The objective of this project is to initiate mobilization of biodiversity data from Nigerian data holders, custodians, and institutions, estimated to hold more than 700,000 data records related to plants and animals within protected areas and likewise invasive, threatened and endemic species.
While educating biodiversity data stakeholders across Nigeria on the benefits of biodiversity data mobilization and sharing, the project will also disseminate and demonstrate best practices for digitizing natural history collections through training workshops and thereby mobilize biodiversity data from Nigeria.
Project activities will be coordinated by Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria (FRIN) and executed in collaboration with project partners at Nigeria National Park Service, Nigerian Conservation Foundation (NCF), Nnadi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nasarawa State University, and University of Kansas.
Through this project, previously undigitized data from herbarium/museum collections and species in the protected areas in each geo-ecological zone of Nigeria will be mobilized and shared through GBIF.org, complementing data that the Nigerian GBIF node is already mobilizing.
In addition to helping policy makers prioritize conservation investments, the mobilized data will be used to identify potential habitats for threatened species, which in turn will aid park managers to focus long-term conservation efforts. The project is expected to increase capacity for biodiversity information management within the GBIF node in Nigeria.
