Annual
Report2013
www.gbif.org

What is GBIF?
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility is
a network of governments and internationalorganizations, collaborating with a Secretariat in
Copenhagen, Denmark, to provide a vital infrastructure
for research and policy. It enables information about
all forms of life on Earth, gathered over centuries
in all parts of the globe, to be readily accessible byanyone, anywhere. Through the newly integrated
GBIF.org, web services and a growing number ofnational and thematic portals, GBIF users have freeaccess to more than 15,000 datasets published byover 600 institutions, ranging from zoological andbotanical collections to observations by citizen
scientists and surveys from research expeditions.
GBIF’s vision
A world in which biodiversity information is freely
and universally available for science, society anda sustainable future.

01

GBIF Annual Report 20132013 Highlights
Launch of the new GBIF.org, improving accessto and understanding of GBIF-mediated data,
as well as the network’s global activities
Near real-time indexing of data enabling
access to records soon after being sharedby contributing publishers
GBIF-mediated data increasingly put to use
by researchers and policymakers, in areas
including invasive alien species, climatechange impacts and human disease modelling
Continuing collaboration and support at global
and regional levels, enhancing national capacity tomobilize, manage and use biodiversity information
New vision for delivering biodiversity knowledge
in the digital age, through publication of the
Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook

02

ForewordIt’s a pleasure to report on GBIF’s many achievements
in 2013—a truly exciting year, by any measure.

Peter Schalk
Chair of the Governing Board

Donald Hobern
Executive Secretary

The data mediated by GBIF is steadily increasing,by the end of 2013 approaching nearly 450 million
records of 1.4 million species from more than
15,000 datasets published by over 600 publishers.
The newly integrated GBIF.org launched at October’s
GB20 meeting in Berlin, and our users’ enthusiastic
responses have increased the use and downloads
to mega-science scale. Based on GBIF.org’s use
and its unique place in biodiversity sciences, it’ssafe to say that GBIF has become an essential partof the world’s scientific infrastructure, with freely
accessible data facilitating international researchand empowering scientific publication.
Another indication of GBIF’s reach is its increasing
partnerships with international initiatives andprojects to share biodiversity information. National
governments and regional funding agencies
worldwide invest significant funds to advancebiodiversity informatics—digitizing information,
developing analytical tools, devising re-usable
workflows and creating innovative methods foraddressing societal challenges—but many activities
take form as temporary projects. GBIF is an obvious
source of knowledge and expertise to underpin new
information services, to recommend data exchange
standards, and to work with across scientificcommunities to help shape future developments
and ensure their sustainability.

With a global role as central point of access to asteadily growing mass of biodiversity data, newchallenges and new responsibilities for GBIF
are appearing on the horizon with potential toimpact its (future) identity. Is GBIF still the global
mega-science facility for open access biodiversity
data, as envisioned at its establishment? How
will GBIF preserve data no longer available fromoriginal sources? Should our responsibilities
now include delivery of applied and authoritative
information services to help countries answer
primary questions on biodiversity issues?
Feedback from our community makes it clear that
GBIF must become more than it is now. This future
identity calls attention to the need to identify
GBIF’s core mandate, as well as the funding needs
and strategic partnerships that will support it.
In 2013, some countries again struggled to meettheir financial contributions. This affects both
GBIF’s financial position and its work program.
But despite the funding issues and necessary
delays, the core of the work program has largely
progressed as projected. A review of GBIF’s
funding model, seeking to achieve more equitable
contributions according to countries’ financial
capacities and to reduce GBIF’s dependence ona few large contributors, has provided the Budget
Committee with a more balanced funding model
for future years.
We believe GBIF is on course. Thanks go where
thanks are due: to the Governing Board, to thecommittees, to the national nodes, to those who
staff the Secretariat—and most especially to themany thousands of users putting GBIF-mediateddata to work. This is your organization. Only withyour help and input will GBIF continue to evolveand grow. We offer our most sincere thanks to
all who have contributed to helping GBIF
achieve its goals in 2013 and beyond.
Peter and Donald

03

Contents

Foreword

2

GBIF at a glance

4

GBIF launches new global web platform

6

Metrics on publication, use and access of data

10

Developments in informatics and data publishing

12

Promoting data publishing and re-use

14

Science year in review

16

Governance20

Supporting policy and decision making

22

Partnerships and collaborations

24

Building capacity for data sharing

25

GBIF’s regional approach

26

GBIF in Africa

28

GBIF in Asia

30

GBIF in Europe

32

GBIF in Latin America

34

GBIF in North America

36

GBIF in Oceania

40

Communications

40

Photo credits

42

End notes

43

Appendices44

HARLEQUIN LADYBIRD (HARMONIA AXYRIDIS)

04

GBIF at a glance

The charts and map offer a snapshot of activity around the GBIF community in 2013. The map (below) shows
current Participants of the GBIF network as of year’s end. The charts display (opposite, clockwise from topleft) the top 10 countries publishing species occurrence data through GBIF.org; top 10 countries for data
download requests from GBIF.org; top 10 countries with peer-reviewed papers using GBIF as a data source;
and top 10 countries by numbers of visits to GBIF.org.

16
35

33

4

17

31

27

6
21

36
25
12

11

37

5

38

32

30

14

28

7

10

13

23

19

9

8

26

2

24
20

29

3
1
22
15
18

VOTING PARTICIPANTSASSOCIATE COUNTRY PARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTS WITH SIGNATURE OF 2012 MOU PENDING

Non-country Participants
1.

ALBERTINE RIFT CONSERVATION SOCIETY

12. DISCOVER LIFE

2.

ASEAN CENTRE FOR BIODIVERSITY (ACB)

13. DIVERSITAS

3.

BIONET-ANDINONET

14. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE (EOL)

4.

BIONET-INTERNATIONAL

15. ENDANGERED WILDLIFE TRUST (EWT)5.

BIOVERSITY INTERNATIONAL

16. ETI BIOINFORMATICS

24. INTERNATIONAL LONG TERMECOLOGICAL RESEARCH (ILTER)*

6.

BOTANIC GARDENS CONSERVATIONINTERNATIONAL (BGCI)

17. EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY(EEA)

25. NATURAL SCIENCE COLLECTIONSALLIANCE (NSCA)

34. TAXONOMIC DATABASES
WORKING GROUP (TDWG)*

7.

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (CAS)CHINESE TAIPEI

18. ICLEI - LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FORSUSTAINABILITY (ICLEI)

26. NATURESERVE

8.
9.

CIENCIA Y TECNOLOGÍA PARA EL
DESARROLLO (CYTED)

35. UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENTPROGRAMME – WORLDCONSERVATION MONITORINGCENTRE (UNEP-WCMC)

10. CONSORTIUM FOR THE BARCODE OF
LIFE (CBOL)
11. CONSORTIUM OF EUROPEANTAXONOMIC FACILITIES (CETAF)* virtual networks with no fixed headquarters

19. INTEGRATED TAXONOMICINFORMATION SYSTEM (ITIS)
20. INTER-AMERICAN BIODIVERSITYINFORMATION NETWORK (IABIN)
21. INTERNATIONAL BARCODE OF LIFE
PROJECT (IBOL)

22. INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR INSECTPHYSIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY (ICIPE)
23. INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FORINTEGRATED MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT(ICIMOD)

27. NORDIC GENETIC RESOURCE CENTER(NORDGEN)
28. OCEAN BIOGEOGRAPHICINFORMATION SYSTEM (OBIS)
29. PACIFIC BIODIVERSITY INFORMATIONFORUM (PBIF)
30. SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE ON
ANTARCTIC RESEARCH (SCAR)

31. SOCIETY FOR THE MANAGEMENTOF ELECTRONIC BIODIVERSITYDATA (SMEBD)*
32 SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION
OF NATURAL HISTORYCOLLECTIONS (SPNHC)
33. SPECIES 2000

36. VERTNET
37. WILDSCREEN
38. WORLD FEDERATION FOR
CULTURE COLLECTIONS (WFCC)

05

DATA PUBLICATIONDATA DOWNLOAD REQUESTSINDEXED OCCURRENCE RECORDS (MILLIONS)DATA DOWNLOAD REQUESTS

160

2500

140
2000

120
100

1500

80
1000

60
40

500

20

CA

E
IL
CH

NA

AL

DA

IA

Y
AN

AU
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RM
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AZ
BR

KI UN
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DO TED
M

A

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CH

EX
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DE

SP
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IC
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K
AR

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NM

AN
RM
GE

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RW
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TH

ER

FIN

LA

LA

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CE
FR

AN

IA
AL
AU
ST
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EN

KI UN
NG I
DO TEDM

EDSW

UST NITAT ED
ESUST NIT
AT ED
ES

0

0

RESEARCH USES IN 2013

M

EX

IC
O

D
AN

SW

IT

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RL

AN
FR

DA

SP
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IN

BR

AZ

A
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NT
AR
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CO
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BI

AN
FR

SP
AI

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EX

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AN
RM
GE

FIGURE 3: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BY VISITS TO GBIF.ORG IN 2013. VISITS REPRESENT COMBINED TOTALVISITORS TO THE PREVIOUS GBIF DATA PORTAL AND THE NEW GBIF.ORG. MORE INFORMATION ON PP. 6-9

NA

0
CA

0

ITA

10

AL

20

N

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AU
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KI UN
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DO TED
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60

U
ST NIT
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ES

40

A

80

IL

50

A

100

CE

60

KI UN
NG I
DO TED
M

120

N

70

IC
O

NUMBER OF PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONSUST NITAT ED
ESNUMBER OF WEB VISITORS (THOUSANDS)

140

CE

WEB VISITORSLY

FIGURE 2: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BY NUMBER OF DATA DOWNLOAD REQUESTS FROM GBIF.ORG.
STATISTICS START WITH THE LAUNCH OF THE NEW INTEGRATED GBIF.ORG (9 OCT 2013 – 31 DEC 13).
MORE INFORMATION ON PP. 6-9

IA

FIGURE 1: TOP 10 COUNTRIES BY TOTAL NUMBER OF SPECIES OCCURRENCE RECORDS PUBLISHED ON
GBIF.ORG. MORE INFORMATION ON PP. 10-11

FIGURE 4: TOP 10 COUNTRIES WITH PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN 2013 THAT CITE THE USE
OF GBIF-MEDIATED DATA, RANKED BY LOCATION OF RESEARCHERS’ INSTITUTIONS. MORE INFORMATIONON PP. 10-11

06

GBIF launches new global web platform

Launched in October, GBIF’s new website integrates data discovery and communication intoa single platform. GBIF.org improves users’ access to species occurrence data while providing
a single source for Participant information, data publishing, data use, and news and events
across the GBIF community.

The new GBIF.org combines information previously
contained in two websites: the ‘data portal’, whichshared GBIF-mobilized occurrences, checklists
and metadata, and the ‘communications portal’,
which highlighted information about GBIF as an
institution and a community. The newly blendedsite streamlines access to both types of information
while offering enhancements specific to each.

Improving access to biodiversity data

TIM ROBERTSON, THE GBIF SECRETARIAT’S HEAD OF INFORMATICS,PRESENTING THE LAUNCH OF GBIF.ORG IN BERLIN

GBIF’s online resources have long assembled
and distributed digitized evidence of species’
existence around the world. But as the volume of
information in the previous ‘data portal’ increasedin scale, users began to bump up against technicallimitations, including restrictions on the number ofrecords they could display and download.

searches provide a powerful tool for telling stories
and visualizing the data. Its highly customizable,
full-screen interface lets users explore theresolution and the nature of the data, including
the types of records and their time of collection by
decade. These features even offer glimpses of any
geographic and political biases within the data.

The new GBIF.org represents a greatly improved
data access product, one that provides tools andvisualizations that allow people to understand thenature of the data prior to performing scientificanalyses with them. These enhancements increase
efficiency of access, and offer better insight into
the data, helping to improve the resulting science.

At every scale, GBIF.org compiles broader, morethorough metadata—that is, information about
the data. Species and taxon pages compile anddisplay comprehensive information about the data
mobilized through GBIF, from basic characteristics
like numbers of records to more advanced details
like how different checklists treat different taxa. All
these features enable users to make more informed
use of GBIF-mediated data. These pages also linkout to other online resources like Encyclopediaof Life, the Catalogue of Life and the Biodiversity
Heritage Library, where users can retrieve useful
related information.

Users can explore details of individual occurrences,or build complex search queries then download andaccess large customized datasets tailored to their
specific interests and without limitations on size.
In addition to traditional text searches, map-based

GBIF.ORG’S MAPBASED SEARCHVISUALIZES DATAWHILE PROVIDINGTOOLS TO VIEW
THE COLLECTIONSBY TIME AND TYPE
OF RECORD

07

The website also provides more consistent andsystematic access to information about the
publishers and datasets represented on GBIF.
org. Users can develop targeted searches here
as well, filtering on various facets like locations,institutions, characteristics of taxonomy orrecord types.

2013
852,478 TOTAL VISITS

2012
775,680 TOTAL VISITSUSERS CAN SEARCH THROUGH A MAP INTERFACE, DRAWING POLYGONSOR PLOTTING COORDINATES TO FIND THE DATA MOST RELEVANT TO THEM

598,033UNIQUEVISITORS

527,765
UNIQUEVISITORSFIGURE 5: YEAR-BY-YEAR COMPARISON OF VISITORS TO GBIF.ORG AND THE OLDDATA PORTAL

A new system for indexing datasets allows
GBIF.org to display new data nearly in real time,
publishing new records within hours or evenminutes after being added. Records in the old data
portal only appeared after periodic refreshing of
the index, which sometimes caused long delays
before datasets became visible. A robust API andassociated set of web services provides machine
access to GBIF-mediated data, which enables
others to build on the network’s efforts, amplifying
and extending its impact.

EACH OCCURRENCE RECORD DISPLAYS SPECIFIC DETAIL ABOUT THE NAMES,
LOCATIONS, DATASETS, AND PUBLISHERS OF THE EVIDENCE OF SPECIES’
EXISTENCE THROUGHOUT THE WORLDNEW PUBLISHER PAGES IMPROVE DATA SEARCH AND DISCOVERY WHILE ENSURING THAT DATAOWNERS AND CUSTODIANS GET THE RECOGNITION THEY DESERVE FOR MAKING DATASETS PUBLIC

08

Global data, nation by nation
Country pages form the link between the former‘communications portal’ and GBIF-mediated data.
These hubs connect summary views of the number
and sources of species data while providing
institutional and individual contact information for
the national nodes and delegations that formallyparticipate in the GBIF network.
These pages lend two important views of GBIFmediated data: data about species occurring within
national boundaries, regardless of the location of
the specimen or publishing institution; and datafrom a given nation’s institutions, whose original
location in nature often lies well beyond thecountry’s borders. This latter data publishing aspectshares a glimpse on how the GBIF infrastructure
contributes to ‘data repatriation’—the processof providing open access and dissemination of
biodiversity data to their countries of origin.
The country pages also host news items and reporton uses of GBIF-mediated data, providing bothgeneral language summaries of selected peerreviewed articles and an ongoing bibliography of
GBIF-enabled research produced by each country’s
scientists. The use of thematic and geographic
tagging connects related news, events, featured
data uses and academic publishing throughout
the site.

