Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Global Biodiversity Information Facility
GBIF · CC BY 4.0 · source
Name	Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Formation	2001
Type	International organization
Headquarters	Copenhagen
Region served	Worldwide

Contents

Global Biodiversity Information Facility The Global Biodiversity Information Facility is an international network and data infrastructure that provides free and open access to biodiversity data for research, conservation, and policy. It connects national and institutional data publishers, research programs, and multilateral initiatives to enable large-scale analyses used by organizations such as United Nations Environment Programme, Convention on Biological Diversity, World Wide Fund for Nature, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. The Facility's services support projects involving institutions like Smithsonian Institution, Natural History Museum, London, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, and Australian National Herbarium.

Overview

The Facility aggregates occurrence records, taxonomic data, and metadata from museums, herbaria, citizen science platforms, and research programs including Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat partners and networks such as Atlas of Living Australia, iNaturalist, eBird, GBIF Spain, and regional initiatives like AfriCoL and GBIF India. Its infrastructure interoperates with standards developed by bodies including Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration, Global Earth Observation System of Systems, GEOSS, and the World Data System. Data consumers range from researchers at University of Oxford, Harvard University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and University of Cape Town to policy makers at European Commission, United Nations, and national agencies such as US Geological Survey and Environment and Climate Change Canada.

Initiated by governments and organizations after discussions at forums including the Open Science Conference and meetings associated with the Biodiversity Convention, the Facility was established through intergovernmental agreements following consultations involving Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, International Union for Conservation of Nature, and scientific institutions like Natural History Museum, Vienna and Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. Early development drew on precedents from projects such as Species 2000, Catalogue of Life, and national databases maintained by National Museum of Natural History, Paris and Botanical Research Institute of Texas. Over time, partnerships with programs like European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Global Biodiversity Information Facility Secretariat offices, and philanthropic funders including Wellcome Trust shaped expansion into digitization, mobilization, and integration of collections data.

Governance is exercised through participant countries and organizations represented in a governing body that coordinates with intergovernmental mechanisms such as United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre and advisory groups including experts from Royal Society, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and regional consortia like European Research Council. Funding has come from national governments (for example Danish Ministry of the Environment, UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Australian Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment), international donors such as Global Environment Facility, and institutional contributors like Smithsonian Institution and Kew Gardens. Strategic guidance involves collaborations with research funders including National Science Foundation, European Commission Horizon 2020, and philanthropic bodies such as Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

The Facility’s data portal aggregates millions of occurrence records, specimen metadata, and taxonomic checklists contributed by museums, herbaria, observatories, and citizen science platforms including Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County, Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, California Academy of Sciences, Australian Museum, Finnish Museum of Natural History, South African National Biodiversity Institute, iNaturalist, and eBird. Its technical stack incorporates APIs, data publishing tools, and indexing services interoperable with systems such as GBIF API standards, Darwin Core vocabularies maintained by TDWG, and persistent identifier systems like Digital Object Identifier and International Standard Name Identifier. Storage and computational support leverage infrastructures associated with European Open Science Cloud, GEOSS, and national research networks including SURF, Canarie, and GÉANT.

The Facility implements data and metadata standards developed in collaboration with Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG), including vocabularies such as Darwin Core and exchange formats related to ABCd and persistent identifier schemes like Digital Object Identifier, coordination with legal frameworks including Nagoya Protocol and Convention on Biological Diversity, and adherence to open data principles promoted by Open Knowledge Foundation and Research Data Alliance. Policies on sensitive species data, licensing, and data use are aligned with guidance from IUCN Red List, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and national legislation such as laws enacted by European Union member states.

Research using the Facility’s datasets has supported large-scale analyses by teams at Max Planck Society, Chinese Academy of Sciences', Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Princeton University, University of California, Berkeley, and University of São Paulo on topics from species distributions to global change biology. Applications include biodiversity monitoring for policy instruments like Aichi Biodiversity Targets and successor frameworks negotiated under the Convention on Biological Diversity, invasive species detection used by agencies including US Fish and Wildlife Service and European Environment Agency, and conservation planning by organizations such as BirdLife International and Conservation International. The Facility’s impact is reflected in citations in assessments by Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and utilisation in global projects such as Global Trees Campaign and Map of Life.

Category:Biodiversity databases