IABIN CONTENT BUILDING GRANTS PROPOSAL
1. TITLE OF PROPOSED PROJECT
BUILDING AND QUALIFYING CONTENT ON THE I3N BRAZIL DATABASE
2. CONTACT INFORMATION FOR PROJECT MANAGER
Name: Silvia R. Ziller, Founder and Executive Director The Horus Institute for Environmental Conservation and Development Address: Servidão Cobra Coral, 111 – Campeche Florianópolis – SC, 88.063-513 Country: BRAZIL Telephone: (55) 48 – 3338-2856 / 9161-8994 (cel.) email [email protected] website: http://www.institutohorus.org.br
3. CONTACT INFORMATION FOR MANAGEMENT INSTITUTION
Institution name: The Horus Institute for Environmental Conservation and Development Address: Servidão Cobra Coral, 111 – Campeche Florianópolis – SC, 88.063-513 Country: BRAZIL Institutional contact person: Name: Sílvia Renate Ziller Telephone: (55) 48 – 3338-2856 / 9161-8994 (cel.) email: [email protected] website: http://institutohorus.org.br 4. PROJECT SUMMARY
ENGLISH
The I3N Brazil database currently has 344 species, 11,529 occurrences, 2,034 citations and 737 contact names. This project is intended to allow the Horus Institute to add more information to the database, as material has been gathered but not appended for lack of resources. The main objectives of this proposal are: a) Append 2,356 records that have been accumulated in the past months to the I3N database, including the results of risk analysis carried out for most species in the Brazil database; b) Create a webpage on the Horus Institute website on risk analysis, exposing the protocol used and the methodology, as all these details cannot be recorded in the database; c) Relocate information to the correct NEW fields in the open source database, especially for protected areas and for herbarium records; d) Include data from 96 email messages of contributions that are in standby e) Review all the content on terrestrial animals so it can be used in a publication that is being prepared by the Brazil Ministry of Environment on terrestrial invasive species.
SPANISH
La base de datos de I3N Brazil tiene 344 especies, 11.529 ocurrencias, 2034 citas bibliográficas y 737 contactos. El objetivo de esta propuesta es permitir al Instituto Hórus adicionar información a la base a partir de materiales recibidos desde 2009 pero todavía no incorporados por falta de fondos. Se propone: a) Agregar 2.356 registros acumulados en meses pasados a la base I3N, incluyendo resultados de análisis de riesgo hechas para la mayoría de las especies en la base de datos de Brasil; b) Crear una página en el sitio web del Instituto Hórus sobre análisis de riesgo, con los protocolos y métodos, ya que no pueden ser detallados en la base de datos; c) Trasportar información a los nuevos campos en la base de datos open source, especialmente para áreas protegidas y registros de herbario; d) Incluir datos de 96 correos recibidos de contribución de datos; e) Revisar el contenido sobre la fauna para subsidiar una publicación del Ministerio de Ambiente de Brasil sobre especies invasoras terrestres. 5. PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Specific description of the ways in which the project possesses the characteristics listed above . The Brazil I3N database already respects all the standards required, the new open source version being compatible with GISIN standards as well.
• Description of the project’s value to your institution and other institutions in your country. Describe any overlap or complementarities with existing information management activities in your country or neighboring countries. Describe how this data will fill existing gaps. The Horus Institute uses its website as its main means of communication with the broad public, mainly in Brazil, but also maintains the main pages in Spanish and in English for visitors from other countries. Maintaining the I3N database and constantly improving the quality and the content of the website is an essential goal for the organization. About 5-10 emails are received weekly from visitors to the website, with issues as varied as people searching for information on species for academic purposes, for school, or to deal with actual invasions; people interested in legislation; many people asking for articles and complementary information for research; some requests on how to control species. These demands are currently being classified so we can better understand the users needs. The Horus Institute website is the only website in Brazil dedicated to invasive alien species, with technical content, the I3N database, articles, fact sheets of species, an image bank of the species, space for users to send in case studies, and more. There is much care now in having only professionals insert data, as too much revision work was generated by allowing students to enter data when the database structure still did not have a mechanism to control changes. The open source version of the database, to be used in the development of this proposal, will improve on the control of changes.
