Keitaro Hara

To conserve biodiversity, a system that allows the collection of biological information throughout the world and the provision of it to the public is being planned on a variety of scales. What is discussed here is an information infrastructure that is required for gathering regional information on wildlife habitats and distributions, creating a database from it, and sharing such information among the government, researchers, and citizens in order to facilitate conservation of wild animals and plants.

Efforts on a variety of time/spatial scales - on regional to global levels, in short to long terms - are important to conserve biodiversity. A number of activities on which information is available over the Internet are described in this article to determine the current status and problems.

Measures to conserve biodiversity are actually carried out on a regional level within each nation. Conservation of migratory birds and species inhabiting an area that spreads across two or more countries on a continent, however, requires transnational or worldwide efforts. In response to the Convention on Biological Diversity adopted in 1992, UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) and other related international organizations have already took their initiative to develop frameworks for biodiversity conservation.

The World Conservation Monitoring Centre [URL 01], which was an independent institution based in Cambridge, U.K., now operates as a UNEP office, is providing a complete database of animals and plants on the verge of extinction as well as a database of forests concervation.

Clearing-House Mechanism [URL 02] established by the Convention on Biological Diversity aims to serve as an information center that collects and integrates metadata on biodiversity. Bio Seek [URL 03] is a useful search engine for finding biodiversity-related resources available on the Web. Meanwhile, there are world-level biodiversity conservation activities in progress: for example, Species 2000 [URL 04], a program for fundamental standardization of ever known species on the earth, and Global Biodiversity Information Facility [URL 05], a grand effort to collect biodiversity information to build a database on a global scale, collaborate each other through their involvement with Species 2000 Asia Oceania [URL 06].

The Gap Analysis Program [URL 07] implemented in the U.S. is the most famous among such activities that seek to gather accurate wildlife distribution information, create its database, and link the results to conservation-measure planning. Taking each state as a significantly large-scale object, it classifies land cover by using satellite images, predicts wildlife habitats based on habitat models developed by existing studies, and links the resulting information to conservation efforts. Many projects are being carried out throughout the nation to contribute to the Program.

Japan, on the other hand, after becoming a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity in May 1993, adopted the National Biodiversity Strategy in 1995. Following this nation-level development, in 1998, the former Environment Agency established the Biodiversity Center of Japan [URL 08] as a central organization to monitor and survey the nation's current environment and biodiversity status. The survey results are stored here and made publicly available as objective data. Japan Integrated Biodiversity Information System has been constructed and maintained by the Biodiversity Center to provide the public with an extensive database of biodiversity information [URL 09].

Among prefectural-level activities, Hokkaido Gap Analysis Program [URL 10] and Circum-Seto Inland Sea Species Map [URL 11], which is a joint effort of museums around Seto Inland Sea, are drawing particular attention. The latter is a system that permits the search for specimens and reference data, owned by each participating museum, by using the species name and collection date as keys and to render the search results onto a distribution map. The system also allows users to register personal animal observation data to make information exchanges more interactive.

Only a few examples of municipal-level activities have been sighted so far. Species Survey [URL 12], a Web page provided by Sendai Science Museum, is noteworthy for the involvement of citizens in the project. The author's laboratory is now developing an environment map based on the results of the comprehensive environmental survey conducted in Sakura City, Chiba.

There have been a number of "environmental information systems" developed elsewhere in Japan mainly on a prefectural level. However, reasons such as the delay in supplying basic digital maps and ambiguous requirements from users have hindered effective use of these systems. This is in contrast to the preceding examples in the U.S. and Europe, where many organizations and residents seem to be cooperating to construct environmental information systems from a user-oriented point of view.

Environmental issues require the public (citizens), industry (businesses), government (public administration) and academia (researchers) to carry out their own function and address problems in concert. There are some areas IT (information technology) can make a significant contribution; Internet technology enables organizations and individuals to share environmental data and exchange information easily as well as interactively.

When discussing conservation matters, taking other Asian countries into account, beyond the mere Japanese perspective, is also important. A project to develop a database system called the "Asian Biodiversity Conservation Supporting System with Birds as a Bio-indicator Species," which is being carried out by the Hokkaido Institute of Environmental Sciences with the cooperation of the International Center of Wild Bird Society of Japan, intends to allow relevant data to be shared throughout Asia. The project's further developments are awaited. Another initiative has been started at Tokyo Joho University as a five-year program in 2000. It is part of the Academic Frontier Promotion Project funded by the former Ministry of Education called "Comprehensive Study of Asian Environment/Culture and Information." The research team receives MODIS data from NASA's EOS Terra satellite and plans to make the data available to the public in the near future. As IT is more commonly used for collecting, showing, and sharing environmental data, its contribution is growing in building human and organizational networks on regional, national and Asian levels.

URL list

01

World Conservation Monitoring Centre

www.unep-wcmc.org

02

Clearing-House Mechanism

www.biodiv.org/chm/

03

Bio Seek

www.biodiv.org/search/

04

Species 2000

www.species2000.org/

05

Global Biodiversity Information Facility

www.gbif.org/

06

Species 2000 Asia Oceania

www-sp2000ao.nies.go.jp/

07

Gap Analysis Program

www.gap.unidaho.edu/

08

Biodiversity Center of Japan

www.biodic.go.jp/

09

Japan Integrated Biodiversity Information System

www.biodic.go.jp/J-IBIS.html

10

Hokkaido Gap Analysis Program

www.hgap.org

11

Circum-Seto Inland Sea Species Map

www.naturemuseum.net/webgis/ikimono_map.html

12

Species Survey

www.kagakukan.sendai-c.ed.jp/html/ikimono.html