On August 2, the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) uploaded four sets of pangolin data to Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), covering all records of pangolin products and pangolins seized by customs, public security and found and rescued by the people from 2010 to 2019. Wild release records of pangolins from 2010 to 2019, and records of all pangolins collected in the collection gallery of the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the collection gallery of Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. According to GBIF standards, the uploaded pangolin data contains tens of thousands of detailed information, such as individual number, biological classification, discovery time, origin, distribution, the geographical location of origin and so on. Now all data are authorized by relevant units and have been made public to all on the GBIF platform to provide real and reliable evidence for all pangolin conservation workers and pangolin research enthusiasts.
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organization dedicated to the use of Internet services to provide scientific data on biodiversity. Data are provided by many organizations around the world; the information architecture of GBIF enables these data to be accessed and searched through a single portal, and the data obtained through the GBIF portal are mainly about the global distribution of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms, scientific names and other data. The mission of GBIF is to promote free and open access to global biodiversity data in support of sustainable development.
CBCGDF is the only one in China that qualifies to publish data on GBIF, besides the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The protection of pangolins is imminent, but there are few basic data about pangolins nowadays, which will undoubtedly hinder the protection. As a result, the CBCGDF decided to take responsibility and put the data in GBIF so that more people could understand the pangolin resources in China through intuitive data. To a certain extent, it changed the current situation that researchers were afraid of pangolin protection because of lack of data, which would undoubtedly give pangolin protection.
The upload process is not smooth, due to bugs for platform version, the release of data is delayed and unsuccessful. The staff actively contacted the GBIF officials and cooperated. After two weeks of confrontation with system bugs, they finally succeeded in publishing this remarkable work achievement.
Data download address:
https://www.gbif.org/dataset/e7f9a3c5-e5ef-458c-859e-b43ed111f91d
(Photo credit: GBIF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9481.html
By / Li Xue