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| GBIF Secretariat | |
|---|---|
| Name | GBIF Secretariat |
| Formation | 2001 |
| Headquarters | Copenhagen |
| Region served | Global |
| Membership | Countries, organizations |
GBIF Secretariat
The GBIF Secretariat coordinates international efforts to mobilize biodiversity data, acting as a central node for standards, networks, and capacity building among institutions like the United Nations Environment Programme, Convention on Biological Diversity, International Union for Conservation of Nature, World Wide Fund for Nature, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It supports data publishers such as the Natural History Museum, London, Smithsonian Institution, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, and the Australian Museum, while engaging with research infrastructures like CERN, European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Biodiversity Heritage Library, and Global Biodiversity Information Facility partners in policy forums including the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the World Health Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization.
The Secretariat operates from offices in Copenhagen with liaison hubs linked to institutions such as the University of Copenhagen, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Oxford, Harvard University Herbaria, and National Museum of Natural History (France), coordinating networks composed of national nodes like the United States Geological Survey, Atlas of Living Australia, iDigBio, and regional initiatives such as the African Biodiversity Information Network, China National GeneBank, and the Pan-European Species-directories Infrastructure. Its remit spans data mobilization, standards development with bodies including International Organization for Standardization, Global Earth Observation System of Systems, and Research Data Alliance, and engagement with funders such as the Global Environment Facility, World Bank, European Commission, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Originating from discussions at multilateral meetings including the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Rio Earth Summit 1992, the Secretariat emerged during negotiations involving stakeholders such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, United Nations Development Programme, and national delegations from Brazil, India, United States, China, and United Kingdom. Early collaborations involved institutions like the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Natural History Museum, London, Smithsonian Institution, and the Australian National Data Service, while technological antecedents included projects at Cornell University, University of California, Berkeley, and Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Over successive strategic plans the Secretariat engaged with initiatives such as the Global Taxonomy Initiative, Digital Accessible Knowledge, Catalogue of Life, Encyclopedia of Life, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library to expand digital specimen records, occurrence data, and metadata exchange.
Governance is exercised through a multilateral assembly drawing representatives from signatory countries and organizations including the European Commission, African Union, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and national ministries from Canada, Germany, Japan, South Africa, and Mexico. The governing board works with technical advisory groups that include experts from International Union for Conservation of Nature, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum, London, Pensoft Publishers, and Atlas of Living Australia. Administrative operations rely on professional staff drawn from institutions such as the University of Copenhagen, Norwegian Institute for Nature Research, Swedish Museum of Natural History, and partner agencies like Environment and Climate Change Canada.
Core activities include data publishing services utilized by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility network, standards coordination with International Organization for Standardization committees, capacity building in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme and Global Environment Facility, and technical support for museum digitization projects at the Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum, London, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Spain), and Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle. The Secretariat convenes conferences and workshops with participation from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Convention on Biological Diversity, World Bank, and research consortia such as Future Earth and Global Earth Observation System of Systems. It issues policy briefs influencing planning by the European Commission, African Development Bank, and national research councils.
The Secretariat maintains interoperability frameworks that implement standards from organizations like International Organization for Standardization, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, and Darwin Core schemas, supporting data portals integrated with repositories such as GBIF.org nodes, iDigBio, Atlas of Living Australia, DataONE, Zenodo, and the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Technical collaborations include work with Open Geospatial Consortium, Research Data Alliance, Elixir, EMBL-EBI, PANGAEA, and cloud providers used by institutions like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Tools supported or referenced include GBIF API implementations, occurrence data pipelines used by National Biodiversity Network (UK), taxonomic backbones linked to the Catalogue of Life, and digitization workflows inspired by projects at Botanic Gardens Conservation International and Global Biodiversity Information Facility partners.
Strategic partners encompass the Convention on Biological Diversity, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, Global Environment Facility, European Commission, GLOBE Program, Global Soil Partnership, and philanthropic funders such as the Arcadia Fund and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Institutional collaborators include the Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum, London, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Australian Museum, Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Kew Gardens, and research universities such as University of Copenhagen, Harvard University, University of Oxford, and Peking University.
Impact is evident in widespread use of occurrence records by projects like IUCN Red List, Global Land Program, Map of Life, NatureServe, and research published with data linked to journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Ecology Letters. Criticism has included debates over data quality raised by academics at University of Oxford, Cornell University, and University of California, Berkeley, concerns about data sovereignty voiced by delegates from Brazil and Indonesia, and discussions on funding sustainability involving the World Bank and Global Environment Facility. Debates also involve publishers and platforms such as Pensoft Publishers, BMC, and policy bodies like the European Commission and Convention on Biological Diversity.
Category:Biodiversity