MAPS ON EACH COUNTRY PAGE HIGHLIGHTS TWO IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF THE
WORK OF THE GBIF COMMUNITY: DATA ABOUT THE SPECIES OCCURRING WITH
NATIONAL BOUNDARIES, AND DATA FROM EACH NATION’S INSTITUTIONS THATCONTRIBUTES TO GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE OF BIODIVERSITY

GBIF.org served 3.67 billion records
for download in its first 40 hours

THE NEWSROOM SHARES CLEAR, SUCCINCT SUMMARIES HIGHLIGHTINGSCIENTIFIC USES OF THE DATA PUBLISHED THROUGH THE GBIF COMMUNITY

09

GBIF.org’s country pages reflect the engagementof a team of regional node representatives, who
supported Secretariat staff during the site redesign.
In addition to providing input that helped prioritize
content and features for the country pages, thisgroup also contributed as testers during GBIF.org’sdevelopment.
GBIF’s new online home received an enthusiastic
response, handling 10,000 requests for data
downloads and registering more than 24,000 user
accounts between its launch in October and year’s
end. In fact, GBIF.org served 3.67 billion records
for download in its first 40 hours. Several national
nodes also marked the launch, with GBIF Franceorganizing a national event for the occasion and
GBIF Spain sharing a series of videos showing the
new site’s features.
WATCH Video documenting the launch in Berlin
http://vimeo.com/77782067

THE NEWSROOM SECTION OF GBIF.ORG HIGHLIGHTS CURRENT RESEARCH USING DATA ACCESSED THROUGH THE NETWORK. THESE WIDE-RANGING STUDIESILLUSTRATE HOW GBIF ENABLES INVESTIGATIONS Across ISSUES LIKE INVASIVE ALIEN SPECIES, IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE, CONSERVATION PRIORITIES,AND HUMAN HEALTH AND WELL-BEING. (SEE PP. 16-17)

10

Metrics on publication, use and access of data

The overall volume of biodiversity records
published through GBIF continued to increaseduring 2013, passing the 400 million mark in July.
Occasional declines in these numbers result fromdata withdrawn by publishers and improved data
quality controls for identifying and removing
duplicate records.

NUMBER OF OCCURRENCE RECORDS (MILLIONS)

450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100

TOTAL INDEXED OCCURRENCE RECORDS

50

GEOREFERENCED RECORDS(EXCLUDING THOSE WITH DOUBTFUL COORDINATES)

0
2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

FIGURE 6. THE NUMBER OF DATA RECORDS ACCESSIBLE THROUGH GBIF, FROM SEP 2007 TO DEC 2013

The proportion of data records published using
the GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) and theassociated Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) format forassembling biodiversity data continued to increase,reaching nearly three-quarters of the total records
published by the end of 2013.

NS)

ILLIO

BER

NUM

OF

S (M
ORD
REC

250
200

150

100
50

OBSERVATIONSPECIMEN0
ANIMALIAOTHERDATA TYPES

PLANTAEOTHER KINGDOMSFIGURE 7. PRIMARY BIODIVERSITY RECORDS BY KINGDOM AND RECORD TYPE, AT END 2013

80

DIGIR
TAPIR

60

Europe and North America remain the leaders in
the number of records made available through
GBIF, both in terms of publishers’ locations andthe location of the species recorded. However, theproportion of records contributed by institutions inother regions is increasing, for example with Southand Central America accounting for more than 8%
by the end of 2013, compared with just 1% in 2012.
Records from Asian publishers also increased
substantially from 2% in 2012 to more than 7% in
2013. For specimen records, biodiversity from Southand Central America accounted for nearly one-fifthof all data published through GBIF.
Institutions in the United States continued to
publish by far the greatest number of records
through GBIF, accounting for more than one
third of all the data available via the network.
However, these records comprise biodiversity
observations and specimens collected from 249
countries, islands and territories. During 2013,
Sweden surpassed the United Kingdom to become
the country with the second-largest number ofpublished records: its institutions published 44
million records by year’s end, a single-year increaseof more than 40 per cent over the country’s 31
million records in 2012.

BIOCASE70

The breakdown of records by kingdom and record
type shows that in terms of sheer numbers, animal
observations continue to comprise the majorityof records published through GBIF. Taking only
specimens, however, plants accounted for morethan 40 per cent of records, and animal species
made up a little over half.

IPT +DWC-A

50
40
30
20
10
0
2010

2011

2012

2013

FIGURE 8. USE OF DATA PUBLISHING PROTOCOLS, BY PERCENTAGE OF OCCURRENCE RECORDS

Some countries saw a drop in published records
during the year, thanks to recent data-quality andprocessing improvements that make it easier to
identify and remove duplicate records.

11

DATA RECORDS BREAKDOWN
BY LOCATION OF PUBLISHING INSTITUTION
4%BY ORIGIN OF BIODIVERSITY
1%

3%

4%

48%

5%

1%

4%

7%

6%

46%

2%

1%

3%

30%

1%
1%
52%

5%

8%
11%

9%

2013

8%

34%

25%

20%

25%

36%

SPECIMEN RECORDSONLYALL RECORDSOBSERVATION
RECORDS ONLY

2%
2%

1%

4%

6%

36%

8%

42%

5%

45%

8%

1%

3%

5% 1%

26%

8%

6%

5%

42%

10%

8%

2012

1%

19%

12%

33%

44%
17%

EUROPENORTH AMERICA (INCL. MEXICO)OCEANIA

SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICAAFRICAHIGH SEAS

ASIA

INTERNATIONAL NETWORKSFIGURE 9. GBIF-MEDIATED OCCURRENCES BY LOCATION OF PUBLISHING INSTITUTION AND SPECIES OCCURRENCES. THE COMPARABLE BREAKDOWN FOR 2012 IS SHOWN IN THE LOWER ROW OF CHARTSDATA BREAKDOWN BY GBIF PARTICIPANT
INDEXED OCCURRENCE RECORDS (MILLIONS)

160

18

140

16

120
100

INDEXED BY END 2013

4

INDEXED BY END 2012

14

3

12
10
2
8

0
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BE

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FIGURE 10. TOP 25 MOST RECORDS PUBLISHED ON GBIF.ORG, RANKED BY ENDORSING PARTICIPANT OF DATA PUBLISHERS. NOTE THAT THE TOP FOUR ARE SHOWN ON A DIFFERENT SCALE,FOLLOWED BY THE NEXT 10 AND THE LAST 11 ON DIFFERENT SCALES. FOR A FULL LIST OF DATA RECORDS PUBLISHED BY GBIF PARTICIPANTS, SEE APPENDIX 1

1204

Developments in informatics and data publishing

Adapting the Darwin Core standard for sample data
The GBIF Secretariat convened a three-day
workshop-hackathon in May with a team of experts
seeking to address the challenge of adapting the
Darwin Core standard (DwC) for encoding samplebased data.
GBIF will test the use of the Darwin Core Archives
for publishing sample data in an upcoming EU
BON project, with the goal of demonstrating thatthe expanded DwC standard can support the dataneeds and interoperability of global biodiversity
networks — and the policy and decision makers
that depend on them.
READ MORE Workshop on sample data
http://www.standardsingenomics.org/index.php/
sigen/article/view/sigs.4898640

Core type

Use cases

Extension examples

OccurrenceThis core includes
properties related
to Event, Location,
Geological Context,
Identification and Taxon

Specimen
Botanical
sampling event
Bird spotting
Oak branch with
two lichens
Whale tracking
Camera trap
Acoustic survey/
telemetry
Ocean acidification

ImagesIdentification history
Sequences
Related taxa
(resource relationship)
Measurement

Collecting Event
The core includes
properties related
to Event and Location

Vegetarian plots
Environmental sample
Gut sample
Plankton haul
Trawl/subsample
Towed diver survey
Fisheries species
abundance
Checklist survey
Fossil assemblage

Taxon Occurrence
Measurement
ImagesSurvey geometry

TWO POSSIBLE MODELS FOR EXPRESSING SAMPLE USE CASES IN DARWIN CORE ARCHIVES,BASED ON EITHER OCCURRENCE CORE OR A COLLECTING EVENT CORE

GBIF’s Integrated Publishing Toolkit: Responding to user needs
2013 also brought improvements to the Integrated
Publishing Toolkit (IPT), a free open-source
software tool used by the GBIF network to
publish and share biodiversity datasets. Key
enhancements include:
		 Portuguese language support, which brings the		 number of languages the IPT supports to five		 (also including French, Spanish, Traditional
		 Chinese and English)
		 interval publishing, which allows automated		 updates to datasets on a preset schedule		 easier CSS-style customizations of individual
		 IPT installations
		 the ability to archive each previous version
		 of the dataset
PARTICIPANT CONTRIBUTIONS
Volunteers from the Research Center on Biodiversity
and Computing at Brazil’s University of São Paulomade a significant contribution to this version,
providing their time and skills to translate the IPTinterface into Portuguese.
INTEGRATED PUBLISHING TOOLKIT (IPT) IN PORTUGUESE

1305

Managing and sharing biodiversity vocabularies
The GBIF Secretariat coordinated efforts in2013 to develop a platform for developing andmaintaining vocabularies used by the biodiversity
data community. GBIF co-led the Vocabulary
Management Task Group (VoMaG) for Biodiversity
Information Standards (also known as theTaxonomic Databases Working Group, or TDWG).
The group developed a report offering
recommendations on topics related to the
management of vocabularies and ontologies.

DARWIN CORE VOCABULARYStartup tool for biodiversity information websites
GBIF Secretariat staff collaborated with a team fromthe European Union Scratchpads project to develop
the Nodes Portal Toolkit (NPT) Startup, a toolthat targets GBIF Participants that have a limited
online presence. The NPT Startup’s open-source
technology stack helps GBIF Participants deploy a
Drupal-based website, providing rapid discoveryof and access to national, regional or thematic
biodiversity data.
Following the 2013 delivery of a proof-of-concept
prototype, the GBIF community set up an early
adoption programme that identified 10 interested
GBIF Participants. They and their associated nodes
are now serving as users, advisers and developers
in the next phases of NPT development. Funding
from the JRS Biodiversity Foundation has supported
direct collaboration between the National
Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica (INBio) and GBIF
Benin and led to the addition of new features to the
NPT Startup. Meanwhile, open-source code, tool
documentation and a how-to video are helping totransfer the technology and associated knowledge
between Participants.

One recommendation urged TDWG to adopt the
Semantic MediaWiki implementation at Biowikifarm
and maintain it as the preferred community
platform for developing and maintaining TDWG
vocabularies, which led to the establishmentof the TDWG Terminology Platform
GBIF’s leadership extended to convening andcoordinating the task group, drawing on work
funded through the European Union’s Seventh
Framework Programme (EU FP7) project Virtual
Biodiversity Research and Access Network for
Taxonomy (ViBRANT).
READ MORE VoMaG Task Group report
http://www.gbif.org/resources/2246
READ MORE TDWG Terminology Platform
http://terms.tdwg.org
READ MORE ViBRANT
http://vbrant.eu

GBIF BENIN – NPT STARTUP DEMONSTRATION1404

Promoting data publishing and re-use

LARGE RED DAMSELFLY (PYRRHOSOMA NYMPHULA)

Encouraging and rewarding data sharing throughdata papers
Data papers are detailed metadata documents that
describe a particular dataset or a group of datasets,published in the form of a peer-reviewed article ina scholarly journal. The primary purpose of data
papers is to describe data and the circumstancesof their collection, rather than to report hypotheses
and conclusions. They provide an important meansof bringing recognition to data holders, publicizing
datasets’ value to the scientific community, andassessing and controlling data quality.
This year the Secretariat directly supported threeprojects in Spain, Latin America and Asia aimed
at encouraging the publication of biodiversity
data papers. By year’s end, 14 publishers of
GBIF-mediated datasets had published such peerreviewed metadata describing their holdings.1

RED DAMSELFLY (CERIAGRION TENELLUM)

For the first, GBIF Spain organized a March workshop
in Madrid that gathered 21 representatives from
Spanish institutions publishing data throughGBIF. Participants gained practical experience byproducing a data paper describing the collectionof Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) from the
University of Oviedo, subsequently published in
the peer-reviewed journal, ZooKeys.2

BLUE-TAILED DAMSELFLY (ISCHNURA ELEGANS)1505

TRAVANCORE TORTOISE (INDOTESTUDO TRAVANCORICA)IMPATIENS PARASITICA

The Humboldt Institute is both the host of SiB Colombia, theGBIF national node, and publisher of Biota Colombiana, a peerreviewed journal that seeks to disseminate scientific knowledge
on Colombia’s biodiversity. With the release of a special issue
in late 2013, Biota Colombiana became the first Latin American
journal to publish biodiversity data papers.3 The journal now
maintains guidelines for new data paper authors, and eachof the datasets described are available via GBIF.org.

The final project to receive support was developed by the
Wildlife Institute of India, host of the Indian national node.
A workshop with 21 participants from 10 organizations washeld in June to stimulate publication of data papers, using
training material developed by Spain and Colombia.
GBIF also partnered with Nature Publishing Group to support
contributions from biodiversity researchers to the new openaccess journal, Scientific Data, launching in 2014. The journal
introduces a ‘data descriptor’ format, similar to the data
paper concept, aimed at making scientifically valuable
datasets more discoverable, interpretable and reusable.
The editors of the new journal will work with GBIF to offer
guidelines for authors to contribute to the new journal
using the standard formats for sharing data and metadatathrough the GBIF network.
READ MORE Scientific Data
http://www.nature.com/sdata

BIOTA COLOMBIANA. PUBLICATION FROM INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIÓN DE
RECURSOS BIOLÓGICOS ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT

16

Science year in review

Use of GBIF-­mediated data inscientific research

NUMBER OF ARTICLES WITH AT LEAST ONE AUTHOR FROM THE COUNTRY.
70
60

The Secretariat monitors and compiles peerreviewed research papers that make use of data
published through GBIF’s global infrastructure.
The 2013 Science Review lists more than 250
scientific papers published in 2013 that applied
data drawn from across the GBIF network.

