Biodiversity Data Portal of Uruguay

The Global Biodiversity Information System (GBIF), founded and funded by several governments in 2001, is the world’s largest multilateral initiative created to give anyone, anywhere, open access to data on all forms of life on Earth.

GBIF’s mission is to mobilize the data, skills and technologies needed to make comprehensive biodiversity information freely available for science and decisions that address biodiversity loss and sustainable development.

The GBIF network of countries -which are structured as nodes- and participating organizations, provides data-providing institutions around the world with common standards and open source tools that allow them to share information on where and when species have been recorded.

SIBUy is the GBIF node in Uruguay and offers free access to data on collections, records and occurrence of species in the country and is currently formed by the Ministry of Environment and the National Museum of Natural History.

The objectives of the node are:

1. To promote and encourage the mobilization of biodiversity data in the country.
2. To provide expertise in biodiversity data management and data quality improvement.
3. Promote the use of biodiversity data for scientific research and decision making.
4. To foster collaboration among existing biodiversity-related initiatives, including the establishment of links with the regional and international GBIF network.

The Uruguay node in GBIF is part of the Latin American and Caribbean network, where we coordinate joint cooperation and training actions with countries in the region to promote the mobilization of biodiversity data.