Bees as pollinators in Brazil - USP

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They unanimously stressed the advantages
and importance of the use of IT tools and techniques
to help achieve the goals of the
International Pollinators Initiative and of the
national/regional PIs. The project Conservation
and Management of Pollinators for Sustainable
Agriculture Through an Ecosystem Approach,
under the auspices of FAO and GEF, will require
an intensive use of IT on the development of its
four components. The preliminary phase of the
project, the PDF-B phase, will provide an
opportunity to review, identify and analyze
gaps on the technology regarding its application
to the PIs. The full-size project that will
subsequently be developed may accommodate
part of that development.
According to what was presented, software
tools seem to be the most widely used
components. Websites for various purposes
were reported for all PIs though their content
and complexity differed significantly. In some
cases, simple webpages are used to convey
project information, educational information,
etc. Despite that simplicity, their effectiveness
is acknowledged and they fulfill some basic
needs of the developers and users.
At a higher level, there are the databases
that can be accessed via Internet. Specimen
information from biological collections at
museums, for instance, is being digitized and is
increasingly available on-line. Though the percentage
of the specimens of the known world’s
collections that is already available on-line is
small, that number is increasing consistently
and some international and global efforts in
that direction were mentioned. It was stressed
the need to join and to strengthen that digitization
effort, which faces many difficulties
related to funding and data ownership.
This brings up the problem of the integration
of all that data. Such integration is important
for many different purposes, such as for
building a global catalogue of life on Earth (such
as the Catalogue of Life, from Species 2000 and
ITIS ), and for creating checklists of species and
resolving naming problems. Further use of integrated
data is made by analysis software, such
as that for modeling species distribution, extinction
risk, and protection strategies. Analyses
tools are of utmost importance as they can be
used to guide the development of environmental
public policies on a more solid foundation.
This integration requires the use of standards
and protocols for data exchange. These
standards are under development with the
support of institutions such as GBIF, TDWG,
among others, with the participation of
groups from many countries. This is another
area that needs more support, as it is essential
to allow more seamless access to and share of
biological data. It was suggested that FAO and
GEF should participate of that effort. An example
of the use of those standards to integrate
different sources via internet was presented at
the SpeciesLink project .
As the use of such information increases
in its complexity, more tools are necessary to
allow automation of many of the boring and
repetitive tasks.
An important part of the remote access to
data is related to bibliography. An on–line peerreviewed
journal on pollinators and pollination
is being designed within the BPI, and it was
suggested that this journal should be supported
within the FAO/GEF project. Such a journal
would both facilitate information exchange
and encourage research and publications on
pollinators, especially in the developing countries.
Much research on pollinators and pollination
in developing has been traditionally done
in a haphazard manner, and often the results
are not readily accessible. A specific journal on
pollinators would both provide means to guide
and improve such research, through examples
and through peer review, and would also facilitate
publication of such information.