• Metrics (to demonstrate cost ‐ and effort ‐efficiency) of the amount of information made available through the project. A long list of plant occurrences, referenced in the Curitiba Herbarium, was received for the database. Of these, only 100 were added to the database. The remaining 937 records or invasive species have not been added because the new version of the database in open access will supply specific fields for museum and herbarium collections, so the insertion of this data will more appropriately be done now rather than in the former grant opportunity. Results of risk analysis The Horus Institute carried out risk analysis for several of the plant, terrestrial vertebrates and fishes in the database in 2008 (53 species of fishes, 52 plants, and 30 terrestrial vertebrates). These assessments were made with the objective of calibrating the risk analysis tools. The results have not yet been appended to the database (in the Management section there is a field on Risk Analysis where this data must be registered), so we would like to make it a part of this proposal. The scores will be added to the database as well as the category (very high, high, moderate, low risk), method used, date of analysis and institution in charge. Complementarily, a web page on risk analysis will be created for the Horus Institute website, displaying the protocols and methods used. There are other 7 fish species that require risk analysis to be carried out, and 92 species of plants. These will be completed as opportunity allows and as there are funds available, then the results will also be placed on the database. Review of existing content on animals The Ministry of Environment of Brazil is publishing data on invasive alien species due to inventories carried out in 2005. The Horus Institute staff reviewed all the text in the database for the plant species between 2009 and early 2010, and needs to complete the review of all animals. The revision of this material is also proposed here to improve the quality of the current data, and allow it to be published. This review is necessary because information has been appended to the database by several different people along these years, a good number of them being university students. There are eventual writing and typing mistakes to be corrected, and content to be verified. As the new version of the database is available, from now to the future there will be more control of changes, but that was not possible with the first version, especially when the work started out and the Access file was directly in use. The revision work for the 169 species to be reviewed and complemented with data (especially with specific citations) should demand about 28 days of work (considering 6 hours/day) and ensure improved quality for the database, as has been done with the plant species on a voluntary basis (this is the reason why it took one full year to complete). Other necessary changes will also be carried out, mainly moving information from current descriptive fields to the new fields available in the open source version. Names of protected areas (836 records) are currently stored in the Locality field, and will have to be moved to the specific “Protected area” field. The 100 records inserted from the Curitiba Botanical Garden Herbarium will have to be moved to the specific fields that store collection data. Other new fields are available in the new version and require complementary data that needs to be searched and appended. A summary of the records the Horus Institute currently has in hand that need to be appended to the database is shown below. Number of Item Source records UFSC Research Laboratory on Occurrences of fish species in Santa Catarina Freshwater Fishes 76 Occurrences of Prosopis juliflora, Calotropis procera, Leucaena leucocephala, Elaeis guineensis, Passer domesticus Field observations in Piauí state 18 Species inclusion - Phyllostachys aurea + 2 occurrences Field observations in Parana state 3 Occurrences for Hemidactylus mabouia Field observation in Parana state 3 Occurrences + citation for Charybdis helleri Field observation in Espirito Santo state 2 Citation for Lithobates catesbeianus South America Journal of Herpetology 1 Occurrences for Sus scrofa with GPS Research paper in Rio Grande do Sul coordinates state 53 Occurrences for Apis mellifera in Santa Catarina state Researcher Cristiane Krug 15 Scientific articles (Brazil) Several magazines 8 Curitiba Herbarium records of occurrence Curitiba Botanical Gardens 937 Results of risk analysis The Horus Institute 135 Review of content on Kingdom Animalia (species full content ) The Horus Institute and web sources 169 Rearranging protected areas and herbaria data I3N Access database to open source 936 Total 2,356 Apart from these counted records, there are 96 email messages with contributions that have been received since the beginning of 2009 that need to be reviewed, selected, and appended to the database. Contributions come in many ways, mainly through email, some using the standard spreadsheet available on the website. All this data will be validated by experts before it is added to the database.
