China’s wildlife camera-trap monitoring needs a unified standard

Abstract

Conserving biodiversity relies on the effective monitoring of species in a timely and credible way. Camera traps provide images and metadata for many mammal species and are now used widely enough that they can provide a viable method for biodiversity monitoring. Camera-trapping is rapidly deployable, allows standardization of protocols, and provides a voucher specimen (i.e. image) with relevant information about the species’ location, time and date of capture, and other capture details (camera model, etc.). This technique has resulted in millions of images being captured and stored for current and future examination of biodiversity. Camera-trapping has become particularly popular in China. Multiple institutions are running their own monitoring programs and collecting and storing wildlife images and associated metadata. There is an urgent need to standardize the metadata format in order to share data across institutions and with the larger conservation community. Global data sharing repositories, such as Wildlife Insights, exist but will need China’s data to effectively track global efforts for achieving sustainability. Three steps are needed for this to 多样性Biodiversity Science occur: common data standards, data sharing agreements and data embargo policies. We urge the Chinese conservation community to develop the policies and the mechanisms needed to share wildlife images within China and with the international community.