IABIN -Species and Specimens Thematic Network

The Coordinating Institution for the Species and Specimens Thematic Network is a Consortium leads by "Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INBio of Costa Rica" . The members of the consortrium are:

• Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, INBio (Costa Rica)
• Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (Colombia) (Colombia)
• Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales (Argentina)
• Red de Herbarios de Centroamérica y el Caribe
• Natureserve (USA)

The goal is to implement an electronic and institutional network dedicated to regional specimen information. Some of the specimen data of any given country resides in its own museums and herbariums, although a significant part of the data resides in museums outside the country or hemisphere. Repatriation of specimen data will be an important consideration in the implementation of the TN for Specimens. In coordination with other TNs, the ultimate objective is to allow the user to consult the specimens, species and ecosystems networks in an integrated manner.


General Objective :
To define and implement the architecture, tools, standards and protocols to access specimen information located in institutions throughout the region, by using distributed access standards (probably those defined by GBIF and adapted to the necessities of IABIN).