BISMaL: Biological Information System for Marine Life and Role for Biodiversity Research

Abstract

The need of a global network for biodiversity information has been recognized as the supporting mechanism not only for the science community but also for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Agenda 21 that followed the Earth Summit in 1992. An international workshop coordinated by the International Union of Microbiology Societies (IUMS), International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS), World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC), and United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) con fi rmed the philosophy of a biodiversity information network based on the following (Canhos et al. 1992 ) : The network for biodiversity must be on a global scale, interdisciplinary, and accessible worldwide, without borders. Biodiversity is multidisciplinary, and its information must cross conventional borders and be exchangeable between databases.