IABIN Species and Specimens Thematic Network (SSTN)

2006 - 2011 Report

IABIN Council MeetingOrganization of American States , Washington DC

September 28-30, 2011

María Mora, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INBio

SSTN Consortium• The National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica

– INBio (CI)

• The Alexander von Humboldt Institute,

• The Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum (Argentina)

• NatureServe

• The Network of Central American and Caribbean Herbaria

• Introduction

• Component 1 (interoperability and data access)

• Component 2 (creation of data content)

• Component 3 (tools for decision makers)

• Component 4 (sustainability)

• Main Obstacles Faced during the Project Implementation,

Critical Success Factors, and Lessons Learned for Future

Projects

Contents

Objectives• Main objective: To promote the use of biodiversity informatics in

the Americas to integrate, analyze, and provide free access to biodiversity information relevant to decision-making on natural resources management and conservation

Specific Objectives: • To promote biodiversity information exchange through a regional network of

institutions and their databases.

• To implement enforcement policies to respect intellectual property rights, quality control, and data distribution that result in free integrated and simple access to high quality information on the biodiversity of the region.

• To develop the required computer technology (standards, tools, and protocols) to manage, integrate, analyze, and provide free access to information on species and specimens available at the regional level.

• To build capacity in biodiversity informatics in the American region.

Introduction2006 - 2008: The SSTN executed all activities corresponding to

component 1 (interoperability and data access).

2009: INBio assumed the cost of maintaining and further enhancing developed tools.

2009 – 2010: INBio developed two decision making tools: “A Decision Making System based on Conservation Categories and Biodiversity Uses” and “A Scenarios Modeling System for Development Action or Potential Threats to Biodiversity”

2010: INBio continued developing Ara but requested funding to maintain portal.

2011: INBio started developing the new version of Atta based on Ara and will continue supporting the current users of Ara.

2011: INBio continues maintaining the data portal. Additionally, data curation tools are in developing process and species and specimen data are being integrated to DIAG, EOL, and GBIF.

Component 1 (interoperability and data access)

Component 1: Most of the software development activities were concluded in 2008: Plinian Core Standard, Ara software tool, and a Portal based on GBIF’s Data Portal

http://species.iabin.net/

Component 1Data providers

• More than five million specimen records from 54 institutions will be available at the data portal at the end of this month.

•More than 31,000 species records from 14 data providers are available on the biodiversity portal at http://ara.inbio.ac.cr/SSTN-IABIN/.

Map Source: Jarvis Andy, Ramírez Julián, Reymondin Louis, Amariles Daniel, Tobón Hector, Camacho Jorge & Tello Jhon. (2011). Providing means for a better understanding of biodiversity: improving primary data and using it for threat assessment and in situ conservation planning in South America. CIAT Progress Report.

Component 1Users of Ara:

Installed and in operation:

-Museo Entomológico de León (Nicaragua)

-Museo de Malacología de la Universidad de Panamá (Panamá)

-National Biodiversity Centre (Bután)

In process:

-INBio in process of migrating information.

-Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Abomey Calavi (FSA/UAC, Benin)

-Regional Biodiversity Institute (IRBio)

E-learning Tool: materials are ready to use in Spanish, English, and Portuguese

Component 1

http://www.inbio.ac.cr/iabin/e-learning/

SSTN Data Portal GBIF Data PortalGBIF Mirror

Regional Data

(Americas)

SSTN Specimens Records

Every two months

Component 1 (and 4 Sustainability)

Integration with International Initiatives (GBIF)

SSTN Data PortalEOL Data

Portal

SSTN Species Records

Component 1 (and 4 Sustainability)

Integration with International Initiatives (EOL)

Component 1

Thematic Networks and DIAG Integration

• Integrated scripts to SSTN data portal to improve the quality of geographic data.• Data is going to be

packaged and send DIAG three times a year.• Additionally, scripts to

improve taxonomic names data quality are in development process.

Component 1

Additional functionally available at the SSTN Data Portal

• The portal has functionality for generating taxonomic authority lists ("checklists") for a region (ie a country) and a particular biological group.

• Additional the portal generates, automatically, summarized information associated to a species from species records, specimens, and observations data.

Component 2 (creation of data content)

•About 1.300.000 specimen records have been digitalized by 36 American institutions.

•12 institutions digitalized 36.840 species records throughout the American Continent.

• Two added-value tools are available: “A Decision Making System based on Conservation Categories” and “A Scenarios Modeling System for Development Action or Potential Threats to Biodiversity”.

Component 3 (tools for decision makers)

Component 4 (Sustainability)

Additional funding to further develop Ara/Atta:

•PROMEBIO/IRBIO, $25,000, 4 months, to improve functionality, capacity building and tools installation and configuration.

•CONICIT: $62,000, 2 years, confirmed, observations, label printing, specimen transactions.

•FUNDECOOPERACIÓN (Bhutan): $20,000, 1 year for capacity building and tools installation and configuration.

•JRS Biodiversity Foundation (Benin) $19,000, 2 years for capacity building, improve functionality, and tools installation and configuration.

Achievements• More than five million specimen records from 54 institutions and

more than 41,000 species records from 14 data providers.