40
30
20
10

This year, GBIF enabled research across a wide
range of policy areas and disciplines, such asU
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0		 marine protected area networks
		 management of emerging infectious human		 diseases
				 effectiveness of current ex situ conservation 				 efforts towards wild plants most critical for		 food security
		 how plants colonized Earth’s cold-weather 				 regions
READ MORE Science Review 2013;
http://www.gbif.org/resources/3094

NUMBER OF PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS300

FIGURE 12: NUMBER OF PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS IN 2013 CITING USE
OF GBIF-MEDIATED DATA, RANKED BY COUNTRY ACCORDING TO AFFILIATIONOF AUTHORS. TOP 23 COUNTRIES SHOWN

Modelling future climate impacts on today’scommon species
A paper published in Nature Climate Change
reviewed nearly 50,000 globally widespread andcommon species to find that, without limits togreenhouse gas emissions, more than half of theplants and over a third of animal species could lose
more than 50 per cent of their range by 2080.
However, it further concluded that quick action to
mitigate climate change could reduce those losses
by 60 per cent and provide species an additional 40
years to adapt to new climatic conditions.
The researchers obtained data through GBIF—
approximately 170 million occurrence records ofplants, mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians—
published by some 200 different institutions
around the world.

GBIF DISCUSSED

250

50

GBIF-MEDIATED DATA USED

200

150

100

50

0
2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

FIGURE 11: ANNUAL TOTALS OF PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS CITING GBIFAS A SOURCE OF DATA OR DISCUSSING GBIF, 2008-2013

The findings expect plants, reptiles and especially
amphibians to face the greatest risks from climatechange impacts, in part due to particularly
unsuitable habitat changes in Sub-Saharan Africa,
Central America, Amazonia and Australia. Major
losses of plant species are also projected for North
Africa, Central Asia and southeastern Europe.
Citation: Warren, R., VanDerWal, J., Price, J., Welbergen, J. A.,
Atkinson, I., et al. (2013). Quantifying the benefit of early climatechange mitigation in avoiding biodiversity loss. Nature Climate
Change, 3(5), 1–5. doi:10.1038/nclimate1887

17

How diverse are species used in patents?
A team of researchers from the United Kingdom
sought to learn whether the species used for humaninnovation, as reflected in the patent system, truly
reflect the diversity of life on Earth.
Using web services from GBIF, the authors sought
to match species names mentioned in 11 million
patent documents against 6 million known
scientific names. These patents ranged in use frompharmaceuticals and traditional medicine to genetic
engineering, foods and biocides. The study also
used GBIF-mediated occurrence data to map the
global distribution of species used in patents bycountry and taxonomic kingdom.
This analysis identified more than 76,000 speciesnames from 24,000 genera referenced in 767,000
patent documents. The result represents a narrow
segment of biodiversity—just four per cent ofdescribed species and less than one per cent of all
species predicted to exist. The researchers conclude
that, based on the principles of equitable sharingof benefits established by the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD), the interests of humanity
warrant opening up a broader spectrumof biodiversity to research and development.

The study found that while the existing
management plans recorded over 80 per centof the species identified from all three sources,
the combination of GBIF-mediated data and the
published literature filled significant gaps inknowledge. For example, more than 200 species
absent both from the management plans andpublished literature were found only through GBIF.
The information gaps for threatened species wereeven more striking, with 50 per cent of threatened
freshwater fishes missing from management plans.
The research findings conclude that consulting
alternative resources for species information
like GBIF and scientific literature may improve
management of Biosphere Reserves.
Citation: Pino-Del-Carpio, A., Ariño, A. H., Villarroya, A., Puig,
J., & Miranda, R. (2013). The biodiversity data knowledge
gap: assessing information loss in the management of
Biosphere Reserves. Biological Conservation. doi:10.1016/j.
biocon.2013.11.020

Citation: Oldham, P., Hall, S., & Forero, O. (2013). Biologicaldiversity in the patent system. PLoS ONE, 8(11), e78737.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078737

Filling data gaps for conservation management
A team of Spanish researchers examined ways
in which species data published and accessed
through GBIF can supplement other sources of
information in the development of conservation
strategies. Their study focussed on the network of
UNESCO Biosphere Reserves in Mexico, which werecreated with the aim of reconciling biodiversity
conservation with sustainable use of the resources
within their boundaries.
After assessing the records of vertebrate species in
the management plans for Mexico’s 41 Biosphere
Reserves, the researchers compared them withvertebrate records for these areas in both GBIF
network data and nearly 200 published research
papers. The GBIF-mediated data provided nearly
70,000 records for 1,776 vertebrate species
occurring within the reserves.

HUMMINGBIRD AND HUMMINGBIRD MOTH (MACROGLOSSUM STELLATARUM)

18

GBIF Science Awards in 2013

Young Researchers Awards

Ebbe Nielsen Prize honours Miguel Bastos Araújo
for research innovation

Emma Gomez-Ruiz and Nathan Ranc are therecipients of GBIF’s 2013 Young ResearchersAwards. Each received €4,000 through the award
scheme, which fosters innovative research anddiscovery by graduate students at universities incountries participating in the GBIF network.

Since 2001, GBIF’s Ebbe Nielsen Prize has
recognized innovative and outstanding researchthat advances the integration of biodiversity scienceand informatics. Miguel Bastos Araújo, a scientist
from Portugal, received the 2013 prize for his designof large-scale experiments that seek to uncover theprocesses behind patterns of species distribution.
The GBIF Science Committee highlighted thegroundbreaking nature of Araújo’s research in
deploying biodiversity informatics to model andforecast environmental phenomena, particularly
the effects of different climate change scenarios
on regional and global patterns of biodiversity.
The €30,000 prize will support development of an‘Ecotron’ experimental facility where Araújo andhis research partners can test predictions on theeffects of large-scale environmental change on
the combination of species found in different
locations—an advance especially useful in helping
to inform conservation decision-making.
Araújo principally serves as research scientist at
the Spanish Research Council’s National Museumof Natural Sciences, and also holds visiting
professorships at the University of Évora, Portugal,
and the University of Copenhagen.

Emma Gomez-Ruiz
N a th an Ra nc

WINNERS OF THE 2013 YOUNG RESEARCHERS AWARD

Gomez-Ruiz, a Mexican PhD student at Texas
A&M University in the United States, plans to map
the ‘nectar corridor’—the migratory path of theendangered Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycterisnivalis)—using models derived from GBIF-mediateddata. The endangered nectar-feeding bats serve asimportant pollinators for several plant species as
they follow the agave blooms from central Mexico
to the southern United States during their annual
migration. Through her research, Gomez-Ruizaims to improve understanding of the corridor,
highlight the potential effects of climate change,and support efforts to protect the species.
READ MORE Leptonycteris nivalis species page
http://www.gbif.org/species/2433317

MIGUEL BASTOS ARAÚJO, WINNER OF THE 2013 EBBE NIELSEN PRIZE

Ranc, a French master’s student at Stockholm
University in Sweden, assessed biases in GBIFmediated data by comparing records for 269
mammal species in the Mediterranean region.
Leveraging his independently developed database,Ranc is working with La Sapienza University ofRome to design data mobilization strategies that
identify data-deficient species and areas.

19

COMMON BEAN (PHASEOLUS VULGARIS)ELEPHANT HAWKMOTH (DEILEPHILA ELPENOR)

2013 Science Symposium
In October, GBIF hosted its annual science
symposium—entitled ‘GBIF at work – advancing
biodiversity science for a sustainable society’— inassociation with the 20th meeting of its Governing
Board in Berlin, Germany (see p.20).
An international line-up of speakers highlighted
their use of GBIF-mediated data.
		 Miguel Bastos Araújo (Portugal), winner of the		 2013 Ebbe Nielsen Prize (see above), delivered		 the keynote presentation describing the		 influence of global climate change on larger
		 patterns of biodiversity.
			 WATCH keynote http://vimeo.com/78160183
			 VIEW presentation
			 http://www.gbif.org/resources/2973

SHENANDOAH SALAMANDER (PLETHODON SHENANDOAH)

		 Lilliana Ballesteros-Mejia (Colombia) spoke		 about data resolution and knowledge gaps in		 the distribution of the world’s plant and animal
		 species, such as those based on collections
		 housed in museums and herbaria and mapped		 from GBIF-enabled records.
		VIEW presentation
			 http://www.gbif.org/resources/2977
		 Kenneth Feeley (United States) demonstrated
		 that despite their disparate habitats, tropical		 plant species in the Andes, Costa Rica and the		 Amazon show climate-driven distributional shifts
		 and warned of rapid rates of biodiversity loss
		 under future scenarios.
			 VIEW presentation
			 http://www.gbif.org/resources/2978

		 Michael Diepenbroeck (Germany) outlined the		 International Council of Science’s (ICSU)		 PANGAEA system for acquiring and serving
		 diverse data from the geosciences.
			 VIEW presentation
			 http://www.gbif.org/resources/2974
		 Julián Ramírez-Villegas (Colombia) used large
		 volumes of GBIF-published data to examine		 conservation strategies under present and		 future climate regimes for plants, particularly		 crop wild relatives of domesticated food species.
			 VIEW presentation
			 http://www.gbif.org/resources/2975
		 Rosane Collevatti (Brazil) studied tree records		 from the past 12,000 years to show how species		 in the savannas of the American tropics retreated		 into a patchwork distribution, whereas those in		 seasonally dry forests saw their ranges expand.
			 VIEW presentation
			 http://www.gbif.org/resources/2976

MICHAEL DIEPENBROECK AT GBIF 2013 SCIENCE SYMPOSIUM

20

Governance

Highlights from the GBIF Governing Board
meeting
The Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, Freie
Universität Berlin, and Botanic Garden and
Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem hosted the20th meeting of the GBIF Governing Board(GB20) in Berlin, Germany, from 8 to 10 October.
The Governing Board elected Peter Schalk as its
new chair. The managing director of the ICT sector at
Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, Netherlands,
Schalk is one of the founders of Species 2000, an
initiative that generates a validated checklist of theworld’s species known as the Catalogue of Life.
Schalk replaces Joanne Daly, the outgoing chair,
who completed her second two-year term.
The Board also named two new committee chairs.
Roderic Page, professor of taxonomy at the
University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, will leadthe Science Committee, while Walter Berendsohnof the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum
Berlin-Dahlem will chair the Budget Committee.

New work programme approved
Under the new work programme agreed at GB20,
GBIF will directly address longstanding concerns
about the quality of biodiversity data publishedthrough the network. The major programme
themes include data quality and persistence, anemphasis on mobilizing new data, and improved
information resources. The activities outlined for2014 are part of a three-year work programmealigned with the main imperatives of the 20122016 Strategic Plan to advance the content, theinformatics and the engagement that underpin
GBIF’s services to science and society.

12TH GLOBAL MEETING OF GBIF NODES COMMITTEE, BREAKOUT SESSION

Training and meeting to build stronger nodes
The GBIF Nodes Committee held its 12th global
meeting and associated activities, prior to GB20.
The committee includes representatives from all
the Participant nodes, which are responsible forcoordinating data mobilization and use within
their countries and organizations.
The events kicked off on 4 October with a twoday interactive training course attended by 59
participants from 40 countries and organizations.
Using a curriculum based on recommendations
received from nodes in 2011 and 2012, the course
focussed on node management, promotion ofdata use and on new tools developed by GBIF.
On 6 October, the Nodes Committee started a twoday meeting that shared experiences on several key
topics for nodes: addressing data quality, nodes
portal developments, development plans for nodes
and a collaborative communication platform.
Feedback from the events indicated satisfaction
with the training course’s content, methods andinteractions while highlighting priority areas for
improvement.
A joint meeting between heads of delegation from
GBIF Participant countries and node managers fromwithin each region discussed regional strategies
and focus areas, the second such meetingorganized as part of the Governing Board events.
READ MORE Report on the training course
http://community.gbif.org/pg/file/read/38195/
READ MORE Meeting evaluation
http://community.gbif.org/pg/file/read/39963/
evaluation-report-12thglobal-nodes-meeting21This step represents Israel’s commitment to global efforts in biodiversity conservationand management.
		– Yehoshua Shkedy, chief scientist, Israel Nature and Parks Authority

Expanding the GBIF community
GBIF welcomed three new Participants in 2013.
The state of Israel joined GBIF as an Associate
Participant, with the Israel Nature and Parks
Authority (INPA) signing the voluntary Memorandumof Understanding that brings Participants into
the GBIF network. Countries joining GBIF as
associates undertake to move as quickly as
possible, with a maximum of five years, towards
voting participation, which involves a financial
contribution towards the global infrastructure andconfers rights to vote on the priorities and budgetof the network.
“This step represents Israel’s commitment toglobal efforts in biodiversity conservation andmanagement,” commented Yehoshua Shkedy,
chief scientist at INPA. Israel has made progressin coordinating its biodiversity data with thedevelopment of BioGIS, the Israel Biodiversity
Website, which integrates biodiversity data fromdifferent institutes. BioGIS also provides advanced
tools for querying, analysing, modelling andvisualizing patterns of species distributions.
Two Other Associate Participants complete the trioof newcomers. The Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), an influential national academy for thenatural sciences, is active across many internationaland regional biodiversity informatics activities,
including a role in establishing the Asia Biodiversity
Conservation and Database Network (ABCDNet).
VertNet, a network based in the United States andfunded by the National Science Foundation, seeks
to provide open online access to vertebrate natural
history collections and observations. It currently
helps to mobilize collections from 38 countries.

NEGUEV, ISRAELCHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE LIBRARY, BEIJING, CHINAGAD NATURE RESERVATION, ISRAEL

22

Supporting policy and decision-­making

The Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook
The GBIF Secretariat oversaw the Octoberpublication of the Global Biodiversity Informatics
Outlook (GBIO). This initiative, authored by
specialists from 14 institutions around the world,
aims to coordinate global efforts and funding todeliver the best possible information about life on
Earth, and our impacts upon it.
The GBIO develops ideas and priorities identified at
the Global Biodiversity Informatics Conference, heldin Copenhagen in 2012 and featured in GBIF’s 2012
Annual Report. It sets out a framework to harness
the immense power of information technology
and an open data culture to gather unprecedented
volumes of evidence about biodiversity, helping to
inform better decisions.

Understanding: building models from recorded		 measurements and observations to support data		 driven research and evidence-based planning
The GBIO has been picked up by a number of
institutions including the Convention on Biological
Diversity (see below) as a means of focusing
attention on the steps needed to improve deliveryof biodiversity information.
READ MORE http://biodiversityinformatics.org
Convention on Biological Diversity
During 2013, government experts working throughthe Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) placedstrong emphasis on the need for more accessible
data to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets,
agreed in 2010 as part of a global strategic plan
to tackle biodiversity loss.
The Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technicaland Technological Advice (SBSTTA), meeting inMontreal, Canada in October, identified ‘more
accessible, affordable, comprehensive, reliable
and comparable information streams’ among the
key needs related to the implementation of theStrategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-20.

