1. The Global Marketplace for Forest Information

2. History of GFIS 1998: –ICRIS Meeting (IFF country-lead initiative Indonesia/Austria) –Establishment of a IUFRO Task Force 1999: –Initital technical concept aiming at a GFIS prototype 2000: –Establishment of IUFRO‘s Special Programme GFIS –GFIS Africa Project 2001: –Establishment of 5 GFIS Service Centres in Africa 2002: –Initial efforts in Asia (CIFOR) and Latin America (Embrapa) –First international presentation of GFIS (Copenhagen) 2003: –GFIS Consortium (International Steering Group –Presentation of a GFIS functional prototype service at the World Forestry Congress, Quebec City (September 2003) –Termination of the IUFRO Task Force on GFIS

3. A federation of people and forest information resources connected through technology, expertise and interests. What is GFIS? www.gfis.net GFIS is an Internet gateway to forest information resources from around the world. Users can locate maps, datasets, web resources, journal articles, books and other resources relevant to their information needs.

4. Silviculture Physiology and Genetics Forest Operations and Techniques Inventory, Growth and Yield Forest Products Social, Economic, Information and Policy Sciences Forest Health Forest Environment What is in GFIS? Over 100,000 catalogue records are currently available through GFIS from 50 organisations located in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and North America. This pool of reference data is the starting point for a continuously expanding service eventually providing links to all information resources worldwide. www.gfis.net 12/2000 Fire Atlas Africa Source: esa ESRIN Source: Schnabel, Department of Forest Growth, BFW Source: Krehan, Department of Forest Protection, BFW Maps Journals Grey Literature GIS Policies Experts Data Research Reports Images Access to…About…

5. Who needs GFIS? www.gfis.net GFIS community: Scientists, decision-makers, forest managers, industries, information specialists, educators, NGOs, general public GFIS Providers … Collecting Analysing Documenting Publishing Cataloguing Archiving Distributing …and GFIS Users Questioning Accessing Locating Retrieving Interpreting Managing Finding Solutions Making Decisions

6. …from a variety of recognised sources …

7. GFIS: A Distributed System GFIS is a distributed system whereby participating organisations remain responsible for the generation and maintenance of their information content. GFIS enables users to locate that content and, where appropriate, access it through GFIS Service Centres or from the information provider directly.

8. System Architecture A Federated Approach

9. GFIS Information Server The GFIS information server is the central technical component of GFIS. It collects GFIS metadata from the Service Centres, thus enabling global searching. The server facilitates search services, such as multi- host searching, z39.50 services, and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Thus, it enables global interoperability searching.

10. Data/Information Object (DO) Data/Information Objects are the items that the user wants to find through metadata searching. These items have different content, spatial and temporal scales, format and other attributes specific to each object and database.

11. Metadata Metadata are data about data. Each metadata item is used to describe a data/information object. The GFIS metadata definition is based on the Dublin Core metadata standard.

12. GFIS Metadata Elements (I) Desirable DC fields:DC DescriptionGFIS Information Provider TitleThe name given to the resource by the CREATOR or PUBLISHER CreatorThe person(s) or organisations primarily responsible for the intellectual content of the resource SubjectHere: Subject Keywords: free text (user-defined keywords) TypeCategory of the resource: e.g. homepage, novel, technical report etc. FormatData representation of the resource such as text/html, ASCII, or JPEG image etc. IdentifierString or number to uniquely identify the resource (e.g. ISBN, ISSN, URL in case of online resources) LanguageLanguage of intellectual content of the resource

13. GFIS Metadata Elements (II) Optional DC fields:DC DescriptionGFIS Information Provider ContributorPersons or organisations in addition to those specified in the CREATOR element. PublisherThe entity responsible for the information content RelationThe relation of this resource to other resources (e.g. images in a document) DescriptionA textual description of the resource SourceA string used to identify the work from which this resource was derived. DateThe date the resource was made available in its present form. CoverageSpatial or temporal characteristics of the resource (e.g. country, region etc.) RightsLink to a copy right notice

14. Why GFIS needs a thesaurus… Information experts have found that better consistency is obtained if standards are used for controlling the terms in an information repository. The use of consistent terms by both contributors and users helps to improve the chances of users locating all documents relevant to their interest within the GFIS system. A multilingual thesaurus: Allows users to search on keywords in their own language; Allows indexers to assign keywords in their own language; Describes each concept with a keyword in each language; Provides a systematic display of the descriptors, simplifying navigation through the terminology; Facilitates development of closely-focussed search strategies

15. What is a Multilingual Forestry Thesaurus? A thesaurus is a hierarchical controlled vocabulary, meaning that the terms within the vocabulary are somehow related to each other. A multilingual forestry thesaurus contains terms that are used in the forestry domain in as many languages as the stakeholders deem appropriate.

