Progress and plans
Mission
SiB Colombia is the national open data network on biodiversity established in 1994 by law (decree 1603/1994). Its main purpose is to provide open access to information on the country's biological diversity for the construction of a sustainable society.
It also facilitates the online publication of data and information on biodiversity, and promotes its use by a wide variety of audiences, supporting in a timely and efficient way the integrated management of biodiversity.
It is a reality thanks to the participation of hundreds of organizations and individuals who share data and information under the principles of open access, transparency, cooperation, recognition and shared responsibility. It promotes the active participation of government, academia, the productive sector and civil society to achieve the consolidation of reliable and timely information that supports decision-making at the national and international levels.
Funding
The main source of funding of SiB Colombia comes from the Colombian National Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development through the Humboldt Institute.
History
SiB Colombia was established in early 2000 with the coordination of Humboldt Institute to facilitate free and open access to biodiversity data. It comprises a network of more than one hundred organizations (including universities, biological collections, research institutes, environmental authorities and NGOs, citizen science initiatives among others) that work together to ensure that biodiversity data is available to support further research, education, policy making and incentive measures for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
Structure
SiB Colombia is an extended network of organizations led by a Directive Committee (CD-SiB) which represents the interests of the partners, which is composed by the National Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Parques Nacionales Naturales and the five research institutes of the National Environmental System: Humboldt Institute, INVEMAR, SINCHI, IIAP and IDEAM.
CD-SiB is supported by a Technical Committee (CT-SiB), Ad Hoc Work Groups for specific topics and a Coordinating Team (EC-SiB), which has the functions of a technical secretariat that takes in and implements the recommendations of the CD-SiB.