The document and website invite policymakers,
funders, researchers and others to unite aroundfour key focus areas where progress is needed:

PRICKLY PEAR (OPUNTIA SP.)

		 Culture: promoting practices and infrastructure		 for sharing data, using common standards and		 persistent archives, backed up by strong policy
		 incentives and a community of willing specialists
		 Data: addressing the need to transform all data		 about species, past and present, into usable		 and accessible digital formats
		 Evidence: organizing and assessing data from		 all sources to provide clear, consistent views
		 giving them context

CITRUS ROOT WEEVIL (DIAPREPES ABBREVIATES)23

I would like to suggest that we transform this into a framework for a continuous partnership or
initiative to help the implementation of Aichi Target 19 [on enhancing and sharing biodiversity
knowledge] and benefiting implementation of all the other targets.
				– Braulio Dias Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

In its meeting report, SBSTTA called on the CBD
Executive Secretary Braulio Dias to work with GBIF
and others to build capacity at regional and national
levels for mobilization, management and analysisof biodiversity data, information and knowledge.
In his opening statement to the meeting, Dias
called for ‘continuous partnership’ to enhanceaccess to biodiversity data, following the frameworkof the Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook(GBIO – see previous section).

HUMMINGBIRD (TROCHILIDAE)

The CBD also designated GBIF Secretariat as the
focal point for the Global Invasive Alien Species
Information Partnership. This partnership brings
together a number of organizations focused on
meeting the information needs of governments
to achieve Aichi Biodiversity Target 9, aimed ataddressing the threats to biodiversity from invasive
alien species.
RIVER RAT (MYOCASTOR COYPUS)

Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)The new global body aiming to bridge the divide
between science and policy on biodiversity andecosystem services has set out the details of its first
five years of work. IPBES held two plenary meetings
during 2013, the first in Bonn, Germany in January,
and the second in Antalya, Turkey in December.
The 2014-18 work programme will include anumber of thematic assessments, including one
on pollinators and one on invasive species, as well
as regional assessments and a global assessment.
Other deliverables include work on capacity building,knowledge generation and policy-relevant tools.
In consultation with its Participants, the GBIF
Secretariat contributed a number of proposals for
the IPBES work programme. They focussed on therole the GBIF community and infrastructure canplay in supporting the data and informationneeds of the new platform.
In particular, GBIF has offered to provide a
supporting role for the IPBES task force onknowledge and data, which among other tasks
will be developing a data and information
management plan for the platform.
HARLEQUIN LADYBIRD (HARMONIA AXYRIDIS)

24

Partnerships and collaborations

GBIF to assist in development of platform for
European observation data
GBIF is part of a team creating the European
Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON), a
proposed continent-wide component of the Groupon Earth Observation’s Biodiversity Observation
Network (GEO BON). EU BON will offer an efficientmeans of collecting, analyzing and providing
observation data that better informs national andinternational policymaking and management.
The project will result in an integrated European
biodiversity portal, a roadmap for handling citizen
science data and a framework for open data
publishing. GBIF expects to help improve data
standards and interoperability, provide a metadata
registry and catalogue, and connect GBIF-mediateddata via web services.

World Flora Online
GBIF is participating in the World Flora Online (WFO)
Technical Working Group with partners including theMissouri Botanical Garden, Royal Botanic Gardens
Kew, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, and the
New York Botanical Garden. The WFO responds toTarget 1 of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s
Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which calls
for “a widely accessible working list of known plant
species as a step towards a complete world flora”.
GBIF will design the WFO’s technical infrastructure
along with a schema using Darwin Core Archives topublish world floras.
LEARN MORE
CBD’s Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
https://www.cbd.int/gspc/

The Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin is leading
the 54-month EU-funded project with support
from 30 partners in 18 countries.

GBIF to contribute to portal on marine data
The GBIF Secretariat received funding to support‘biology 2’, a project launched by the European
Marine Observation and Data Network (EMODNet).
The work will focus on developing a marine species
traits vocabulary and using GBIF’s Integrated
Publishing Toolkit (IPT) to mobilize marine data
for the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions.

FLYING GURNARD (DACTYLOPTERUS VOLITANS)SLENDER PHLOX (MICROSTERIS GRACILIS)

25

Building capacity for data sharing

GBIF’s mentoring programme has helped shareexpertise and experience between Participants
since 2003. Three projects involving eight countries
received direct support in 2013 to build capacity
for publishing and use of biodiversity information.
2013 Mentoring: Colombia-Brazil
The Information System for Colombian Biodiversity(SiB Colombia), hosted by the Humboldt Institutein Bogotá, hosted a workshop and a series ofhands-on sessions on web design, mapping tools
and data quality management for its counterpart
SiB Brazil, which resides in the National Laboratory
for Scientific Computing (LNCC) in Petrópolis,
Brazil. Soon afterwards, SiB Brazil installed GBIF’s
Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) and began
developing its own data portal with source codefrom SiB Colombia.
LEARN MORE
SIBBr: http://www.sibbr.gov.br
SiB Colombia http://www.sibcolombia.net/

2013 Mentoring: Belgium-Togo-Mauritania
GBIF Belgium is helping Participant nodes in Togo
and Mauritania to improve their data publishingcapacity and to deploy biodiversity information
websites for both countries. The partners are
exploring the use of GBIF’s Nodes Portal Toolkit
Startup to stand up two new national data portals.
2014 workshops in Lomé, Togo, and Nouakchott,
Mauritania, will focus on data publishing anddeveloping national biodiversity information
websites.

2013 Mentoring: Spain-France-Portugal
Three European GBIF nodes will exchange theirexpertise in different areas, for mutual benefit.
Planned activities for 2014 include sharing
experience on using a crowd-sourced website todigitize botanical specimen labels; implementing
e-learning platforms in France and Portugal;
providing training on data papers; and collaborating
on data visualization and data quality tools.

2012 Mentoring: Japan-Indonesia
GBIF Japan and the Indonesian Institute of
Sciences (LIPI), host of the Indonesian GBIF
node, have developed a road map establishinga national biodiversity information system anda work programme for the Indonesian Biodiversity
Information Facility (InaBIF).
GBIF Japan provided Indonesian government
agencies and research centres with staff training
in data publishing to assist in establishing aprofessional network to manage the country’s
biodiversity information.

2012 Mentoring: Australia-Costa Rica
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) has supported
the efforts of Costa Rica’s CRBio (the national node)
to define a national strategy and action plan for
publishing biodiversity data. The collaboration has
also helped recruit new in-country data holders to
CRBio. A training workshop brought in experts from
CONABIO (Mexico), the University of São Paulo and
GBIF Spain.
The workshop led directly to the registration of
two new data publishers—the Costa Rica Bird
Observatories and Laboratorio de Recursos
Naturales y Vida Silvestre—and also cemented
funding from the Costa Rican National Scientificand Technical Research Council (CONICET) for
implementing CRBio’s data portal.
LEARN MORE
Costa Rica Bird Observatories
http://www.gbif.org/publisher/6ae2738e-361d4cb1-9a57-b6a63defe060
Laboratorio de Recursos Naturales y Vida Silvestre
http://www.gbif.org/publisher/7aabc1d3-a2c54e57-9082-8a5d5f35e7d2

2012 Mentoring: ICLEI-SANBIWith the help of the South African Biodiversity
Information Facility (SABIF), ICLEI – Local
Governments for Sustainability is now a functional
GBIF node, having installed GBIF’s Integrated
Publishing Toolkit (IPT) to publish its data.
In 2013, 24 African biodiversity professionals
gathered for training on GBIF tools andinfrastructure and presentations on uses of
biodiversity data in climate change researchat a workshop of the Local Climate Solutions for
Africa Congress, held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

26

GBIF’s regional approachWith the growing complexity of the GBIF network, the Secretariat encourages interaction between nodes
within each of six administrative regions. Working together, the nodes from each region develop andarticulate priorities that are then coordinated through the Nodes Steering Group (NSG). Formally establishedby the Governing Board in 2010, the NSG consists of six regional nodes representatives and three chairs of
the Nodes Committee. Since 2008, GBIF core funds have supported more than 20 formal regional priorityand strategy-development meetings.

GBIF REGIONS: NATIONAL PARTICIPANTS AND ASSOCIATED ORGANIZATIONS

5
6
11

10

13

12

16

14

17

19
21

27

25

28

26

30

32

31

2

36

33

7

3

35

9

37

8
1

23

15

20

29

18
22

NORTH AMERICALATIN AMERICAEUROPE

AFRICAASIAOCEANIA

Non-country Participants
1.

ALBERTINE RIFT CONSERVATION SOCIETY

12. DISCOVER LIFE

2.

ASEAN CENTRE FOR BIODIVERSITY (ACB)

13. DIVERSITAS

3.

BIONET-ANDINONET

14. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE (EOL)

4.

BIONET-INTERNATIONAL

15. ENDANGERED WILDLIFE TRUST (EWT)5.

BIOVERSITY INTERNATIONAL

16. ETI BIOINFORMATICS

24. INTERNATIONAL LONG TERMECOLOGICAL RESEARCH (ILTER)*

6.

BOTANIC GARDENS CONSERVATIONINTERNATIONAL (BGCI)

17. EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY(EEA)

25. NATURAL SCIENCE COLLECTIONSALLIANCE (NSCA)

34. TAXONOMIC DATABASES WORKINGGROUP (TDWG)*

7.

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES (CAS)CHINESE TAIPEI

18. ICLEI - LOCAL GOVERNMENTS FORSUSTAINABILITY (ICLEI)

26. NATURESERVE

8.
9.

CIENCIA Y TECNOLOGÍA PARA EL
DESARROLLO (CYTED)

35. UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENTPROGRAMME – WORLDCONSERVATION MONITORINGCENTRE (UNEP-WCMC)

10. CONSORTIUM FOR THE BARCODE OF
LIFE (CBOL)
11. CONSORTIUM OF EUROPEANTAXONOMIC FACILITIES (CETAF)* virtual networks with no fixed headquarters

19. INTEGRATED TAXONOMICINFORMATION SYSTEM (ITIS)
20. INTER-AMERICAN BIODIVERSITYINFORMATION NETWORK (IABIN)
21. INTERNATIONAL BARCODE OF LIFE
PROJECT (IBOL)

22. INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FOR INSECTPHYSIOLOGY AND ECOLOGY (ICIPE)
23. INTERNATIONAL CENTRE FORINTEGRATED MOUNTAIN DEVELOPMENT(ICIMOD)

27. NORDIC GENETIC RESOURCE CENTER(NORDGEN)
28. OCEAN BIOGEOGRAPHICINFORMATION SYSTEM (OBIS)
29. PACIFIC BIODIVERSITY INFORMATIONFORUM (PBIF)
30. SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE ON
ANTARCTIC RESEARCH (SCAR)

31. SOCIETY FOR THE MANAGEMENTOF ELECTRONIC BIODIVERSITYDATA (SMEBD)*
32 SOCIETY FOR THE PRESERVATION
OF NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS(SPNHC)
33. SPECIES 2000

36. VERTNET
37. WILDSCREEN
38. WORLD FEDERATION FOR
CULTURE COLLECTIONS (WFCC)

27

Benefits of GBIF’s regional approach include:
Maintaining and increasing formal participation
by including attendees from countries outside
the current GBIF membership
Focusing data mobilization, use and application
at regional and global scales contributing to 		broader international and intergovernmental 		scales such as CBD and IPBES
Coordinating and catalysing activity aroundfunding and the development of tools andstandards, thereby increasing efficiency andoverall benefit
3RD GBIF AFRICA REGIONAL NODES MEETING, JULY 2012, KIGALI, RWANDA

Regional analysis of data
OBSERVATIONSPECIMENOTHER

Analysis of GBIF-mediated data at regional levels
shows some interesting and important differences.
While data publishing is increasing across all
regions, the relative proportion of observationand specimen records (fig.14) varies considerably,
indicating regions that could benefit from targeted
data mobilization.

OCEANIANORTH AMERICALATIN AMERICAEUROPEASIA
AFRICA
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

FIGURE 13. OCCURRENCE RECORDS PUBLISHED BY REGIONAL INSTITUTIONSBY BASIS OF RECORD (OBSERVATION, SPECIMEN, AND OTHER)ABOUT OWN REGIONSABOUT OTHER REGIONS

While the greatest concentrations of biodiversity
are found in developing countries, the largest
natural history collections are located in developed
countries. Figure 15 shows the importance that
digitization efforts in North America and Europe
have in ‘repatriating’ data to their countries oforigin.

OCEANIANORTH AMERICALATIN AMERICAEUROPEASIA
AFRICA
0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

FIGURE 14. DATA PUBLISHED FROM EACH GBIF REGION, WITH PERCENTAGESRELATING TO BIODIVERSITY WITHIN THE REGION, AND TO BIODIVERSITY FROMOUTSIDE THE REGIONS

28

GBIF in Africa

2013 GBIF Africa
Regional Nodes Meeting
16-18 April 2013
Pretoria, South Africa

Regional mission: Through the African Regional Biodiversity Information Coordination Mechanism, theAfrican Nodes strive to become the data-science interface for this mega-diverse continent, in supportof the implementation of the Africa’s Science and Technology Consolidated Plan of Action of the African
Union, particularly the programme cluster I on biodiversity, biotechnology, and indigenous knowledge.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS IN 2013
PRIMARY BIODIVERSITY RECORDS (MILLIONS)

20

15

TRAININGDATA PUBLISHED BY
COUNTRY PARTICIPANTS
IN AFRICA

10

5

0
2008

DATA USENEWSALL DATA AVAILABLE
THROUGH GBIF ABOUT
BIODIVERSITY IN AFRICA

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

SENEGAL: Capacity-building
workshop for Global Taxonomy
Initiative (March)
Location: Dakar
Organizers: CBD, Government of
Senegal, Muséum Nationald’Histoire Naturelle and GBIF
Funder: Government of Japan

FIGURE 16. TREND IN DATA RELATING TO AFRICA

80%

20%

CONGO BASIN: Using GBIF-mediateddata on 11 mammals implicatedas reservoirs of monkeypox virus,
researchers modeled potential
combined impacts of climate andland-use change on this emerging
infectious disease affecting people
in tropical Africa.4

2013
ANIMALIA

PLANTAE

FIGURE 17. DATA PUBLISHED BY GBIF PARTICIPANTS IN AFRICA BY KINGDOMAFRICAN PORCUPINE FAMILY (HYSTRIX CRISTATA)

29

KENYA: Biodiversity data cleaningand data publishing training
course (February)
Location: Nairobi
Organizer: ICIPE
Partners: ARCOS, Kenya, Republicof Congo, South Africa, Tanzania
and Uganda
Funder: JRS Biodiversity Foundation

TANZANIA: Training for local
government staff as part of the2013 Local Climate Solutions
Congress (October)
Location: Dar es Salaam
Organizer: ICLEI – Local Governments
for Sustainability

ALBERTINE RIFT: The Albertine
Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS)
launched a new regional portal.
ARBMIS – the Albertine Rift
Biodiversity Monitoring andInformation System – combines
species and GIS data, publications
and multimedia to provide partners
and stakeholders with a common
information-sharing resource for
effective biodiversity monitoring.

