EuMon and EU BON join forces for enhanced access to monitoring data
The EuMon project (2004-2008; biomat.ckff.si) created Europe´s most comprehensive metadata catalogue of biodiversity monitoring activities. The EU BON project (2012-2017) (www.eubon.eu) is now building a new portal where this information is highlighted.
Therefore, the original EuMon monitoring meta database is now being expanded with new information on data availability, access, and also by new information from the marine realm and remote sensing.
Monitoring data has received centre stage, also due to the instalment of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). However, while knowledge about monitoring efforts is important, we still miss a large variety of available programs and biodiversity data. Therefore, we aim to increase and update the number of monitoring programs in the EuMon catalogue, as the catalogue still covers less than half of all existing programs in Europe.
You are the first to get to know about this new campaign, EuMon and EU BON are launching now. This will create the opportunity for monitoring program coordinators to publish their data by using the data publishing service of the forthcoming EU BON portal (also including data embargos). That service will provide a professional database platform with a large amount of implications, e.g. related monitoring programs in different countries could integrate with each other data and compare the trends and status across different countries and regions. This will also create an opportunity for those that are interested in sharing their data via the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (www.gbif.org) and will also contribute to the Biodiversity observation network of the Group of Earth Observation (GEO BON, http://www.geobon.org/). One major aim of GEO BON is the creation of a global network of networks of biodiversity monitoring programs, to which this database will contribute.
You will find further information about the EuMon project and the databases that it created at eumon.ckff.si/ index1.php. To access the database itself, please visit eumon.ckff.si/biomat. For sharing information about your monitoring program, you first need to register at http://eumon.ckff.si/monitoring/mon_login.php. You will then be able to provide metadata about your scheme via an online questionnaire. It would be great to receive answers to all questions, but if you do not have an answer to some of the questions or prefer not to provide the information, this is fine as well.