Time frame/work plan (including preparation of technical and financial progress reports). Six months. • Relevant literature cited as footnotes Not applicable, as this project only refers to improving content and quality on the I3N Brazil database.
• The successful proposal must also provide answers to the following questions: 1. What are the user communities in your country that would be interested in the products of this project? The website is visited by a wide range of public, from very lay people who write asking how to control a plant or the giant african snail in their gardens to people asking for excel tables with data for modeling. Governments have been using the data to publish official species lists (Parana published the first list in 2007, now Santa Catarina, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro are working on lists as well) and to store data on invasive species occurring in the state protected areas (Sao Paulo, Parana and Santa Catarina have so far requested support for hosting their data). Many theses, dissertations and undergraduate papers cite and thank the Horus Institute for sharing data through the website. As there are no other online references with the same type of service, the website has become a national reference and serves a large number of people in different types of demand.
2. How will the data be updated and maintained into the future? If changes in information are made and new data is created, how will this be carried into the publicly accessible record? As mentioned before, the website and the database are the main way for the Horus Institute to communicate with the public. The website was created in 2002 and has been well maintained, reviewed and improved since then. The database has been online since 2005, and has also been maintained and improved for quality and content since then. These are very important goals for the organization and a key part of its functioning. The Horus Institute has had a webmaster since 2002 (Rodrigo Chaves Ribeiro, currently a university student), a person who has taken this role not only for the pay but also for contributing to the work underway.
3. How will you comply with standards of the corresponding Thematic Network? They are already part of the thematic network and already respect all the necessary standards.
4. What is your institution’s expertise in informatics and data and metadata management? Over five years of experience in creating the first version of the I3N database, sharing data, and now developing the open source version. Besides, we have been providing training and support for the implementation of this database in other LAC countries (17 so far). The knowledge in informatics the organization has is limited to the I3N experience with databases and information sharing (and a bit of following the evolution of GISIN and the GISD).
5. How does your institution interact with other institutions in your country that manage biodiversity metadata and data? Only by asking people in other organizations to contribute with data, and by preparing data in specific formats for research work upon specific requests.
6. What has been your involvement in IABIN activities? What is your relationship to the IABIN focal point? (Note: any proposal submitted should have been sent ahead of time to the IABIN Focal Point in your country for their knowledge and some proof of this should be included in the proposal). I have been involved with I3N since 2004, when the first database was developed in Brazil through our joint efforts with the Universidad del Sur in Argentina. My relationship to the Brazil focal point is restricted, as Braulio Dias is a very busy person and lives in Brasilia. I do see him eventually in meetings, and he is aware of the work I have been developing, but I actually work more with the person he has nominated to be in charge of invasive species issues for the Ministry of Environment, Lidio Coradin. The Brazil Ministry of Environment signed a memorandum of understanding with the Global Invasive Species Programme (GISP) in 2006 and I am the GISP representative for this agreement. I will send Braulio an email about this project before I submit it (see below), but given that COP 10 is coming close I do not expect him to reply. Richard Huber and I talked about trying to get Braulio Dias more involved with IABIN again, and he meant to make contact as well, so that could be helpful too.
7. What are your provisions to ensure data quality? A solid scientific background, years of experience managing this data, a good network of collaborators in several specific areas of biology (amphibians, fishes, reptiles, plants, mollusks, flies, mammals, birds), good writing in the Portuguese language, many solid references, broad knowledge of information sources online, being part of the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) and of GISP and having access to scientists and practitioners around the world.