MOUNT GAHINGA AND MOUNT MUHABURA, ON THE
RWANDA/UGANDA BORDER

MADAGASCAR: Data digitization
training (August)
Location: Mahajanga
Organizers: Madagascar Biodiversity
Information Facility (MadBIF) and theMadagascar Biodiversity Network(REBIOMA)

SOUTH AFRICA: The South African
National Biodiversity Institute(SANBI) signed an MOU with the
University of the Western Cape tofund two postdoctoral fellowships
intended to kickstart developmentof a research hub for biodiversity
information management. This firststep aims to meet a need for research
and field skills among African
nations making increased efforts tounderstand and monitor biodiversity.

VOTING PARTICIPANTSASSOCIATE COUNTRY PARTICIPANTS

SOUTH AFRICA: Workshop on
biodiversity informationarchitecture (February)
Location: Cape Town
Organizer: SANBISOUTH AFRICA: Workshop on
using R for species distribution
modelling (July)
Location: Cape Town
Organizer: SABIF
Funder: JRS Biodiversity Foundation

SOUTH AFRICA: Biodiversity
georeferencing training (June)
Location: Pretoria
Organizer: SABIF
Funder: JRS Biodiversity FoundationUWC CENTRAL CAMPUS ENTRY

30

GBIF in Asia

Regional mission: There is a lack of readily available biodiversity data within the Asian region, and thishampers the knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystems in the Asian region as well as the reuse of data
for advanced research. It is the goal of the GBIF Asian nodes, through a collaborative effort, to increase
the amount of biodiversity data in the region to facilitate the work of scientists and policy makers towards
informed decisions on critical biodiversity and ecosystem issues.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS IN 2013
PRIMARY BIODIVERSITY RECORDS (MILLIONS)
12ALL DATA AVAILABLE
THROUGH GBIF ABOUT
BIODIVERSITY IN ASIA

9DATA PUBLISHED BY
COUNTRY PARTICIPANTS
IN ASIA

3

2009

2010

NEW DATADATA USENEWSCHINA: Researchers from China used
more than 97,000 occurrence records
to identify suitable habitats underclimate change scenarios for 2050 for
two highly invasive species: the curly
dock (Rumex crispus) and bullrush(Typha latifolia).5

6

0
2008

TRAINING

2011

2012

2013

2014

FIGURE 18. TREND IN DATA RELATING TO ASIA

2%

60%

38%

CURLY DOCK (RUMEX CRISPUS)

2013
ANIMALIA

PLANTAE

CHINESE TAIPEI: 11,000 records ofmoths observed and photographedby citizens and posted to a
Facebook group.
Publisher: Taiwan Biodiversity
Information Facility (TaiBIF)

FUNGI

FIGURE 19. DATA PUBLISHED BY GBIF PARTICIPANTS IN ASIA BY KINGDOMINDIA: Workshop on promoting
metadata use and publishing data
papers (June)
Location: Pune
Organizers: Wildlife Institute of India
Partner: Pensoft Publishers

31

REPUBLIC OF KOREA: Nearly 1 million
new records from more than a dozen
publishers, including a dataset
on green algae from the Korean
Biological Resources Centre, bird andplant data from the Korean Forest
Service, and specimen records fromthe country’s largest insect database.

JAPAN: 32,600 records of beetles
from the database of ground beetles
in Japan.
Publishers: National Institute of
Genetics

BLUE LEAF BEETLE (CHRYSOCHUS COBALTINUS)
BLACK GROUND BEETLE (PTEROSTICHUS MELANARIUS)

JAPAN: GBIF Japan has released aredesigned portal (www.gbif.jp) that
improves support for data holders.
In addition to an online form forengaging institutions interested in
mobilizing their data through GBIF,
the revamped site can also validate
uploaded data to ensure theircompatibility with the Darwin Core
standard.

JAPAN: 7,900 records of plants fromthe Fuji-Hakone-Izu national park.
Data collected by volunteers who
have been monitoring plants along
the park’s hiking trails since 2001.
Publisher: National Institute of
Genetics

VOTING PARTICIPANTSASSOCIATE COUNTRYPARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTS WITH SIGNATURE
OF 2012 MOU PENDING

CHINESE TAIPEI: 3,529 occurrence
records covering 631 fish species,
published through a data paper
following a four-year survey of thecoastal waters around the island.
Publisher: Taiwan Biodiversity
Information Facility (TaiBIF)

ANCHOVIES

CHINESE TAIPEI: International
Conference on Open Data in
Biodiversity and Ecological Research(March)Location: Taipei
Organizer: TAIBIF
Funder: National Science Council

JAPAN: Regional node managers
workshop on Integrated Publishing
Toolkit v.2 (March)
Location: Ibaraki
Host: National Museum of Scienceand Nature

32

GBIF in Europe

2013 European
Regional Nodes Meeting
6-8 March 2013
Joensuu, Finland

Regional mission: The mission of GBIF’s European nodes is to communicate clearly how GBIF data, and
the GBIF infrastructure can support the complex and diverse range of initiatives, projects and agencies in
Europe; to focus on communication and the synchronization of activities; and to demonstrate the benefits
and potential of GBIF to serve the scientific community and the general public at national, regional andinternational levels.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS IN 2013
PRIMARY BIODIVERSITY RECORDS (MILLIONS)
200

150

ALL DATA AVAILABLE THROUGH GBIFABOUT BIODIVERSITY IN EUROPE

NEW DATADATA USENEWSDATA PUBLISHED BY COUNTRYPARTICIPANTS IN EUROPE

100

50

0
2008

TRAINING

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

IRELAND: The National Biodiversity Data Centreorganized a friendly ‘bioblitz’ competition at four
locations on the island of Ireland, marking theUN’s International Day for Biological Diversity.
Volunteers at Colebrooke Estate in County
Fermanagh recorded 1,086 species in a single
day, earning nationwide broadcast coverageon RTÉ One.

FIGURE 20. TREND IN DATA RELATING TO EUROPE

FRANCE: More 30,000 marine species records
from the French Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean,and English Channel.
Publisher: Le Service du Patrimoine Naturel,
National Museum of Natural History

1%
2%
4%

1%
49%

2013
SCORPIONFISH

44%

ANIMALIA

PLANTAEFUNGIPROTOZOACHROMISTAOTHER

FIGURE 21. DATA PUBLISHED BY GBIF PARTICIPANTS IN EUROPE BY KINGDOMPORTUGAL: 880 records of marine molluscs
collected along the Portuguese coast between
1887 and 1939 by Augusto Nobre, former
director of the museum.
Partner: Museu de História Natural da
Universidade do Porto

33

DENMARK: 1.1 million vegetation
data records from detailed surveysof the country’s protected areas.
Publisher: Department of
Bioscience, Aarhus University

NORWAY: More than 250,000 recordsof Norwegian seabirds gatheredas part of SEAPOP, a long-termmonitoring and mapping programmeestablished in 2006.
Publisher: Norwegian Institute for
Nature Research

GREAT BRITAIN & IRELAND:
Researchers from the UK used datafrom GBIF and other sources to
identify the ‘dirty dozen’ invasive
species that pose the greatest risk
to British and Irish aquatic
biodiversity. An innovation was
to include socio-economic factors
such as proximity to ports andpopulation centres to assess risks.6

SWEDEN: 150,000 insect andpaleontological records, including
observations from the Malaise Trap
Project, a national insect inventory.
Publisher: The Swedish Museumof Natural History

THE NETHERLANDS: Course onmodeling and mapping species
distribution (July)
Location: Amsterdam
Organizer: NLBIFATLANTIC PUFFIN (FRATERCULA ARCTICA)

VOTING PARTICIPANTS

THE NETHERLANDS: Nearly a million
records of molluscs, beetles, moths,
butterflies, sawflies, wasps, bees
and ants from the fifth largest natural
history collection in the world.
Publisher: Naturalis Biodiversity
CenterBELGIUM: The Belgian Biodiversity
Platform has launched a new
digital atlas devoted to thecountry’s ant species. Formidabel– FORMIcidaeDAtabaseBELgium –provides access to data and maps
characterizing more than 27,000
records of 76 native and nine
introduced Belgian ants.

ASSOCIATE COUNTRYPARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTS WITH SIGNATURE
OF 2012 MOU PENDING

ISRAEL: More than 368,000
observations of vascular plants andvertebrates collected from ongoingsurveys and field studies.
Publisher: Israel Nature andParks Authority

SPAIN: More than half a million
records covering 326 plants gathered
during the 3rd National Forest
Inventory, in Spain and the Balearic
and Canary Islands by the Ministry ofEnvironment, Rural & Marine Affairs.
Publisher: GBIF Spain
SPAIN: Workshop on data paper
publication (March)
Location: Madrid
Organizer: GBIF Spain

EUROPE: GBIF-mediated andother occurrence records for theAmerican eastern grey squirrel(Sciurus carolinensis) indicate thatthe invasive alien species’ niches
have shifted in the British Isles andnorthern Italy, where the rodent hascolonized areas very different fromits native range.

GERMANY: The Botanic Garden and
Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem(BGBM) launched an online resourcethat enriches the GBIF network’s 7.4
million observation and specimen
records of ‘protists’ - algae andprotozoa. Such data are criticalto environmental monitoring andbiological research.
http://protists.gbif.de/protists
Funder: German Ministry of
Education and Research

AUSTRIA: 100,000 records of moths
and butterflies from parts of Austria,
Germany, Italy and Slovenia.
Publisher: The Tiroler Landesmuseum
Ferdinandeum

34

GBIF in Latin America

2013 Latin American
Regional Nodes Meeting
14-15 March 2013
San José, Costa Rica

Regional mission: The Latin American nodes seek to enhance regional and local capabilities to effectively
manage, share, access, and use of biodiversity data. Together, they develop technologies and share bestpractices and strengths to support the implementation and use of national biodiversity information systems.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS IN 2013
PRIMARY BIODIVERSITY RECORDS (MILLIONS)
30

25

ALL DATA AVAILABLE THROUGH GBIFABOUT BIODIVERSITY IN LATIN AMERICANEW DATADATA USENEWSDATA PUBLISHED BY COUNTRYPARTICIPANTS IN LATIN AMERICAMEXICO: A study seeking to optimize
methods for designing networks ofmarine protected areas used datafrom CONABIO and GBIF publishers
to identify 64 fish species that
occur in the Gulf of California.8

15

7,5

0
2008

TRAINING

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

FIGURE 22. TREND IN DATA RELATING TO LATIN AMERICA

1%
1%

1%
60%

37%
LARGE-BANDED BLENNY (OPHIOBLENNIUS STEINDACHNERI)

2013

ANIMALIA

PLANTAEFUNGI

CHROMISTACOSTA RICA: Researchers concluded
that tropical forest species are
responding to warming temperaturesby moving to higher altitudes,
based on a review of GBIF-mediatedherbarium data for 386 Costa Rican
tree species.9

OTHER

FIGURE 23. DATA PUBLISHED BY GBIF PARTICIPANTS IN LATIN AMERICA BY KINGDOMVENEZUELA: Data on nearly 1,000
insect species from Central andSouth America.
Publisher: Universidad Central deVenezuela

35

COSTA RICA: Workshop on
biodiversity information forenvironmental conservation (April)
Location: Sarapiqui
Organizer: I3B
Funder: Ibero-American Programme
for Science, Technology andDevelopment (CYTED)COLOMBIA: 2,000 records of
epiphytes relocated during
construction of a pipeline between
Araguaney and Banadia in northern
Colombia.
Publisher: Oleoducto Bicentenario

COLOMBIA: More than 3,000
records of ants associated withorange crops in 38 orchards on
the Caribbean coast.
Publisher: Universidad del ValleCOSTA RICA: 2nd workshop on tools
for the management and sharing of
biodiversity data (February)
Location: Cartago
Organizer: The Costa Rican Biodiversity Information Facility (CRBio)
EPIPHYTESANT (MESSOR)

STILT-LEGGED FLY (SCIPOPUS MICROPEZIDAE DIPTERA)NICARAGUA: 126,500 insect records
from Central America and aroundthe world.
Publisher: Entomological Museumof Léon

VOTING PARTICIPANTSCOSTA RICA: Citizen scientists
marked May 22, the International
Day for Biological Diversity, bycounting 236 species during a
bioblitz at INBioparque in San Jose.
The event recorded species from
17 insect families not previously
encountered in the park (owned bynode hosts INBio), including: seven
new families of Coleoptera (beetles),four new families of Diptera (flies andmosquitos), three new families of
bedbugs, and one new family each of
Lepidoptera (butterflies), Neuroptera(ant lions) and dragonflies.

COLOMBIA: Mentoring workshop
on software tools for biologicalcollections (June)
Locations: Villa de Levya and Bogotá
Organizers: Universidad Nacionaland SiB Colombia
Funders: Humboldt Institute,
JRS Biodiversity Foundation and
GBIF Spain

BRAZIL: To explore how climaticconditions affect the complex
relationships between bees andtheir ‘plant partners’, scientists
drew upon GBIF-mediated datafrom 32 publishers for the bee
genus Centris and the plants
they pollinate.10

COLOMBIA: Capacity Building
for Conservation conference andworkshops (February)
Location: Villa de Leyva
Organizer: Humboldt Institute

BRAZIL: A major plant collection fromthe Rio de Janeiro Botanic Garden(JBRJ) Herbarium and founded by theBrazilian emperor Pedro II in the 19th
century became the first Brazilian
dataset mobilized through GBIF. The
collection includes specimens Among
more than half a million records inthe dataset are specimens collectedby important naturalists like AntoineLaurent Apollinaire Fee, João Geraldo
Kuhlmann and Paulo Campos Porto.

