GBIF-Global Biodiversity Information Facility

On recommendation and with the support of a working group of the OECD (Megascience Forum Working Group on Biological Informatics), the idea of establishing a world-wide information system on global biodiversity was seriously discussed in the years 1996 to 2000. Following approval at the ministerial level, an international memorandum of understanding went into force in March 2001. Germany has been a member of the Global Diversity Information Facility (GBIF) since February 1, 2001. By April 2005, the number of members had risen to 77 – 22 members with the right to vote and 51 associated organisations.

The task of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is to provide free, world-wide access to biodiversity data. To this end, the GBIF co-ordinates, initiates and supports the development of software infrastructure and a global network of servers (“nodes”) providing access to vast data resources in natural history museums, libraries and databases around the world. In the longer term, these efforts will lead to unprecedented access to data stored throughout the world – in areas, for example, such as biodiversity (at the level of individual-species), genetics and ecosystem research. Such information will be of decisive importance in a wide range of areas, including ecology, economics, environmental studies and resources research. Moreover, the GBIF is – and will continue to be – a powerful tool in the carrying out of inventories as well as in efforts in the field of conservation and the sustainable use of resources.

At a total of ten plenary sessions of the GBIF Governing Board, detailed work plans for four programmes have been developed:
  • Management of biodiversity data (DADI, Data Access and Database Interoperability)
  • Digitisation of existing data (DIGIT, Digitisation of Natural History Collections)
  • Electronic catalogue of species names (ECAT, Electronic Catalogue of Names of Known Organisms)
  • Measures to enhance public awareness and to provide information (OCB, Outreach and Capacity Building).

The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is currently under development and will consist of a network of biodiversity databases and other IT tools which will enable users to benefit from access to and use of the enormous amount of biodiversity data available worldwide. The GBIF secretariat is located in Copenhagen, and the IB represents the German federal government in the GBIF governing board. The governing board has approved the "Terms of Reference for the Participant Node Managers Committee" and the "Terms of Reference for the Budget Committee".

In 2004, an international group of independent experts evaluated the GBIF and confirmed the success of the first phase of its development. By the end of 2005, circa 100 million digital data records from some 800 different collections will be accessible via the GBIF portal. The formulation of a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) is foreseen for phase two of the development – which should begin in 2006. The BMBF provides a significant amount of funding for the establishment of GBIF infrastructure in Germany – for example, in support of seven information nodes focussed on larger groups of organisms.

Contact Persons

  • Dr. Thomas Reineke

    • Multilateral cooperation with UNESCO / UN Campus Bonn
    • Heinrich-Konen-Str. 1
    • 53227 Bonn
    • Telefonnummer: +49 228 3821-1448
    • Faxnummer: +49 228 3821-1444
    • E-Mail-Adresse: thomas.reineke@dlr.de

  • GBIF Secretariat

    • Global Biodiversity Information Facility
    • Universitetsparken 15
    • DK-2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
    • Telefonnummer: +45 35 32 14 70
    • Faxnummer: +45 35 32 14 80
    • E-Mail-Adresse: gbif@gbif.org