ALL creatures great and small, from the mightiest whale to the humblest
bacterium, will soon have an entry in the first complete Who鈥檚 who of the
natural world. When finished, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, or
GBIF, will be available free on the Internet to anyone investigating the biology
and ecology of the planet.
The initiative to set up the GBIF came from the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development in Paris. The deal was that once at least 10
nations had agreed to stump up $2 million between them, the facility
would be a going concern.
This week in Brussels, 12 founder nations announced GBIF鈥檚 official launch.
The dozen include rich and poor nations, from the US and Japan to Slovenia and
Ecuador. Britain and France are notable absentees, though both are interested.
The OECD is now accepting bids to host the GBIF secretariat. Spain, Denmark and
the Netherlands have expressed an interest.
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The idea is to link all the world鈥檚 public databases on biodiversity. 鈥淚t
always surprises people to know there鈥檚 no catalogue of all the 1.8 million
named species on Earth,鈥� says Jim Edwards of the US National Science Foundation,
who was the initiative鈥檚 prime mover.
Double counting often happens when scientists independently discover and name
the same species, he says. The eastern spotted newt, for example, had two Latin
names until recently, Notophthalmus viridescens now being accepted as
the correct one.
Not only will the compendium list all species, it will also assemble a
directory of the 3 billion natural specimens collected and stored in museums and
seed banks around the world. One major objective of the organisers is to
persuade some of the world鈥檚 greatest museums to computerise records which are
still on paper or card. 鈥淭here are millions of specimens in museums such as the
Smithsonian in Washington DC and the Natural History Museum in London, but only
a fraction are digitised,鈥� says Edwards.
Paul Henderson of the Natural History Museum confirmed that only a tiny
proportion of its 70 million specimens are recorded on computer. But the museum
is a fervent supporter of the initiative. 鈥淚t鈥檚 essential we provide full
support for GBIF and become a full member,鈥� says Henderson.
Edwards says national governments or agencies will have to pay for
computerising the records. 鈥淕BIF itself won鈥檛 do the digitising,鈥� says Edwards.
鈥淏ut we鈥檒l hopefully be the catalyst to get it going.鈥� GBIF will also work out
standard data formats so that all the databases can communicate.
This process will improve poorer nations鈥� access to these collections. 鈥淲e
don鈥檛 have the money to wire the world, but we hope to work with aid agencies to
get the resources for poorer countries to interact with GBIF,鈥� says Edwards.
Subscriptions to GBIF will reflect a country鈥檚 wealth, and many poor countries
will get free membership.
Edwards was stumped when asked whether the list of species would include
Homo sapiens. 鈥淚鈥檇 never even thought about it,鈥� he says.