ANDES: 15 datasets including nearly
45,000 records from the Páramo
ecosystems of Venezuela, Colombia,
Peru and Ecuador.
Publisher: Institute for Biodiversity
and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED),
University of Amsterdam

PAU-FERRO (CAESALPINIA FERREA)ASSOCIATE COUNTRYPARTICIPANTS
PARTICIPANTS WITH SIGNATURE
OF 2012 MOU PENDING

36

GBIF in North America

Regional mission: The North American nodes seek to foster joint collaboration between the GBIF networkand regional organizations on informatics development, content mobilization and use, and community
engagement by utilizing the region’s strengths in genomic and taxonomic expertise, computing
infrastructure, scientific analysis and related fields.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS IN 2013
PRIMARY BIODIVERSITY RECORDS (MILLIONS)
160
140
120

ALL DATA AVAILABLE THROUGH GBIF ABOUT
BIODIVERSITY IN NORTH AMERICATRAINING

NEW DATADATA USENEWSDATA PUBLISHED BY COUNTRYPARTICIPANTS IN NORTH AMERICA

100
80
60
40
20
0
2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

FIGURE 24. TREND IN DATA RELATING TO NORTH AMERICANORTH AMERICA: To predict the
future distribution of a parasitic
worm commonly found in whitetailed deer across the United States
and Canada under different climate
scenarios, researchers drew uponfor GBIF-mediated data for deer aswell as the worm’s intermediate
gastropod hosts.11

1%
7%
92%

2013
WHITE-TAILED DEER (ODOCOILEUS VIRGINIANUS)

ANIMALIA

PLANTAEFUNGI

FIGURE 25. DATA PUBLISHED BY GBIF PARTICIPANTS IN NORTH AMERICA BY KINGDOMUNITED STATES: 2nd training
workshop on biodiversity
informatics (June)
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Organizer: VertNet

37

UNITED STATES: The U.S. Geological
Survey launched BISON – Biodiversity
Information Serving Our Nation –a new web resource that integrates
data for more than 100 million
records of nearly every species
occurring in the country. BISON
and its associated web services
relies on datasets publishedthrough the GBIF global network.

CANADA: More than 300,000
specimen records of birds,
amphibians, reptiles and mammals,
including the collection ofornithologist James Henry
Fleming, once considered themost comprehensive private
collection of birds in North America.
Publishers: Royal Ontario Museum

CANADA: The University of Guelph
in Ontario opened a new Centre for
Biodiversity Genomics. Focusedon discovering, identifying andcataloguing species using DNA
barcoding technology, the newcentre is triple the size of its former
facility and will house the secretariatof the International Barcode of Life(iBOL), a GBIF Associate Participant.

NORTHERN CARDINAL (CARDINALIS CARDINALIS)AMERICAN GREEN TREE FROG (HYLA CINEREA)

ALEUTIAN FOX, NIKOLSKI BAY, ALASKAUNITED STATES: To test the capacityof terrestrial vertebrates to adapt
to rapid climate change in coming
decades, U.S. researchers used
locality data from GBIF and othersources for 270 pairs of ‘sister’species, to establish how quickly
they had evolved new climate niches
in the past.12

SANDHILL CRANE (GRUS CANADENSIS PRATENSIS)VOTING PARTICIPANTSASSOCIATE COUNTRYPARTICIPANTS

UNITED STATES: More than 17,000
specimen records of North American
flora from a collection specializing
in regional native plants, particularly
species associated with theremaining tallgrass prairie in the Flint
Hills of southeastern Kansas.
Publisher: Emporia State University

UNITED STATES: Nearly 25,000
herpetological specimens of
the Savannah Science Museum,
representing 95 per cent of thereptiles and amphibians of Georgia.
Publisher: Georgia Southern University

TALLGRASS PRAIRIE, FLINT HILLS, KANSASPIGEON MOUNTAIN SALAMANDER (PLETHODON PETRAEUS)

38

GBIF in Oceania

Regional mission: The Oceania nodes work together to share relevant technology and expertise that support
the development and use of the region’s national biodiversity infrastructure.

REGIONAL HIGHLIGHTS IN 2013
PRIMARY BIODIVERSITY RECORDS (MILLIONS)DATA USE

40NEWSALL DATA AVAILABLE THROUGH GBIFABOUT BIODIVERSITY IN OCEANIA
30

DATA PUBLISHED BY COUNTRYPARTICIPANTS IN OCEANIA

20

10

0
2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

FIGURE 26. TREND IN DATA RELATING TO OCEANIA

1%

AUSTRALIA: To assess the risk of
biofuel crops becoming harmful
invasive species, scientists drew
upon GBIF-mediated data and records
from the Australia Virtual Herbariumon the distribution of Indian beechor Pongam oiltree (Millettia pinnata,also known as Pongamia pinnata).13

1%

73%

25%

2013
ANIMALIA

PLANTAE

FUNGI

OTHER

FIGURE 27. DATA PUBLISHED BY GBIF PARTICIPANTS IN OCEANIA BY KINGDOMPONGAM OILTREE (MILLETTIA PINNATA)

39

AUSTRALIA: More than two million
GBIF-mediated records contributed
to an analysis of how a drying
Australia affected bird evolution.
This examination of the locationof 75 species of honeyeaters tested
the ‘niche conservatism’ hypothesis– a theory suggesting that most
species remain in climates similar
to those tolerated by theirancestors.14

AUSTRALIA: In a joint study on
key components for developing anational biodiversity monitoring
capability, CSIRO, the Australian
Bureau of Meteorology
and the Atlas of Living Australia
analysed an approach to biodiversity
profiling that combines natural
history collections with mapping
data to describe and infer changes
in species’ status in Australia acrossspace and time.

AUSTRALIA: An internationalgroup of taxonomists launched
a new website about the nearly
6,000 insect species belonging
to more than 800 genera of theOrder Thysanoptera — commonly
known as thrips, thunderbugs orcorn lice. Created with support
from Australia’s Department ofAgriculture, Fisheries and Forestry,
ThripsWiki builds on a checklist
compiled in 2005 by Australia’s
science agency CSIRO (funded inpart by GBIF) to check data frommajor thrips collections in Frankfurt,
London and Washington, D.C.

CRADLE MT FROM HANSON’S PEAK, TASMANIA, AUSTRALIAREGENT HONEYEATER (XANTHOMYZA PHRYGIA)WINGED THRIPS (THYSANOPTERA)AUSTRALIA: In February, the Atlas of
Living Australia released FishMap, afree online resource offering detailed
information on the country’s marine
fish. FishMap lets users view photos
and maps of the country’s 4,500
species (including 320 sharks andrays), learn the depths and locationsof the waters of they inhabit, andcreate species lists.

SANDHILL CRANE (GRUS CANADENSIS PRATENSIS)VOTING PARTICIPANTS

AUSTRALIA: Researchers from theUnited Kingdom analysed museum
artefacts to gain insight into the useof particular plants by Australia’s
indigenous peoples in the past.
The study used data from GBIF and
the Atlas of Living Australia to map
distributions of eight species of thegenus Xanthorrhoea, whose resin
is used mainly as adhesives.15

XANTHORRHOEA JOHNSONII

40

GBIF in the news

The GBIF network received attention across a variety of media outlets in 2013, from the BBC World Service
to HuffingtonPost­.com — some headline highlights follow.

John Stewart of the BBC’s ‘Science in Action’programme hosted a conversation with the Secretariat’s
Tim Hirsch in May. The two discussed the structureof the GBIF network, the use of the data it mobilizes
in one large-scale study of the future climate change
impacts (Warren et al. 2014—see p.12), and theways in which GBIF serves to repatriate data to theircountries of origin.

A special feature in the Financial Times drew on
information from SiB Colombia (the GBIF nationalnode) for an interactive feature in a special reporton biodiversity in ‘The New Columbia’.
READ MORE ‘Columbia’s Biodiversity’:		
Financial Times, 3 June 2013
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6e8ce78a-cc3c11e2-bb22-00144feab7de.html#axzz2VEH1iOGO

LISTEN ‘Science in Action’: BBC World Service
Radio, 16 May 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01944nc

News of Miguel Bastos Araújo’s selection as the winnerof GBIF’s 2013 Ebbe Nielsen Prize merited international
coverage in his home country of Portugal and beyond.
Stories appeared in the print editions of both Jornal deNotícias (one of Portugal’s oldest daily newspapers)
and Visão (the country’s largest weekly news
magazine). The country’s Ciência Hoje (Science Daily)
and Denmark’s Altinget also weighed in.
READ MORE ‘Miguel Bastos Araújo recebe Ebbe
Nielsen Prize 2013’, UEline (em Português)http://www.ueline.uevora.pt/Canais/academia/(item)/8585

Science writer and Huffington Post columnist Mary
Ellen Hannibal noted GBIF’s role in publishing expertverified citizen science data from iNaturalist, whilefinding inspiration in the ability of iNat co-founders
Ken-ichi Ueda and Scott Loarie to engage technology
and technologists to save biodiversity.
READ MORE ‘The Snake, the Seeker and the 		
Smartphone’, HuffingtonPost.com
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-ellen-		
hannibal/the-snake-the-seeker_b_3722218.html
READ MORE iNaturalist
http://www.gbif.org/resources/2782

41

One of GBIF’s Young Researchers Award winners,
Emma Gómez Ruiz, attracted interest in the UnitedStates and Mexico—the two countries inhabitedby the Mexican long-nosed bat on which her work
focuses. The independent daily Reforma from
Mexico City and Texas A&M University’s AgriLife
Today were among those to pick up the story.
READ MORE ‘Reconocimiento internacional en
biodiversidad a la mexicana Emma Gómez-Ruiz’,
Mi Ambiente (en español)
http://www.miambiente.com.mx/sustentabilidad
1/reconocimiento-internacional-en-biodiversidada-la-mexicana-emma-gomez-ruiz
READ MORE ‘Premio jóvenes investigadores 2013,
otorgado a Emma Gómez-Ruiz de México:
Conabio’, Periódico El Planeta (en español)
http://www.elplaneta.ws/inicio/?p=74750

Australian collection manager
David Britton writes in
The Conversation that GBIF
and ‘the world-class, homegrown’ Atlas of Living Australia
have “opened up natural
history collections in a waythat would have been inconceivable in recent memory.

POLLEN-COATED MEXICAN LONG-NOSED BAT (LEPTONYCTERIS NIVALIS) BEING RETRIEVEDFROM MIST NET

GBIF ‘has changed the way biodiversity is studied’. So
say Susan McCouch and her co-authors while issuinga call to ‘harness the full power of biodiversity to feed
the world’ a Comment appearing in Nature in July.
READ MORE ‘Agriculture: Feeding the
Future’, Nature
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/499023a

READ MORE ‘Natural history collections are finespecimens of great value,’ The Conversation
http://theconversation.com/natural-history-		collections-are-fine-specimens-of-greatvalue-16353
READ MORE Atlas of Living Australia
http://www.ala.org.au

And circling back to the beginning, GBIF Governing
Board chair Joanne Daly and the Secretariat’s
Donald Hobern and Tim Hirsch kicked off the yearwith a discussion of biodiversity loss and the role
GBIF-mediated data play in understanding andconserving biological resources.
READ MORE International Innovation –North America
http://www.international-innovationnorthamerica.com/magazines/NA08/index.html

SEEDS FROM LOCALLY DOMESTICATED FOOD CROPS – ALSO KNOWN AS‘LANDRACES’ – ARE HOUSED IN GENE BANKS LIKE THE INTERNATIONAL CENTER
FOR TROPICAL AGRICULTURE (CENTRO INTERNACIONAL DE AGRICULTURA
TROPICAL, CIAT) IN CALI, COLOMBIA

42

Photo Credits
p.3

Harlequin Ladybug (Harmonia Axyridis). Fotolia.com © grandaded

p.14
		

Large red damselfly (Pyrrhosoma nymphula). Photo 2013 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Derek Parker https://www.flickr.com/photos/derek_p/12178734796
Blue-tailed damselfly (Ischnura elegans). Photo 2008 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Pere Luque https://www.flickr.com/photos/pere_luque/3376773666

p.15
		

Travancore tortoise (Indotestudo travancorica) © V. Deepak, Wildlife Institute of India. Photo 2006 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. https://flic.kr/p/dkHKtP
Biota Colombiana. Publication from Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. http://www.humboldt.org.co

p.17
		

Hummingbird and humingbird moth (Macroglossum stellatarum). Photo 2012 CC BY 2.0, Jeffreyw. https://www.flickr.com/photos/		
jeffreyww/7761856942

p.19
		
		

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris). Photo 2013 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Søren Holt. https://www.flickr.com/photos/10348212@n07/9366907368
Elephant hawkmoth (Deilephila elpenor). Photo 2011 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Nutmeg66. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rachel_s/5777231449
Shenandoah salamander (Plethodon shenandoah). Photo 2013 CC BY 2.0, Matthew Stover, USGS. https://flic.kr/p/hnadVx

p.21
		
		

Neguev. Photo 2012 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Rodrigo Balan Uriart. https://www.flickr.com/photos/ruriak/8247617513
Gad Nature Reservation, Israel, Photo 2007 CC BY-ND 2.0, Tav ect. https://www.flickr.com/photos/30845197@n00/440803664
Chinese Academy of Science Library, Beijing, China. Photo 2009 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Hi tricia! 王 圣 捷. https://flic.kr/p/73tTgZ

p.22 Prickly pear (Opuntia sp.). Photo CC BY. http://giasipartnership.myspecies.info
		Citrus root weevil (Diaprepes abbreviates). Photo CC BY. http://giasipartnership.myspecies.info
p.23 Harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis). Photo 2009 CC BY 3.0. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:harmonia.axyridis.1.jpg		
		
Hummingbird (Trochilidae). Photo 2007 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Danny Perez photography. https://www.flickr.com/photos/da100fotos/465868860
		River rat (Myocastor coypus). Photo 2011 CC BY-SA 3.0, Christian Fischer. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:myocastorcoypus.jpg
p.24 Slender phlox (Microsteris gracilis). Photo 2005 CC BY-SA 2.5, Curtis Clark. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:microsteris_gracilis_2005-04-02.jpg
		Flying gurnard (Dactylopterus volitans). Photo 2006 CC BY-SA 3.0, Beckmannjan. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:flughahn.jpg
p.27

3rd GBIF Africa Regional Nodes Meeting, Kigali, Rwanda. Photo © 2012, Fabian Haas.

p.28 African porcupines (Hystrix cristata). Photo 1977 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Kibuyu. https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidbygott/4146573932
p.29
		
		
		

Mount Gahinga and Mount Muhabura, on the Rwanda/Uganda border. Photo 2006 CC BY-SA 2.5, Amakuru.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:gahingamuhabura.png
University of the Western Cape - Central Campus entry. Photo 2008 CC BY-SA 3.0.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:University_of_the_Western_Cape_-_Central_Campus_entry.jpg#file

p.30 Curly dock (Rumex crispus). Photo 2009 CC BY-SA 2.0, Frank Mayfield. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gmayfield10/4684765105
p.31
		
		