• About 1.300.000 specimen records (34 institutions) and 36.840 species records (12 institutions).

• A Biodiversity Portal was developed using international protocols and standards, based on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) data portal.

• Consolidation of Plinian Core standard (More information at http://www.pliniancore.org/).

• A software tool (Ara) to capture, administer, and publish information on biodiversity at the institutional level.

Achievements (2)• Two regional workshops to train trainers on the biodiversity

informatics subject overall and particularly on the use of standards, protocols, and tools used by SSTN were held in Heredia, Costa Rica (28 participants from 23 countries in the region).

• Online training materials are available in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The materials are available at http://www.inbio.ac.cr/iabin/e-learning.

• Two added-value tools are available

Main Obstacles Faced during the Implementation of SSTN

• Lack of initial integrated design of the thematic networks to make better use of data and to avoid duplication of efforts, among other benefits.

• Adoption of GBIF technology under development, with little documentation published and constantly changing.

• Lack of involvement of the focal points in the countries on technology development and dissemination of information about the thematic networks.

• High turnover and lack of computer technical staff at the institutions participating in the project, which resulted in no ongoing monitoring of activities, including digitization of data and capacity development at the level of countries in the region.

• Lack of high quality taxonomic and geographic data in the region.

Main Obstacles Faced during the Implementation of SSTN (2)

• Steep learning curve of the technology used in the project development among the analysts/programmers team members of the coordinating institution.

• Scarce computer infrastructure at the institutions that participated in the project.

• Need for a SSTN post-implementation period to allow conducting integrated data analysis of thematic networks.

• Towards the end of the project, lack of a specialized centralized entity (Secretariat) to coordinate and follow-up the work of the thematic networks, technical decision making, and search for mechanisms of sustainability of the project. OAS staff in charge of the project did much to lessen the impact of this obstacle.

• Lack of capacity of personnel in charge of biological collections, for coordinating digitizing process.

Critical Success FactorsThe presence of critical success factors contributed decisively to achieve

the project results in a positive way. These factors were:

• Adoption of technology developed by other initiatives (e.g. GBIF).

• Interest in biodiversity data sharing by the organizations in the region.

• Existence of institutions that manage collections of specimens at regional level.

• The experience of other regional and global initiatives such as SpeciesLink, GBIF, I3N, World Biodiversity Information Network (REMIB), Central American Network of Herbariums, and others brought together experience (eg on issues such as intellectual property rights, opening of institutions to share information freely, capacity building, among others) and some of the information technology required.

Critical Success Factors (2)

• INBio's experience in biodiversity informatics, in addition to the possibility of having interdisciplinary teams (computer scientists, taxonomists, technicians, communicators, educators, among others) helped for instance in the processes of analysis and design of software tools, standards, and data quality control. INBio developed expertise in the field of biodiversity informatics because of being part of regional and global initiatives, and during the process of developing tools to manage its biodiversity data.

• The existence of standards, protocols, and software tools at the international level.

• Effective and efficient support from staff of the OAS.

Lessons Learned for Future Projects

• It is necessary to develop the terms of reference for the digitization of species and specimens data a little better, to ensure at the end of the process quality and quantity of information. Standards such as Darwin Core and Plinian Core for flexibility purposes define most of their concepts as not mandatory.

• From the beginning of the project, it is necessary to have tools to automate the data indexation process from data providers, since this activity requires a high investment of effort.

• There should be a data hosting center for institutions that do not have computer resources such as servers, Internet access or specialized technical personnel.

Lessons Learned for Future Projects (2)

• The selection process of the institutions involved in data digitization projects should be enhanced, in order to know the quality of the records in advance. It is necessary to have, at early stages of the project, metadata of the institutions and their data resources.

• The organization for implementation, especially in projects involving more than one institution, is a very important phase in the projects' cycle, and should be recognized as such, allocating time and resources in such way for it to become a determining factor for success. For instance, it is necessary to define a centralized workflow supported by tools to monitor data entry projects.

• Knowing the information needs of the target audience of the initiative and setting the priorities of the project based of those needs is a very important criterion when selecting projects to fund digitization of data, for example.

Lessons Learned for Future Projects (3)

• It is important to ensure that national focal points are involved in project activities (e.g. in the selection of collections to be digitalized, and the development of computer technology, among others) to be able to better address the needs of countries.

• Special attention should be paid to the capacity building at the institutions of the region, recognizing the value of information as an important resource for biodiversity conservation, giving credit to the work they perform and adding value to biological collections.

• Good use of the knowledge base generated should be made regarding the technical, administrative, and scientific institutional capacity of potential data providing institutions for future projects.

Lessons Learned for Future Projects (4)

• The region needs more projects aimed at capacity building in the area of biodiversity informatics. It is necessary to address issues such as curation of geographic and taxonomic data, digitalization of information, data analysis, international standards, and intellectual property rights, among others.

• Dissemination of achievements of the thematic networks is very important for the target audience to know and use the information generated and software tools developed.

• At the beginning of the project's policies and procedures to conduct data quality control should be defined.

Species and Specimen Thematic Network Report

Thank you!

Detailed information about SSTN is available at: http://species.iabin.net/pdf/informe-avance-4.pdf