International network and research infrastructure providing open access to biodiversity data.
GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION FACILITY
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international network and research infrastructure funded by the world’s governments and aimed at providing anyone, anywhere, open access to data about all types of life on Earth. Based on a network of participating countries and organizations, GBIF provides data-holding institutions with common standards and open-source tools that enable them to share information about where and when species have been recorded. This knowledge derives from many sources, including everything from museum specimens collected in the 18th and 19th century to geotagged smartphone photos shared by amateur naturalists in recent days and weeks.
GBIF gives access to more than a billion occurrence data worldwide, which can be consulted using several search filters and obtained in a consistent format according to internationally recognised standards (Darwin Core).
GBIF data and tools can be accessed through the GBIF portal, the R-GBIF package, and the GBIF API.
The Belgian Biodiversity Platform (BBPf) is the Belgian GBIF Node. See our GBIF.be Hosted Portal for more.
Creation date: 2001
Access & costs: free online access
A user account is required and the associated e-mail address is used exclusively for the receipt of requested data. As specified by the GBIF data user agreement, acknowledgement should be made to the data publishers whose biodiversity data are used (guidelines).
If you hold biodiversity data and would like to know more about GBIF data publication, please do not hesitate to contact the members of the Belgian GBIF node, provided below.
Website: www.gbif.org
Contacts for Belgium:
- André Heughebeart, Belgian GBIF Node Manager: a.heughebaert@biodiversity.be
- Dimitri Brosens, Data Officer for Flanders: d.brosens@biodiversity.be
- Stijn Cooleman, Data Officer for Flanders: s.cooleman@biodiversity.be
- Maxime Coupremanne, Data Officer for Wallonia: m.coupremanne@biodiversity.be