Blue leaf beetle (Chrysochus cobaltinus). Photo 2006 CC BY 3.0, Robert. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:korea-seoul-blue_insect-01.jpg
Black ground beetle (Pterostichus melanarius). Photo 2010 cc by-sa 2.0 by Dluogs. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dluogs/8486499236
Anchovies. Photo 2006 CC BY-NC 2.0, Brian Gratwicke. https://www.flickr.com/photos/briangratwicke/2179477776

p.32

Scorpionfish. Photo 2009 CC SA 3.0, Steven van Tendeloo. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:scorpaenaunkspecies.jpg

p.33

Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica). Photo 2008 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Photo Nature. https://www.flickr.com/photos/andrej_chudy/3949729303

p.34

Large-banded blenny (Ophioblennius steindachneri). Photo 2007 CC BY 2.0, Laszlo Ilyes. https://www.flickr.com/photos/laszlo-photo/2064182828

p.35
		
		
		

Stilt-legged fly (Scipopus micropezidae diptera). Photo 2011 CC BY 2.0, Gailhampshire. https://www.flickr.com/photos/gails_pictures/8109301674
Epiphytes. Photo 2014 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Quimbaya. https://www.flickr.com/photos/quimbaya/12154889065
Ant (Messor), Photo 2009 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Stavros Markopoulos. https://www.flickr.com/photos/markop/3209409988
Pau-ferro (Caesalpinia ferrea). Photo 2009 CC BY 2.0, Mauroguanandi. https://www.flickr.com/photos/mauroguanandi/3335538845

p.36 White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus). photo 2014 CC BY 2.0, Larry Smith. https://www.flickr.com/photos/lsmith2010/14473938592
p.37
		
		
		
		
		

Aleutian fox, Nikolski bay, Alaska. Photo 2008 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Viewminder. https://www.flickr.com/photos/light_seeker/2828287204
Northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis). Photo 2009 CC BY-NC-ND, Jen Goellnitz. https://www.flickr.com/photos/goellnitz/3163546693
American green tree frog (Hyla cinerea). Photo 2008 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Judy Baxter. https://www.flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/2518225201
Sandhill crane (Grus canadensis pratensis). Photo 2009 CC BY-SA 2.0, Andrea Westmoreland. https://flic.kr/p/5RRCfb
Tallgrass prairie, Flint Hills. Photo 2011 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, Kansas Tourism. https://www.flickr.com/photos/travelks/5516114488
Pigeon Mountain salamander (Plethodon petraus). Photo 2013 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 John Clare. https://www.flickr.com/photos/johnclare/9038106693

p.38 Pongam oiltree (Millettia pinnata). Photo 2007 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Dinesh Valke. https://www.flickr.com/photos/dinesh_valke/470269772
p.39
		
		
		
		
		

Regent honeyeater (Xanthomyza phrygia). Photo 2006 CC BY NC-SA 2.0, Tim Williams. https://www.flickr.com/photos/timmythesuk/112760308
Cradle Mountain from Hanson’s Peak, Tasmania, Australia. Photo 2012 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Luke Zeme. https://flic.kr/p/df1jVr
Ragged finned lionfish (Pterois antennata). Photo 2009 CC BY-ND 2.0, fugm10. https://www.flickr.com/photos/fugm10/4189181207
Winged thrips (Thysanoptera). Photo 2009 CC BY-NC-SA 2.0, Tony. https://flic.kr/p/6SUx9p
Xanthorrhoea johnsonii. Photo 2005 CC BY-SA 3.0, Australian National Botanic Gardens via WikiMedia Commons.
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/file:xanthorrhoea_johnsonii_01.jpg

p.41
		
		

Pollen-coated Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris nivalis) being retrieved from mist net. Photo © 2012 Emma Gomez-Ruiz.
“CIAT genebank (6918499120)” by Luigi Guarino from Rome, Italy - CIAT genebank. Uploaded by Jacopo Werther. Photo cc by http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CIAT_genebank_(6918499120).jpg#mediaviewer/File:CIAT_genebank_(6918499120).jpg

43

End notes
1. A public library of peer-reviewed research papers that make use of of GBIF-mediated data provides a complete list of datapaper
citations: http://www.mendeley.com/groups/1068301/gbif-public-library/papers/added/0/tag/datapaper. The full library isaccessible at http://www.mendeley.com/groups/1068301/gbif-public-library/papers
2. Torralba-Burrial, A., & Ocharan, F. J. (2013). Iberian Odonata distribution: data of the BOS Arthropod Collection (University of Oviedo,
Spain). ZooKeys, 306, 37–58. doi:10.3897/zookeys.306.5289
3. Revista Biota Columbiana (2013), 14 (3). Suplemento especial - Artículos de datosBiota. http://www.humboldt.org.co/component/
k2/item/212-revista-biota-colombiana-vol-14-2-suplemento-especial-articulos-de-datos
4. Thomassen, H. A., Fuller, T., Asefi-Najafabady, S., Shiplacoff, J. A. G., Mulembakani, P. M., Blumberg, S., … Rimoin, A. W. (2013).
Pathogen-Host Associations and Predicted Range Shifts of Human Monkeypox in Response to Climate Change in Central Africa. PLoS
ONE, 8(7), e66071. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066071
5. Xu, Z., Feng, Z., Yang, J., Zheng, J., & Zhang, F. (2013). Nowhere to Invade: Rumex crispus and Typha latifolia Projected to Disappear
under Future Climate Scenarios. PLoS ONE, 8(7), e70728. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0070728
6. Gallardo, B., & Aldridge, D. C. (2013). The “dirty dozen”: socio-economic factors amplify the invasion potential of 12 high-risk aquatic
invasive species in Great Britain and Ireland. Journal of Applied Ecology, 50(3), 757–766. doi:10.1111/1365-2664.12079
7. Di Febbraro, M., Lurz, P. W. W., Genovesi, P., Maiorano, L., Girardello, M., & Bertolino, S. (2013). The Use of Climatic Niches in
Screening Procedures for Introduced Species to Evaluate Risk of Spread: A Case with the American Eastern Grey Squirrel. PLoS ONE,
8(7), e66559. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066559
8. Anadón, J. D., del Mar Mancha-Cisneros, M., Best, B. D., & Gerber, L. R. (2013). Habitat-specific larval dispersal and marine
connectivity: implications for spatial conservation planning. Ecosphere, 4(7), art82. doi:10.1890/ES13-00119.1
9. Feeley, K. J., Hurtado, J., Saatchi, S., Silman, M. R., & Clark, D. B. (2013). Compositional shifts in Costa Rican forests due to climatedriven species migrations. Global Change Biology, 19(11), 3472–80. doi:10.1111/gcb.12300
10. Giannini, T. C., Pinto, C. E., Acosta, A. L., Taniguchi, M., Saraiva, A. M., & Alves-dos-Santos, I. (2013). Interactions at large spatial
scale: The case of Centris bees and floral oil producing plants in South America. Ecological Modelling, 258, 74–81. doi:10.1016/j.
ecolmodel.2013.02.032
11. Pickles, R. S. A., Thornton, D., Feldman, R., Marques, A., & Murray, D. L. (2013). Predicting shifts in parasite distribution with climatechange: a multitrophic level approach. Global Change Biology, 19(9), 2645–54. doi:10.1111/gcb.12255
12. Quintero, I., & Wiens, J. J. (2013). Rates of projected climate change dramatically exceed past rates of climatic niche evolution amongvertebrate species. Ecology Letters, 16(8), 1095–103. doi:10.1111/ele.12144
13. Kriticos, D. J., Murphy, H. T., Jovanovic, T., Taylor, J., Herr, A., Raison, J., & O’Connell, D. (2013). Balancing bioenergy and biosecurity
policies: estimating current and future climate suitability patterns for a bioenergy crop. GCB Bioenergy. doi:10.1111/gcbb.12068
14. Miller, E. T., Zanne, A. E., & Ricklefs, R. E. (2013). Niche conservatism constrains Australian honeyeater assemblages in stressfulenvironments. Ecology Letters, 16(9), 1186–94. doi:10.1111/ele.12156
15. Bradshaw, F. (2013). Chemical characterisation of museum-curated ethnographic resins from Australia and New Guinea used asadhesives, medicines and narcotics. Heritage Science, 1(1), 36. doi:10.1186/2050-7445-1-36

44

Appendix 1 – Records published through GBIF, by endorsing Participant node
Node

Total

With coordinates

Publishers

Voting Participants
Andorra81,81678,008
1
Argentina*
764,837
397,976
13
Australia
24,558,014
23,931,381
35
Belgium
5,232,821
4,737,860
10
Colombia
1,595,639
1,041,783
52
Costa Rica
3,176,960
3,118,011
4
Denmark
8,188,662
7,999,655
20
Estonia
252,964
227,537
4
Finland
16,029,628
15,754,992
12
France16,488,983
8,091,079
38
Germany
12,008,963
9,190,549
27
Ghana
93,346
51,4201
Iceland458,705
438,505
1
Ireland2,572,841
2,572,226
1
Japan
3,527,422
849,230
3
Korea, Republic of
1,246,449
2,445
29
Madagascar
18,7486,285
5Mauritania
178
01
Mexico2,728,016
2,384,770
5
Netherlands
14,307,649
13,000,959
20
New Zealand
1,551,624
959,166
1
Norway13,199,772
13,126,006
5Peru*
65,88005Portugal
157,393
23,6696
Slovakia*
1144542244
1
Slovenia*
266,295
61,531
3
South Africa
8,973,006
8,063,926
11
Spain
8,906,669
6,988,532
73
Sweden44,201,365
41,546,466
8
Tanzania
10,034
9,459
18
UK		
42,299,753
41,148,498
14
USA		
146,320,083
129,434,906
124
Associate Country Participants				Austria
3,064,884
2,743,938
13
Brazil771016347750
6
Cameroon**
23,961
9,913
5
Canada3,634,430
2,614,142
22
Guinea
493
468
1
India
7,377
5,354
4
Israel433,463
433,463
2
Luxembourg
933,343902,0111
Pakistan
853
176
1
Poland
1,625,032
1,317,005
28
Switzerland*
1,558,889
1,281,707
13
Togo		
7,983
7983
5
Other Associate Participants				Asean Centre for Biodiversity
500
04
Bioversity International
1,980,963
641,444
2
Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo
131,642
106,0111
Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities
107,557
0
1
Inter American Biodiversity Information Network
27,594
21,497
8
International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology
3,939
3,909
1
NatureServe
1,677,642
01
Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NORDGEN)
37,641
6,093
2
Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS)
12,365,899
11,756,563
8
Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum (PBIF)
2,487
2,382
1
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)
289,665
289,5634Society for the Management of Electronic Biodiversity Data (SMEBD)
4,702
4,534
3
Chinese Taipei
1,181,624
742,212
5
VertNet
4,400
3,279
1
World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC)
48,9130
1* Participants that had yet to sign the 2012 memorandum of understanding** Moved to Observer status, June 2013

Datasets
7
70
113
68
94
8
59
4
57
95
10978
2
4
99
278
100
3
1
390
90
6
81
6
10
1
5
22
173
40
12
498
339
13
9
5
116
1
5
1
1
3
97
18
2
10
4
1
1
1
3
1
1
188
2
82
2
38
1
19

45

Appendix 2 – New publishers in 2013
Publisher						

GBIF Participant Datasets
Node		

Antarctic Biodiversity Information Facility (ANTABIF)
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)
Asilweb - Atlas der Raubfliegen Deutschlands		
Germany
Asociación de Becarios del Casanare – ABC		Colombia
Asociación para el estudio y conservación de las aves acuáticas en Colombia
Colombia
BeBIF Provider		Belgium
Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem		
Germany
Centro Nacional Patagonico – CONICET		Argentina
Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration		
USA
Corantioquia		
Colombia
Corporación Autónoma Regional Para la Defensa de la Meseta de Bucaramanga
Colombia
Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University		
Denmark
Department of Organisms and Systems Biology, University of Oviedo
Spain
Diveboard		
FranceEcology Unit, Department of Microbiology and Ecology, University of Valencia
Spain
Emporia State University		
USA
Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universitaet		
Germany
Essig Museum of Entomology		
USA
Ewha Womans University Natural History Museum		
Korea, Republic of
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo – U.N.L.P.		
Argentina
Federación Nacional de Cafeteros de Colombia		
Colombia
Fraunhofer-Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT –		
Germany
Group Extremophile Research and Biobank CCCryo
Freie Universität Berlin		
Germany
Fundación Alma		Colombia
Fundación Estación Biológica Guayacanal		
Colombia
GBIF-Spain		
Spain
Georgia Southern University		
USA
Ghana Biodiversity Information Facility (GhaBIF)		
Ghana
Herbarium de la Réserve de l’INERA-Luki		Belgium
Herbarium du CRSN-Lwiro		
Belgium
Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas Sinchi		Colombia
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt
Colombia
Instituto de Investigaciones Ambientales del Pacifico John Von Neumann (IIAP)
Colombia
Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botanico do Rio de Janeiro		BrazilJardín Botánico del Quindío		
Colombia
Jeollanamdo Maritime & Fisheries Science Museum		
Korea, Republic of
KBRC (Korean Biological Resource Center) – KBIF Node		
Korea, Republic ofKorea Institutie of Water and Enviroment		
Korea, Republic ofKorea National Arboretum (Korea Forest Service)		
Korea, Republic of
Kunsan Passage Bird Research Institute		
Korea, Republic of
McGill University		
CanadaMinisterio de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva		
Argentina
MNHN - Museum national d’Histoire naturelle		
FranceMuseo Entomológico de León – MEL		Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo (CYTED)Museum für Naturkunde Berlin		
Germany
Museum of Biological Diversity, The Ohio State University		
USA
National Biodiversity Data Centre		
IrelandNational Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM)
Netherlands
National Institute of Genetics, ROIS		Japan
National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan		Japan
National Science Museum of Korea		
Korea, Republic of
Natural History Museum Maastricht		
Netherlands
Natural History Museum Rotterdam		Netherlands
Natural History Museum, University of Oslo		
NorwayNaturalis Biodiversity Center		Netherlands
Naturhistorisches Museum Mainz		
Germany
Netherlands Biodiversity Information Facility (NLBIF)		
Netherlands
Nijmegen Natural History Museum		Netherlands
Norwegian Institute for Nature Research		
NorwayOceanographic Center of Gijon, Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO)
Spain
Oleoducto Bicentenario		
Colombia
Oregon State University		
USA

Number of occurrence
records published

6
1
3
5
5
2
4
3
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
2
3
1

2,014
14,081
668
6,883
27,264760
5,006
24,585
13,776
6,821
1,116,766
3,772
15,6693,509
2,782
522,470
156,492
0768
13,976
353

1
1
1
10
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
4
1
1
1
2
1
10
4
10
1
3
60
1
1
6
2
8
2
2
1
2
1
3
1

