Amazon Basin Biodiversity Information Facility (abbif)

Communication Infrastructure

Another important element to be considered in the design is the existing or potential communication infrastructure or connectivity. An analysis of research and education networks in Latin America was carried out to see whether there are any serious constraints that may hinder the full participation of a node in the network.

Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela are all members of RedClara, an association of Latin American networks that aims at connecting academic networks to stimulate cooperation and promote scientific and technological development in the region and with European scientific communities.

5 Amazonian countries are already operating with installed capacity between 10 and 155Mbps. There is a direct link to Europe of 622 Mbps and to the United States (figure 5).



Figure 5. RedClara: Connections established and planned (April, 2006)

Bolivia is the only Amazonian country where the connections have not been established. Unfortunately the Guyanas are not members of the network. Table 1 shows the status of connectivity of Amazonian countries.

Table 1. Network Status of Amazonian countries

Country	Network	Status	Capacity		Number of institutions connected
			Internal	External
Brazil	RNP/Ipê	operating	8M - 10G	155M (EU) 1G (USA)	400
Colombia	Renata	planned	34M	10M	43
Peru	RAAP	operating	2M - 10M	45M	7
Ecuador	Cedia	operating	4M - 45M	16M	21
Venezuela	REACCIUN2	operating	34M - 155M	45M	78

It is important to stress the fact that even if the country has an operating network this does not guarantee that the institutions that are important to ABBIF have a good and reliable connectivity.

The conclusion of this study is that all information systems developed by Amazonian countries that were analyzed are compatible with GBIF, meaning that the development of an Amazon Basin Biodiversity Information Facility is technically feasible. Some systems are centralized other distributed, so the architecture must be a combined system (Figure 6).



Figure 6. Diagram of a combined system
ABBIF should be built upon existing expertise and national initiatives. A three year project is being proposed to help catalyze initiatives and to establish the basis of the network. Yearly evaluations based on clear indicators shall be carried out to help institutions responsible for maintaining the information systems in Amazonian countries to analyze their progress and to help promote the exchange of experiences and ideas. Three institutions are ready to receive investments and support to carry out this initiative in their countries: Siamazonia, Humboldt, and CRIA. Venezuela is in the process of structuring a system for vertebrates. In other countries where there isn’t an institution with capacity and expertise to hold an information system, it is recommended that the collections link directly to the closest node or, in the case of low or unstable connectivity, to a regional server that will be established for this purpose.

We recommend a yearly budget of US$ 2 million for the system.

ABBIF and Amazonian countries

This section will focus on the size of the holding, the degree of digitization and the needs of the collections. The results of the ABBIF survey, sponsored by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which aimed at identifying the location and size of the relevant collections within and outside the region, highlights the size of the universe that needs digitizing, as well as the location and size of these collections.

The strategy is not only to involve biological collections and offer resources to digitize data, but to promote a greater integration between the collections and local GBIF nodes or information networks. Most collections that haven’t digitized their data or are very behind in the process, besides hardware, software, and humanware, require training in collection management, databases and on internet connectivity. It is very important to promote local expertise, and GBIF nodes and other local initiatives have a role to play and should be involved in the process.