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talk · Tuesday 22 September · 11:45–⁠12:00 · SAL C

Modernizing Brazil's taxonomic backbone: how ChecklistBank supports biodiversity and genetic heritage systems

Clara Baringo Fonseca · National & Global Taxonomic Backbones

Recording time 3:16:08–3:31:26Open on Vimeo ↗

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The short versionChecklistBank lets a small national node assemble one consistent taxonomic backbone for legal, portal and permitting systems.

Overview

What this was about

Clara Baringo Fonseca described how GBIF Brazil uses ChecklistBank to build a single taxonomy for three national systems: the legally mandated genetic heritage and traditional knowledge system (SisGen), the national biodiversity portal and the protected-area research permit system. The monthly-updated Flora and Funga of Brazil (since 2010, 700+ specialists) and the Taxonomic Catalogue of the Brazilian Fauna (since 2015, 800+ specialists) are cleaned, merged with invasive species, Catalogue of Life microorganisms and GBIF fungi in ChecklistBank projects, and exported as Darwin Core Archives, some with and some without microorganisms. The taxonomy drives processing in the Living Atlas Brazil portal, versioned republication with DOIs in the IPT, and data-gap maps relevant to Global Biodiversity Framework targets 20 and 21.

Why it matters. Shows how a megadiverse country operationalises national checklists for policy and legal compliance, and the workflow gaps between species description and national lists.

Key ideas

In the room

  • Brazil has about 120,000 animal and 67,000 plant species; national catalogues are updated monthly by hundreds of taxonomists.
  • A 10-year plan aims to create a Brazilian Catalogue of Life merging flora, fauna, fossils and microorganisms.
  • Three national systems (genetic heritage/traditional knowledge, national portal, protected-area permits) must share the same taxonomy.
  • ChecklistBank is used to clean duplicates and mis-mapped Darwin Core fields, merge lists, and add Catalogue of Life microorganisms and GBIF fungi.
  • Living Atlas Brazil processes occurrence taxonomy against the official backbone, showing original vs processed names.
  • Versions are republished in the IPT with DOIs, not sent onward to avoid duplication.
  • Maps of taxonomic/occurrence knowledge show major gaps in marine areas and Amazonia.
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Programme abstract

Modernizing Brazil’s Taxonomic Backbone: How ChecklistBank Supports Biodiversity and Genetic Heritage Systems

Clara Baringo Fonseca

Brazil, has made major advances in organizing and managing taxonomic information. It is one of the few countries with two official and continuously maintained national species catalogues: one for Flora and Funga and another for Fauna, curated by more than 800 taxonomists.

Both lists are published monthly using IPT and shared with GBIF and ChecklistBank. Taxonomy is the essential backbone for biodiversity information systems, since taxonomic updates require continuous reprocessing of species occurrence records.

Brazil operates two major systems dependent on an updated taxonomic backbone: SiBBr - Brazilian Biodiversity Information System), a Living Atlases platform and SISGEN, the Brazilian Genetic Heritage Management System, where all research involving genetic heritage must legally register activities and outputs.

ChecklistBank has played a key role in strengthening Brazil’s biodiversity taxonomic backbone. Initially, it supported detailed quality assessment of the official lists, identifying duplicated names, typographical errors, inconsistencies in Portuguese Darwin Core terminology, and other standardization issues. More recently, it enabled the construction of a unified Brazilian taxonomic backbone by integrating the two official catalogues, incorporating invasive species, generating identifiers for taxonomic tree construction, merging extensions, and producing a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A) directly consumed by national systems.

Previously, this workflow in SiBBr required extensive technical effort to clean, harmonize, and generate updated taxonomic files. With ChecklistBank and the support of its technical team, the process became more efficient, transforming a complex operation into a routine update performed every six months.

Submitted to the conference programme before the talk, so the talk itself may differ.