation

Olaf Bánki (from August)Senior Programme Officer for Nodes

Juan Bello (until May)

Nodes Capacity Officer

Mélianie Raymond (on maternity leave from June), 				

Katja Wolfhechel Christensen (from April)

Senior Progamme Officer for Training

Alberto González-Talaván

Senior Programme Officer for Engagement

Tim Hirsch (from June)

Communications Officer

Sampreethi Aipanjiguly (from July)

Senior Programme Officer for Digitization and

Vishwas Chavan

Mobilization of Primary Biodiversity Data (DIGIT)
Senior Programme Officer for Science and Scientific Liaison

Samy Gaiji

Senior Programme Officer for Inventory, Discovery

Éamonn Ó Tuama

and Access (IDA)
Senior Programme Officer for the Electronic Catalogue

David Remsenof Names of Known Organisms (ECAT)
Technical Assistant (ECAT)

Nikolas Ioannou

Knowledge Systems Engineer

Dag Terje Filip Endresen (from August)Information Systems Architect

Tim Robertson

Webmaster and Network Administrator

Ciprian Vizitiu

System Administrator

Andrei Cenja

Systems Analyst

Andrea Hahn

Data Administrator

Jan Krzysztof Legind (from April)

Programmer

José Miguel Cuadra Morales

Programmer

Kyle Braak

Developer

Federico Mendez Hernandez

Developer

Lars Francke

Developer

Oliver Meyn

Informatics Liaison

Burke Chih-Jen Ko (from February)Secretariat
Universitetsparken 15
DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø
Denmark
Tel: +45 35 32 14 70
Fax: +45 35 32 14 80
Email: info@gbif.org
www.gbif.org

compiled and edited by:sampreethi aipanjiguly
tim hirsch
anne mette nielsen
design: hoogs design

ISBN: 87-92020-42-9

printing: vester kopi