Databases tailored for biodiversity conservation

SMITH, A. T., L. BOITANI, C. BIBBY, D. BRACKETT, F. CORSI, G. A. B. DA FONSECA, C. GASCON, M. GIMENEZ DIXON, C. HILTON-TAYLOR, G. MACE, R. A. MITTERMEIER, J. RABINOVICH, G. J. RICHARDSON, A. RYLANDS, B. STEIN, S. STUART, J. THOMSEN AND C. WILSON

SCIENCE

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Año: 2001 p. 2073 - 2074

0036-8075

We were pleased to see the attention afforded bioinfonnatics for blodiversity in Science´s special issue on the topic. It is essential that infoRMatics technology be devoted to increasing our understanding of Earth´s taxonomic diversity and to developing means to access the vast resources available in the world´s scientific collections, and these are indeed the stated goals of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). However, the articles in the special section contain the potentially perilous implication that historical biodiversity data are sufficient to address contemporary issues in conservation. The section´s content emphasizes data from natural history collections, as exemplified by a statement in the section´s introduction: "These Web resources will be of greatest use if they can be put into a historical context." We see a clear distinction between a biodivcrsity database (based on historical data from collections) and a biodiversity conservation database (regularly updated with current information and used to support conservation decisions).