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A new collaboration recently established between Brazil's Centro de Referência em Informação Ambiental (CRIA), a biodiversity and informatics research NGO in Brazil, and the Swedish node of GBIF is demonstrating that GBIF is starting to fulfill its mission.
Personnel of CRIA found data on Brazilian species by searching the GBIF Biodiversity Data Portal. They found 4884 records from Brazil (1177 mosses, 1604 lichens and 2103 fish) provided by the Swedish Museum of Natural History (NRM), which is host to GBIF-Sweden. NRM is providing a total of over 2.1 million data records via the GBIF network. GBIF-Sweden was also one of the first data providers to release data through the GBIF portal, beginning in December, 2003.
Overall, among the data available via GBIF, there are 104,296 records representing 17,707 taxa found in Brazil. As more data providers come on line, the coverage will become more and more robust. GBIF hopes to have 100 million records available via its network by the end of 2004.
Many collaborations between GBIF data providers and countries of origin are possible, because at the current 23 million available records, the GBIF network has started to provide at least a few records for every country and territory in the world (with a single exception). You can search GBIF data by country, and obtain a list of all the species found in that country or territory that are recorded in the databases served through the GBIF network. The Record count shows the number of specimen/observation records that have currently been indexed by the GBIF Portal and that are identified as coming from the country or territory concerned. The Taxon count shows the number of taxa represented by those data records.
The GBIF Report on Experiences of Data Sharing with Countries of Origin shows that GBIF's current and potential data providers, including both major institutions and smaller collections, are openly and freely sharing data (with only those restrictions necessary to protect endangered species and the privacy of individuals). Such data sharing will lead to many collaborations such as this early one between CRIA and GBIF-Sweden, and will enable the GBIF network to grow and be of ever greater service to science and society.
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