1. Towards Biodiversity Information Systems for decision-making in conservation and sustainable use in Costa Rica Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data, 3-6 March 2004, Campinas, Brazil William Ulate R. INBio

2. Contents –Costa Rica today –What is INBio? –Mission –Biodiversity Information –SINAC: National Conservation Areas System –INBio´s Core Process –Administrative Structure –Species, Specimens and Ecosystems –Biodiversity Information Systems –The Atta Biodiversity Information System –Decision-making in conservation and sustainable use

3. Costa Rica Today Evolution of key indicators from the 2000 UNDP Human Development Report INDICATORUNIT1940196019802000 UNDP Human Development Index Coefficient N.D.0,550,750,71 Population1.0006561,1992,2763,943 Poor Homes%N.D.501921 Life expectancyYears46,962,572,677,4 Child Mortality1.000123681910,2 Literacy%73849095 Per capita PIB 1990 US$ 0,7021,082,0224,028

4. Costa Rica Today National Income for some of the Main Products

5. What is INBio? National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica Non-governmental non-profit organization Declared of public interest Created in 1989 Strategic alliance with SINAC www.inbio.ac.cr

6. Mission “To promote a greater level of awareness of the value of biodiversity, as means to ensure its conservation and improve the quality of life of human beings.”

7. Biodiversity Information We need: –scientifically validated, –relevant, –representative, –up-to-date, –multiple scales, –accesible information.

8. SINAC National Conservation Areas System Collections from Protected Areas Partnership alliance Information needs Capacity building Parataxonomists

13. Administrative Structure 18 Strategic Action Units and 5 Thematic Areas THEMATIC AREAS Biodiversity Informatics Inventory and Monitoring GIS Bioprospecting Conservation for Development STRATEGIC ACTION UNITS Informatics Developments Arthropods Plants Fungi Mollusks Vertebrates SIGBio Bioprospecting

14. Species, Specimens & Ecosystems

15. Biodiversity Information Systems BIMS –Development: 1993 – 1995 –Production: 1995 – 2000 Atta –Development: 1997 – 2000 –Production: 2000 - today

16. Biodiversity Information Systems BIMS –Intergraph –All collections into one database –Key points: Multiple levels for identification: kingdom to variety Identifications logging One register for each specimen

17. Biodiversity Information Systems Atta Conceived to support INBio’s core process Designed to reinforce the idea of an institutional system Aimed to last longer than BIMS Designed to be more scalable and more adaptable to new technologies Attend other users needs (not only scientists)

18. Biodiversity Information Systems Atta

19. Scalability Common names Flexible querying Embedded GIS tools Multiple security levels Object-oriented design Export info in standard formats Multiple collections administration Access to multimedia information via Internet Eco-geographic, species, specimen level info. Identification and taxonomical hierarchy history

20. Atta Time-frame: Geographical-frame: Taxonomical levels: Geographic layers: Collections: 5 Database size: Concurrent users: Avg. daily page hits: 1989-2003 Costa Rica 22 (extendible) 15 (extendible) 5 (extendible) 9.5 Gb + 3.5 Gb Up to 40 (internally) 12000

21. Atta Species UBI’s: Collected specimens: Identified specimens: Identified species: Daily new species (avg): Ecosystems Inventory: 2,314 (+1,686 unpublished) 2,900,000 900,000 19,758 0.71 44% of the country

22. Atta Effective queries to Atta’s dynamic Web-reports during the first 16 months of operation between May 2001 and Oct. 2002 Total external queries: Total Countries: 1. U.S.A. (3443) 11. Venezuela (50) 2. C.R. (2864) 12. Japan (49) 3. Spain (294) 13. Belgium (46) 4. Mexico (289) 14. Argentina (39) 5. Colombia (100) 15. Netherlands (37) 6. Canada (92) 16. U. K. (34) 7. Germany (85) 17. El Salvador (28) 8. Guatemala (80) 18. Sweden (21) 9. Brazil (62) 19. Austria (16) 10. Peru (62) 20. Chile (15) 7.9 thousand 40 countries 21.Australia (14) 31. Italy (7) 22.Ecuador (13) 32. Norway (7) 23.Nicaragua (12) 33. Panama (5) 24.Russia (12) 34. Portugal (5) 25.France (11) 35. Israel (4) 26.Puerto Rico (11) 36. Bolivia (3) 27. (10) 37. Cuba (2) 28.Korea (8) 38. S. Africa (2) 29.Switzerland (8) 39. Malasia (1) 30.Honduras (7) 40. Ucrania (1)

23. Atta Effective queries to Atta’s dynamic Web-reports during the first 16 months of operation between May 2001 and Oct. 2002 Most wanted: 1.Plants 2.Insects 3.Mollusks

24. Atta (Querying statistics from May 2001 to Oct. 2002) Very different types of Institutions (367) : –Academic –Museums –Conservation institution –International Cooperation –Agricultural Research –Pharmaceutical –Internet Service Providers Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin Universite Catholique de Louvain Australian Museum The Nature Conservancy Commission of the European Communities U.S. Department of Agriculture Agriculture and Agrifood Canada Numico Research (The Netherlands) Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co., Inc Jaring (Malasya) Andinatel S.A. (Ecuador)

25. Decision-making & sustainable use Last year, after a process of analyzing the impact of the institutional information in conservation and sustainable development, two important documents came out: I)Sustainability Strategy II)Institutional Essence Based on these, and according to the mission and vision statements, we were able to define the “Institutional Strategy for 2004-2006” and the “2004 Operative Annual Plan” to coordinate all 18 Units’ goals and activities.

26. Decision-making & sustainable use I)Sustainability Strategy 1.INBio recognized as an excellence center in its biodiversity and conservation related activities 2.INBio as a flexible and efficient organization 3.INBio integrated into effective international, regional and local networks 4.INBio counts with stable financial sources (66/33)

27. Decision-making & sustainable use II)Institutional Essence It considers: What are we, What do we do, Where do we come from, Where do we want to go to determine: a)Target audiences b)Types of information c)Partners

28. Decision-making & sustainable use a) Prioritized target audiences –Politicians –Biodiversity Managers –Resource users –Communication media and opinion-formers –Educators and religious leaders –Conservation NGO’s

29. Decision-making & sustainable use b) Types of information 1.Composition, structure and function of: –Species: natural history informationTaxonomy, abundance, density, geographical distribution, distribution by sex and age, habitat requirements and, in general, natural history information. –Genes: Diversity among species and populations, as well as processes that allow genetic exchange –Ecosystems and landscapes: Distribution, extension, fragmentation, impact, species conforming them and ecological functions.

30. Decision-making & sustainable use b) Types of information (cont.) 2.Conservation status 2.Conservation status: –Representative –Efficiency of Wild Protected Areas –Status of Ecological Processes 3.Monitoring 4.Threats 5.Values 5.Values and uses 6.Management models

31. Decision-making & sustainable use c) Partners - collaborators Scientific and business communities Public authorities Donors Other Institutions and OrganizationsOther Institutions and Organizations

32. Thank you