EMAIL TO BRAULIO DIAS, BRAZIL FOCAL POINT, SENT AUG. 19, 2010
De: Sílvia R. Ziller [mailto:[email protected]] Enviada em: quinta-feira, 19 de agosto de 2010 22:57 Para: 'Braulio Dias' Assunto: Projeto I3N - IABIN - melhoria de dados invasoras Prioridade: Alta
Prezado Bráulio, Estou no presente escrevendo uma proposta para um Content Building Grants da IABIN, solicitando recursos para pagar um profissional para incluir mais dados na base de dados de espécies exóticas invasoras da I3N, hospedada no website do Instituto Hórus. Essa base de dados está sendo recriada em versão open source (software livre) e com isso migraremos para a nova plataforma, o que também demandará algum trabalho de ajuste de dados a novos campos criados. O projeto visa também prover recursos para a revisão das espécies de fauna que ainda nos falta revisar. Levamos pouco mais de um ano para revisar todo o conteúdo referente às plantas terrestres de maneira voluntária, agora estou buscando uma forma de fazer a revisão da fauna com muito mais agilidade e rapidez para que o conteúdo possa ser disponibilizado ao Ministério do Meio Ambiente, conforme solicitação sua, para a publicação do Informe Nacional sobre Espécies Exóticas Invasoras que afetam ambientes terrestres. Escrevo para deixá-lo a par da iniciativa e da intenção de colaborar com a publicação da melhor maneira possível.
Atenciosamente, Sílvia
Sílvia R. Ziller, Diretora Executiva Instituto Hórus de Desenvolvimento e Conservação Ambiental Diretora para a América Latina - Programa Global de Espécies Invasoras (GISP) Líder da Rede I3N no Brasil Florianópolis - SC www.institutohorus.org.br 6. PROJECT BUDGET
A one ‐page project budget should be submitted. All costs should be presented in US dollars.
The budget should show how IABIN’s funding would be spent, and how it complements the (at least) 1:1 matching provided by the Institution. Clearly indicate budget items for which IABIN funds would be used. The Project Budget table should have one column for the requested IABIN funding, and one column for matching funds. Rows should represent all cost categories and associated amounts for the period of the project. An example budget table format: The categories of items to be financed by the IABIN are equipment purchases (not to exceed $2,000 in total), consultant services, non ‐consultant technical services, training, and operating costs.
The Horus Institute basically needs funds to pay for people’s time to search for, append and verify existing data on the database. There is no need to buy equipment or for other costs. The difficulty we have lies in being able to pay professionals with a solid scientific background and with good writing skills, as well as a good level of English to appropriately use online data and information from publications. Item IABIN Funds Matching funds Total Consultants for 9,000 9,000 appending data (2 professionals) Consultants to 1,000 1,000 complete risk analysis Computers (2) 3,000 3,000 Internet access 150 150 Website 100 100 maintenance Project 6,000 6,000 management Webmaster 1,800 1,800 Overhead (5%) 500 500
Total 10,000 12,102 22,102
(i) the term Non ‐consultant technical services means contractual expenditures incurred for logistics and printing services under the Project; (ii) the term Training means expenditures incurred for logistic arrangements of meetings, reasonable transportation costs and per ‐diem of trainees and trainers (if applicable) and rental of training facilities and equipment connected with the Project only; and (iii) the term Operating Costs means reasonable recurrent expenditures that would not have been incurred by the Institution absent the Project, for transportation, and per ‐diem costs, salary for the
Eligible Institutions incremental staff, Project administration costs, operation and maintenance of office equipment, non ‐durable goods, and Institutional overhead up to 5% all needed for the implementation of the Project.
PAGE 8 Attach a copy of the document(s) stating the legal status of your organization, agency, or institution. If you require further instructions on meeting this requirement, please contact one of the responsible officers.
The documents below are the official register of the Institute in March, 2002, which uses the registry of the 1 st meeting that established it, as well as the official registry with the Ministry of Finance under the number 05.048.478/0001-05.