16. This is an example, taken from the GEneral Multilingual Environmental Thesaurus (GEMET): afforestation BAQ: oihaneztatze; oihantze; baso-sartze BUL: Залесяване DAN: tilplantning DUT: bosaanplanting USA: afforestation FIN: metsitys, metsän istuttaminen FRE: boisement GER: Aufforstung GRE: αναδάσωση HUN: erdosítés ITA: forestazione NOR: skogreisning POR: florestação RUS: облесение SLO: zalesňovanie SLV: pogozdovanje SPA: repoblación forestal SVE: skogsodling; skogsplantering Definition: 1) Establishment of a new forest by seeding or planting of nonforested land. 2) The planting of trees on land which was previously used for other uses than forestry. 3) The planting of trees in an area, or the management of an area to allow trees to regenerate or colonize naturally, in order to produce a forest. (Source: MGH / WRIGHT / ALL) Broader Terms: forestry Narrower Terms: reforestation,local afforestation

17. Words, words, words…. In a collaborative project with major stakeholders, GFIS proposes to develop a multilingual forestry thesaurus whereby different terminologies can be linked.

18. GFIS Information Provider A GFIS Information Provider is an institution or individual that collects and maintains forest-related information and accompanying metadata that meet the criteria of the GFIS collection policy. Providers submit metadata records through GFIS Service Centres. To be integrated to GFIS system, the metadata can be converted to GFIS-Dublin Core metadata by using GFIS conversion tool.

19. GFIS Service Centre The GFIS Service Centre is a GFIS partner institution that collects, maintains and manages GFIS metadata submitted by information provider(s) or others. Service Centres may also collect information about information providers, organizations, events and activities within their region.

20. Name of GFIS Service Centre CountryOrganisation hosting a GFIS Service Centre Central Africa Service Centre GabonAssociation pour le Development de l'Information Environmentale (ADIE/REIMP) Sahelian West Africa Service Centre SenegalCentre National de Recherche Forestieres (CNRF)-ISRA Coastal West Africa Service Centre GhanaForest Research Institute of Ghana (FORIG) Southern Africa Service Centre ZimbabweForestry Research Commission, Zimbabwe (FRC) GFIS Information Server (GFIS Management Unit) InternationalInternational Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) Eastern Africa Service Centre KenyaKenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI) NBII-GFIS Service CentreUnited States of America National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) FORREX GFIS Service Centre Canada FORREX Forest Research Extension Partnership GFIS Service Centres

21. GFIS Organisation GFIS Consortium Interim GFIS Steering Group GFIS Management Unit GFIS Service Centres GFIS Information Providers

22. A forest plantation manager in Ghana is interested in growing an indigenous species and is seeking information on site conditions required for Milicia excelsa, commonly known as Odum, Mvule and Iroko. Milicia is considered to be the most useful timber species in Africa. Case Study: Using GFIS for Forest Plantation Management

23. The manager accesses GFIS through www.gfis.net

24. …enters the basic search page…

25. …types in “Milicia” and selects specific information providers.

26. His search results in 45 metadata records.

27. He selects several records of interest and stores them in his GFIS Basket.

28. He then e-mails them to himself for future reference.

29. The GFIS Principles I To promote accessibility, credibility, quality and permanence of forest information, GFIS adheres to the following principles: GFIS emphasizes partnerships, cross-sectoral and international, to develop skills, for technology transfer, and to maximize the value of all forest information resources and providers, worldwide. Visibility of global forest information through GFIS is simple, equitable and timely for all.

30. The GFIS Principles II Agreed standards are followed to ensure that a consistent level of quality and relevance is achieved to serve the needs of GFIS users. The protection of intellectual property rights, confidentiality and security is held in the highest regard. As a global network of distributed information resources, GFIS information providing organizations maintain full identity throughout the search and retrieval process and retain managerial control of their information.

31. Thank you for your attention!