IABIN Species and Specimens Thematic Network (SSTN)

1. IABIN Species and Specimens Thematic Network (SSTN) Erick Mata and María Mora, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INBio IABIN Executive Committee/Coordinating Institution Meeting. Tierras Enamoradas, Costa Rica. February 16-18, 2011

2. Contents • Introduction • Current Status of Systems, Standards, and Tools • Summary of Data Providers • Sustainability of the SSTN infrastructure and integration with international initiatives

3. Introduction 2006 - 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: Development of Component 3 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: Data Portal maintenance and integration of species and specimen data to EOL and GBIF.

4. SSTN - Current Status of Systems, Standards, and Tools • Component 1: • All activities were concluded in 2008: Plinian Core Standard, Ara software tool, and a Portal based on GBIF’s Data Portal http://species.iabin.net/

5. Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems It integrates two software tools: Biodiversity Data Portal Data Entry Tool (Ara)

6. Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems It integrates two software tools: 1. Biodiversity Data Portal • Based on the GBIF Customizable Portal, it integrates species and specimen data from heterogeneous databases (based on Darwin Core, Plinian Core, TAPIR, and DiGIR). • The system manages information about countries, datasets, specimens, species records, taxonomic classification, and common names. • It offers overview maps that present the specimen records distribution for each species or group of organisms, for each country, data provider, or dataset. • The system is web-based, multilingual, and multiplatform.

7. Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems It integrates two software tools: 2. Data Entry Tool (Ara) • Allows the user to digitize, generate, manage, analyze, and share information on species (e.g., species descriptions, conservation, demography, taxonomic information, references, and distribution) and specimens (collections and observations). • Includes the following sub-systems: Taxonomy (Species records, all required taxonomic hierarchy levels); Inventory (Gathering/observations, specimens/observations, identifications); Geographical Information (Localities); Multimedia (Images and Videos); Administration (Collections, Audiences, Institutions, People, Selection lists, among others); and Security. • Manages integrated information from multiple biological collections. • The Species Description Module could be customized according to different species standards or the group of fields that any given institution needs. • The system is easy to install and use, web based, multilingual, and multiplatform. • It is distributed under the GNU GPL v 3. license.

8. Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems Ara Users • Installed and in operation: • Museo Entomológico de León (Nicaragua) • Museo de Malacología de la Universidad de Panamá (Panamá) • National Biodiversity Centre (Bután) • In process: • Faculty of Agronomy of the University of Abomey Calavi (FSA/UAC), Benin. • INBio

9. Toolkit for the Establishment of Biodiversity Information Systems • SSTN Portal access statistics

10. Component 1:E-learning Tool SSTN - Current Status of Products, Standards and Tools http://www.inbio.ac.cr/iabin/e-learning/

11. SSTN - Current Status of Products, Standards and Tools • Component 3: Two proposals approved and implemented:“A Decision Making System based on Conservation Categories” and “A Scenarios Modeling System for Development Action or Potential Threats to Biodiversity”.

12. Summary of Data Publishers • Data publishers • - 20 specimen data publishers (28 resources). • - 5 species data publishers. • - About 3,900,000 specimen records. • - About 5,000 species records • Component 2 grants in process. • Pending to integrate about 15 more data publishers (Red de Herbarios de Centro América) outside Component 2. 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.

13. Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure • 1. Additional funding to further develop Ara: • CONICIT: $62,000, 2 years project. Improvements to modules: taxon, label printing, specimen transactions. INBio is developing the new version of Atta based on Ara. • JRS Biodiversity Foundation. $182,000. 2 year project (in process). A Technological Package for the Implementation of the National Biodiversity Information System (NBIS) of Benin.

14. Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure andIntegration withInternational Initiatives 2. Integrate Specimen Data to GBIF GBIF Mirror GBIF Data Portal SSTN Data Portal Every two months Regional Data (Americas) SSTN New Specimens Records Data Publishers

15. Sustainability of the SSTN Infrastructure andIntegration withInternational Initiatives 3. Integrate Species Information to EOL SSTN Data Portal GBIF Mirror GBIF Data Portal Every two months Regional Data (Americas) Queries through URL EOL Data Portal SSTN New Species Records Data Publishers

16. Achievements • A Data Portal was developed based on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) Customizable Portal using international protocols and standards (the portal is available at http://ara.inbio.ac.cr/SSTN-IABIN/) • More than 3,900,000 specimen records from 19 data publishers were integrated to the network. Additionally, more than 5,000 species records are available coming from 5 data publishers. • Two regional workshops to train the trainers for managing the developed software were held in Heredia, Costa Rica (28 participants from 23 American countries). • More than 600,000 specimen records were digitized form 30 biological collections of the American Continent. • English and Spanish training materials were produced (some of them are at http://www.inbio.ac.cr/iabin/e-learning/)

17. Thank you!