Australian Biological Resources Study
Issue 26
Australian Biological Resources Study, April 2002
ISSN 0814 B8880
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) will be a distributed network of databases containing the world's biodiversity information. It will make biodiversity data widely available and improve information flows between scientists, industry and information managers by coordinating the collection, processing and dissemination of existing and new data in a standard digital form. The Australian Government was one of the first countries to sign up to GBIF, and we have played a major part in its development (much of the original vision for GBIF was conceived and carefully developed by Ebbe Nielsen, who died shortly after GBIF formally came into being).
The Fourth GBIF Governing Board meeting will be held in Canberra at the Australian Academy of Science Shine Dome, 20 - 22 March 2002. The Governing Board meeting will include discussions on reports from various GBIF committees, As well as a report from the first Scientific and Technical Advisory Group meeting in Sydney and the awarding of the inaugural GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Prize.
The Australian Government has asked the Director of ABRS, Ian Cresswell, to chair a Working Party to oversee the development of a strategy for how we shall most effectively establish an Australian interface to GBIF. The Working Party consists of:
Chair - Ian Cresswell (ABRS, ACT)
Andrew Beattie (Macquarie University, NSW)
Gerry Cassis (Australian Museum, NSW)
Ross Coppell (Monash University, VIC)
Jim Croft (Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, ACT)
Roger Fryer (Kings Park Botanic Gardens and Parks Authority, WA)
Ian Naumann (AFFA, ACT)
Ex-officio: John Curran (CSIRO Entomology, ACT and Chair of GBIF Science committee).
The Terms of Reference for the Australian Working Party are as follows:
To coordinate the work plan of the Australian Node(s) of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
As defined in the MOU, a Node is a stable computing gateway that allows real-time inter-operational search of multiple institutional, national, regional and/or subregional databases containing primary or meta-level biodiversity data (such as specimen records, catalogues, bibliographic, sequence, protein and ecosystem data) or a single, web-accessible computer containing one or more significant maintained biodiversity databases. The Node(s) must provide descriptions of an accepted standard of metadata of the contents and quality of each database. The node must state an explicit policy regarding Intellectual Property Rights. The node may also contain or link to software tools, including data validation tools.
The Biodiversity Data refers to scientific information primarily about biological species and specimens. At the species level, such data would include the scientific names of the species and all of its synonyms; the common name(s) of the species; and other information about the species, such as a description of the species, its physiological properties, its genetics, its geographic distribution, its phylogenetic relationships, its role in the dynamics of ecosystem processes including samples for the molecular analysis, would include the scientific name of the species to which the specimen belongs; information on where, when and by whom the specimen was collected; where the specimen is currently located; who identified it; what is the specimen number; and other associated information derived from the specimen (e.g. living culture, frozen tissues, photographs, parasites, hosts) and any other related field notes written by the collector of the specimen.
An Australian GBIF Node Working Party will establish and coordinate the management of the Australian Node(s). The Working Party will be composed of eminent Australian bioinformatics scientists identified through consultation with the Australian Research Council, CSIRO, Environment Australia, Department of Industry, Science and Resources and the National Health and Medical Research Council. The Working Party will be Chaired initially by the Director of the Australian Biological Resource Study, Dr Ian Cresswell. The Chair of the Working Party will be elected on an annual basis by the Task Force.
The Working Party will report annually to the Chair of the Interdepartmental Committee for Australia's involvement in GBIF. The report will detail:
The Australian Node will operate for the life of GBIF, which is currently agreed for a period of 5 years from the 1 March 2001.
The sixth Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be held from 7 to 19 April 2002 in The Hague, Netherlands. Several key issues of interest to the taxonomic community will be discussed and below is a very brief synopsis of these main issues are outlined. There will be many other issues covered, and readers are referred to the CBD website for more information.
At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders agreed on a comprehensive strategy for 'sustainable development' meeting our needs while ensuring that we leave a healthy and viable world for future generations. One of the key agreements adopted at Rio was the Convention on Biological Diversity. This pact among the vast majority of the world's governments sets out commitments for maintaining the world's ecological underpinnings as we go about the business of economic development. The Convention establishes three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.
As one of the 17 most biologically diverse nations in the world, Australia is a party to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Australia implements it obligations under the CBD through the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity and a range of other initiatives such as:
Most recently a Review of the National Strategy for the Conservation of Australia's Biological Diversity has been conducted in 2000 by the Australian and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council (ANZECC). To address the issues identified by the review the National Objectives and Targets for Biodiversity Conservation 2001 - 2005 were finalised in 2001.
The Conference of Parties to the Convention meets every 2 years to discuss ways and means to implement the goals of the Convention. The sixth COP will consider a range of issues , with the main issues being a revised and expanded programme of work on forest biological diversity; a set of guidelines on alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or species; a work programme for the Global Taxonomy Initiative; endorsement of a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation; and discussions on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit-sharing.
The forest biological diversity work programme will identify a range of tasks, actors for those tasks and timeframes and milestones to measure progress against those tasks. The work programme is long and detailed (around 38 pages) and can be accessed at www.biodiv.org. The COP will also discuss other ways and means to protect forest biodiversity beyond those identified in the work programme, based on the proposals made by participants at the COP.
The purpose of these guidelines for alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or species is to assist parties in preventing and mitigating the impacts of alien species that threaten ecosystems, habitats or species. The guidelines are available at the CBD website www.biodiv.org. The COP will also consider other measures to combat alien species. These include improving international cooperation across different international bodies and improving scientific understanding and technical cooperation.
The purpose of the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI) is to address the lack of taxonomic capacity in a majority of countries. COP6 will consider progress on implementation of the GTI and a work programme to implement the GTI. The work programme is available at the CBD website www.biodiv.org.
The COP will consider endorsing a Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. The purpose of the strategy is to draw attention to the need to conserve plants both in-situ (ie in the wild) and ex-situ (eg in botanic gardens) and propose a range of measures to address that need. Discussions at COP will look at the role of time orientated targets in the strategy, the appropriateness of CBD endorsing such a strategy and its relative priority; and the balance between ex-situ and in-situ conservation activities.
'Access and Benefit-sharing as related to genetic resources' is a priority issue for COP6, and discussions will chiefly focus on the final nature, scope and content of Guidelines on Access and Benefit and the development of an action plan for capacity building.
More information as well as comments can be provided to: Gareth Rees, Biodiversity Policy Section by:
| E-mail: | gareth.rees@deh.gov.au |
| Fax: | 02 6274 2532 |
| Mail: | Gareth Rees Biodiversity Policy Section Environment Australia GPO Box 787 Canberra, ACT, 2601. |
If you have any queries please do not hesitate to call 02 6274 1476.