6,431
221
45
283,171
24,851
8,069
219
640
56,1550
52533,558
326
1,395
661
3,467
968,893
3,519
251,563193
0
130,841566,637
20,527
351,603043,83531,397
3,094
22,852
163,338
72,813
984,270
55,45644
24,786
294,024766
2,074
14,427

46

Appendix 2 – continued
Publisher						

GBIF Participant Datasets
Node		PANGAEA - Publishing Network for Geoscientific and Environmental Data
Germany
Perot Museum of Nature and Science		
USA
Plazi.org taxonomic treatments database		
Germany
Red Nacional de Observadores de Aves (RNOA)		
Colombia
Reptile, Amphibian and Fish Conservation Netherlands (RAVON)
Netherlands
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)		
Belgium
Royal Ontario Museum		CanadaRoyal Society for the Protection of Birds		
UK
Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente		
Colombia
Senckenberg		Germany
Sierra Nevada Global Change Observatory. Andalusian Environmental Center,
Spain
University of Granada, Regional Government of Andalusia
Spanish National Museum of Natural Sciences (CSIC)		
Spain
SPN - Service du Patrimoine naturel, Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, Paris
FranceStaatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns		
Germany
Swedish Museum of Natural History		
SwedenTaiwan Biodiversity Information Facility (TaiBIF)		
Chinese Taipei
Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum		Austria
UK National Biodiversity Network		
UK
Universidad Central de Venezuela
Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN)
Universidad de Antioquia		
Colombia
Universidad de La Salle		
Colombia
Universidad de los Andes		
Colombia
Universidad de Nariño		
Colombia
Universidad del Magdalena		
Colombia
Universidad del Valle		
Colombia
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos		
Spain
Université de Montréal Biodiversity Centre		CanadaUniversité de Strasbourg		
FranceUniversity of Amsterdam / IBED		
Netherlands
University of Arkansas Collections Facility, UAFMC		USA
University of British Columbia		
CanadaUniversity of Michigan Museum of Zoology		
USA
University of Navarra, Museum of Zoology		
Spain
ZooKeys		Denmark
Zoological Museum, Natural History Museum of Denmark		Denmark
Zoologische Staatssammlung München/Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns Germany

Appendix 3 – GBIF-commissioned publications in 2013
Publication
Best practice guide for compiling, maintaining, disseminating national species checklists
Best practice guidelines in the development and maintenance of regional marine species checklists
Discussion paper: Quality assurance and Intellectual Property Rights in advancing biodiversity data publication
GBIF-ICLEI best practice guide for biodiversity data publishing by local governments: concise summary
GBIF-ICLEI best practice guide for biodiversity data publishing by local governments
Guidelines for the capture and management of digital zoological names information
Recommended practices for citation of data published through the GBIF network
NOTE: Users can retrieve these documents and all other GBIF documents at http://www.gbif.org/resources/summary

Number of occurrence
records published

992
1
2,413
1
3
7
7
3
1
7
1

471,923
7,509
177,242
413,2723,724
5,860
417,6620216
61,621
7,920

1
6
7
1
4
1
47
1
2
7
1
2
1
5
1
2
1
15
1
4
1
1
4
1
1

409
85,055
127,541
149,782
23,80299,300930,769
27,594
13,241
18,000
372
1,253
464
14,1450
19
3,784
44,821
3,942
35,18100918
018,077

47

Appendix 4 – GBIF Participants in 2013
Voting Participant

Member as of

Other Associate Participants

AndorraArgentina*
Australia
Belgium
Benin
Burkina Faso
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Denmark
Estonia
FinlandFranceGermany
Ghana
Iceland
IrelandJapan
Kenya
Korea, Republic ofMadagascar
Mauritania
MexicoNetherlands
New Zealand
NorwayPeru*
Portugal
Slovakia*
Slovenia*
South Africa
Spain
SwedenTanzania
UgandaUnited Kingdom
United States

September 2010
March 2002
February 2001
February 2001
December 2004
January 2007
December 2009
September 2003
May 2001
January 2001
September 2003
April 2001
April 2001
February 2001
March 2001
June 2001
January 2008
February 2001
July 2008
May 2001
January 2003
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
October 2009
August 2001
January 2001

Albertine Rift Conservation Society
ARCOS
ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity
ACB
BioNet-AndinoNet		
BioNET-INTERNATIONAL		
Bioversity International		
Botanic Gardens Conservation International
BGCI
Chinese Academy of Science
CAS
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
ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability
ICLEI
Integrated Taxonomic Information System
ITIS
Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network IABINInternational Barcode of Life ProjectiBOL
International Centre for Insect Physiology
ICIPE
and Ecology
International Centre for Integrated Mountain
ICIMOD
Development
International Long Term Ecological Research
ILTER
NatureServe		Natural Science Collections Alliance
NSCA
Nordic Genetic Resource Center
NordGen
Ocean Biogeographic Information System
OBIS
Pacific Biodiversity Information Forum
PBIF
Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research
SCAR
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
VertNet		Wildscreen		
World Federation for Culture Collections
WFCC* Participants that had yet to sign the 2012 memorandum of understanding

Associate Country Participant

Member as ofAustria
BrazilCanadaCentral African Republic
Congo, Republic ofGuineaIndia
Indonesia*
IsraelLuxembourg
Pakistan
Philippines
PolandSwitzerland*
Togo		

September 2001
October 2012
March 2001
March 2011
May 2011
March 2005
July 2003
October 2004
April 2013
April 2008
August 2001
March 2005
March 2001
February 2001
October 2009

Acronym

Member as ofJanuary 2010
August 2009
October 2007
May 2001
January 2007
August 2004
September 2013
March 2001
April 2006
March 2005
June 2007
February 2008
May 2007
January 2008
July 2008
March 2001
September 2010
October 2010
March 2001
May 2001
April 2011
March 2004
September 2009
July 2008
June 2001
December 2004
March 2004
June 2001
August 2004
February 2008
March 2009
January 2007
March 2001
March 2002
May 2001
August 2013
January 2003
October 2002

48

Appendix 5 – GBIF Executive Committee and Standing Committees 2013
Executive Committee
Chair
		
		
1st Vice Chair
2nd Vice Chair
3rd Vice Chair

Node Managers Committee
Joanne DalyPeter Schalk(from October 2013)
Jorge Soberon
Motomi Ito
Claude-Anne Gauthier

Chair
1st Vice Chair
2nd Vice Chair
Members

Stephen Wilkinson
Alex Asase
Manuel Vargas
All Node Managers

Nodes Steering Group
Standing Committee Chairs
Science Committee
Budget Committee
Nodes Committee
Rules Committee(until October 2013)

Ex-officio
Executive Secretary

Science Committee
Chair
		
		
		
Vice Chairs				Members
		
		
		
		
		
		
Ex-officio
Chair Governing Board
1st Vice Chair Governing Board
2nd Vice Chair Governing Board
3rd Vice Chair Governing Board
Nodes Committee Chair
Executive Secretary

Leonard Krishtalka(until October 2013)
Rod Page(from October 2013)Mark Costello
Arturo Ariño
Jean Cossi Ganglo
Roderic Page
(until October 2013)
Elizabeth Arnaud
Guy Cochrane(from May 2013)
Kathy Willis(from May 2013)(until October 2013)

Rules Committee (until October 2013)
Chair
Vice Chair
Ex-officio
Chair Governing Board
Executive Secretary

Christoph Häuser
Keiichi Matsuura

Chair
1st Vice Chair
2nd Vice Chair

Stephen Wilkinson
Alex Asase
Manuel Vargas

Regional Node Representatives
Africa						Asia		
Europe						
Latin America
North America
Oceania		

Fatima Parker-Allie(until October 2013)
Hulda Gideon(from October 2013)
Sheila Vergara
Cees Hof(until October 2013)
André Heughebaert(from October 2013)
Luiz Gadelha
Robert Hanner
Beth Mantle(until October 2013)

Budget Committee
Chair
		
		
		
1st Vice Chair
2nd Vice Chair						Members
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
		
Ex-officio
Chair Governing Board
Executive Secretary

Per Backe-Hansen(until October 2013)
Walter Berendsohn(from October 2013)
Eli van der Heide
Walter Berendsohn(until October 2013)
Selwyn Willoughby(from October 2013)
Christophe Häuser
(until May 2013)
Keiichi Matsuura(until June 2013)
Ben Wheeler
François Guissart(until October 2013)
Joanne Daly(from October 2013)
Patricia Koleff Osorio(from October 2013)

49

Appendix 6 – GBIF Affiliations
GBIF affiliations

StatusBiodiversity Indicators Partnership
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
European Biodiversity Observation Network (EU BON)
Eye on Earth Biodiversity Special Initiative
Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN)
Global Invasive Alien Species Information Partnership
Global Partnership for Plant Conservation (GPPC)
Group on Earth Observations (GEO)
Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate ChangeIntergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)LifeWatch Policy & Science Board
Trondheim Environmental Conferences
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing council
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

Partner
ObserverCouncil member
Participant
Stakeholder
Steering committee member
Partner/coordinator
Partner
Principal
Advisory Board member
ObserverObserverMemberParticipant
Member, major groups and stakeholders
ObserverAppendix 7 – GBIF Task Groups 2013
Task Group on Financial Sustainability
Chair                     Members                                                                                                                                       Secretariat         Lars Nilsson
Michel Guiraud
Christoph Häuser
Fumiko Nakao
Joann P. Roskoski
Mark Stevenson
Hugo von Linstow

50

Appendix 8 – Financial information
Preliminary financial statement 2013 in EUR

Contributing agencies for 2013

GBIF CORE FUNDS

Voting Participants Financial Contributors

INCOME STATEMENTEUROS

IncomeReceived basic financial contribution
Received basic financial contribution
former years
Total Income

2,211,464
647,8172,859,281

Expenditure
Work Programme 2013 - Activities
Work Programme 2013 - Implementation
Governance - Committee costs and awards
Staff expenditureRunning expenditure
Secretariat facilities
Total expenditure
Changes in foreign exchanges rates
Interest
End of the year Result-186,491-1,646,246-116,157-660,276-177,269-66,807-2,853,247
17,613645
24,293BALANCE SHEET

AssetsOther receivables and VAT
Cash and Cash at bankTotal assets

20,592
1,048,714
1,069,306

Net Capital and liabilities
Net Capital (equity)
Provisions
Supplementary funds
AuditorPrepayments re. 2014–2016
Other payables
Total equity and liabilities

30,99456,299527,176
6,716
439,234
8,887
1,069,306

GBIF Supplementary Fund
Balance at 1 January
Exchange rate dif. at January 1
Income 2013
Interest income transferred tosupplementary funds
Expenditure
Balance at 31 December

347,504
0580,552
6,363-407,242
527,176

AndorraArgentina
Australia
Belgium*
Benin
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Denmark
Estonia
FinlandFranceGermany		
Ghana
Iceland
IrelandJapan
Madagascar
Mauretania
MexicoNetherlands
New Zealand
NorwayPortugal
Republic of Korea
Slovak Republic
Slovenia
South Africa
SwedenTanzania
UgandaUnited Kingdom
		
		
		
		
USA*
		
		
		

Institute d´estudis Andorrans
CONICET - Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales
CSIRO Entomology
Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (belspo)
Laboratoire des Science Forestieres
Comision Nacional del Medio Ambiente (CONAMA)
Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biólogicos
Asociación Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio)
The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation
Ministry of Environment
Finnish Museum of Natural History
Direction Générale pour la Recherche et l´Innovation (DGRI)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
German Aerospace Center, BMBF
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)
Ministry for the Environment
National Parks & Wildlife Service
Ministry of the Environment of Japan
Centre National de Recherches sur l´Environnement (CNRE)
L´Ecole Normale Supérieure de NouakchottConsejo Nacional de Ciencia y Technologia (CONACYT)
Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Ministry of Research, Science and Technology
The Research Council of Norway
Foundation for Science and Technology
Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
Ministry of the Environment
Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology
Department of Science and Technology
Swedish Research Council
Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH)
Uganda National Council for Science and Technology
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
National Environment Research Council (NERC)
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Natural History Museum, London
Joint Nature Conservation Committee
National Science Foundation
Smithsonian Institution
U.S. Department of State
U.S. Department of Agriculture* Received in 2014

Externally Received Grants 2013
For supplementary Funds
University of Copenhagen (IT Equipment)
I4LifeEuro-GEOSSOpenUp!
EU BonGIASIP, CBD
Emodnet Biology 2
VIBRANT
Total external funding

DKK

EUR

170,000
206,754394,339
6,257
1,792,607
247,608
89,32702,906,892

22,787
27,71452,858839
240,283
33,19011,974
0389,645

51

Appendix 9 – GBIF Secretariat staff
GBIF Secretariat Staff as of 31 december 2013
Management group
Donald Hobern
Tim Hirsch
Anne Mette Nielsen
Tim Robertson
Andrea Hahn
Secretariat staff
Sampreethi Aipanjiguly
Olaf Bánki
Kyle Braak
Søren Bundgaard-Jensen
Andrei Cenja
Vishwas Chavan
Samy Gaiji
Alberto González-Talaván
Burke Chi-Jen Ko
Jan Krzysztof Legind
Federico Mendez Hernandez
Oliver Meyn
Éamonn Ó Tuama
Mélianie Raymond
Susanne Lønstrup Sheldon
Ciprian Vizitiu

Executive Secretary/Director
Deputy Director and Head of Participation
Head of Administration
Head of Informatics
Programme Manager
Communications Officer
Senior Programme Officer for Participation
Developer
Financial Officer
System Administrator
Senior Programme Officer for Data Mobilisation
Senior Programme Officer for Science and Scientific Liaison
Senior Programme Officer for Training
Informatics Liaison
Data Administrator
Developer
Developer
Senior Programme Officer for Interoperability
Nodes Capacity Officer
HR Manager & PA to the Director
Webmaster and Network Administrator

Staff Departures
Jose Miguel Cuadra Morales
Lars Francke
Bo Thorsteinsson
Hugo von Linstow
			Programmer (until 31 March)
Developer (until 28 February)
Financial Officer (until 30 June)
Deputy Director for Management and International Relations(Until 31 december)

Secretariat
Universitetsparken 15
DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø
Denmark
Tel
Fax
Email
Web

+45 35 32 14 70+45 35 32 14 80
info@gbif.org
www.gbif.org

COVER PHOTO:
DETAIL OF ORNATE WRASSE(THALASSOMA PAVO). ©
2007, MIGUEL ANGELO SILVA.

COMPILED AND EDITED BY:
SAMPREETHI AIPANJIGULYMAHEVA BAGARD LAURSENKYLE AARON COPAS
TIM HIRSCHDESIGN: HOOGS DESIGN

ISBN: 87-92020-55-0.

PRINTING: ØRSKOV