GeoNature, Open-Source FAIR Biodiversity Data Management

Abstract

Huge improvements have been made throughout the years in collecting and standardising biodiversity data (Bisby 2000, Osawa 2019, Hardisty and Roberts 2013) and in overhauling how to make information in the field of biodiversity data management more FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) (Simons 2021), but there is still room for improvement. Most professionals working in protected areas, conservation groups, and research organisations lack the required know-how to improve the reuse ratio of their data. The GeoNature and GeoNature-Atlas (Monchicourt 2018, Corny et al. 2019) are a set of open-source software that facilitate data collection, management, validation, sharing (e.g., via Darwin Core standard) and visualisation. It is a powerful case study of collaborative work, which includes teams from private and public sectors with at least fifteen national parks and forty other organisations currently using and contributing to the package in France and Belgium (view it on github).