Brazil has become the latest country to join the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), dedicated to promoting free and open access to data on biological diversity. Currently 58 countries and 46 organizations contribute data on animal, plant and microorganism species, gathered from museum specimens, field observations of plants and animals in nature, and results from experiments.

Some 388 million records stored in over 10,000 databanks are freely available to researchers around the world thanks to the GBIF.

Brazil is estimated to contain 15 percent of the planet’s biodiversity. It could contribute some 30 million records to the platform, although only five million will be digitized and available immediately.

“Integrating data provides fundamental knowledge for sustainable development,” Carlos Nobre, the secretary of Research and Development Policies and Programs at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, told Tierramérica.