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Premise The field of biodiversity informatics has developed rapidly in recent years, with broad availability of large‐scale information resources. However, online biodiversity information is biased spatially as a result of slow and uneven capture and digitization of existing data resources. The West African Plants Initiative approach to data capture is a prototype of a novel solution to the problems of the traditional model, in which the institutional “owner” of the specimens is responsible for digital capture of associated data. Methods We developed customized workflows for data capture in formats directly and permanently useful to the “owner” herbarium, and digitized significant numbers of new biodiversity records, adding to the information available for the plants of the region. Results In all, 190,953 records of species in 1965 genera and 331 families were captured by mid‐2018. These data records covered 16 West African countries, with most of the records (10,000–99,999) from Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, and Cameroon, and the fewest data records from Mauritania (<100 records). The West African Plants Initiative has increased available digital accessible knowledge records for West African plants by about 54%. Several of the project institutions have put initial project data online as part of their Global Biodiversity Information Facility data contributions. The average cost of data capture ranged from US$0.50−1.00 per herbarium sheet. Discussion Data capture has been cost‐effective because it is much less expensive than de novo field collections, allows for development of information resources even for regions in which political situations make contemporary field sampling impossible, and provides a historical baseline against which to compare newer data as they become available. This new paradigm in specimen digitization has considerable promise to accelerate and improve the process of generating high‐quality biodiversity information, and can be replicated and applied in many biodiversity‐rich, information‐poor regions to remedy the present massive gaps in information availability.

Technology is transforming societies worldwide. A major innovation is the emergence of robotics and autonomous systems (RAS), which have the potential to revolutionize cities for both people and nature. Nonetheless, the opportunities and challenges associated with RAS for urban ecosystems have yet to be considered systematically. Here, we report the findings of an online horizon scan involving 170 expert participants from 35 countries. We conclude that RAS are likely to transform land use, transport systems and human–nature interactions. The prioritized opportunities were primarily centred on the deployment of RAS for the monitoring and management of biodiversity and ecosystems. Fewer challenges were prioritized. Those that were emphasized concerns surrounding waste from unrecovered RAS, and the quality and interpretation of RAS-collected data. Although the future impacts of RAS for urban ecosystems are difficult to predict, examining potentially important developments early is essential if we are to avoid detrimental consequences but fully realize the benefits. The future challenges and potential opportunities of robotics and autonomous systems in urban ecosystems, and how they may impact biodiversity, are explored and prioritized via a global horizon scan of 170 experts.

The label transcription and imaging of specimens in key African herbaria has been ongoing since the early 2000s. Many collections in Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Guinea Conakry, and Togo are now fully transcribed and partially digitized. More than 200 000 transcribed specimens are available with the following distribution: Benin: 45 000 Cameroon: 70 000 Côte d’Ivoire: 18 000 Gabon: 70 000 Guinea Conakry: 5 000 Togo: 15 000 Benin: 45 000 Cameroon: 70 000 Côte d’Ivoire: 18 000 Gabon: 70 000 Guinea Conakry: 5 000 Togo: 15 000 In April 2021, a BID project was started to deliver a regional data platform of West and Central African herbaria. Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) is a multi-year programme funded by the European Union and led by GBIF with the aim of enhancing capacity for effective mobilization and use of biodiversity data in research and policy in the 'ACP' nations of sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. Our project's funding runs from April 2021 to April 2023. At this stage of the project, we are working on defining the information technology (IT) architecture (Fig. 1) and selecting the tools that we will be using to achieve our goals. In the talk, we will present our conclusions through architecture schemas and tools demonstrations. Each of the 6 countries will have its own PostgreSQL database, storing its data. They will also have access to the RIHA data management platform (Réseau Informatique des Herbiers d'Afrique / Digital Network of African Herbaria). This is a web application, developed in PHP, allowing full management of the data by herbarium administrators (Fig. 2). An Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) will fetch these herbaria data from the databases, create the Darwin Core archives, and connect these data automatically to gbif.org on a periodic basis (Fig. 3). On the databases, we will use a PostgreSQL view to ease conversion from the RIHA data model to the Darwin Core model. On the IPT, we will create one dataset per country, linked to each PostgreSQL view. The SQL query will be configured to only fetch validated data, depending on the herbarium administrator's validation in the RIHA platform. The automatic and periodic data transmission to gbif.org is a feature available in the IPT, and recently improved by the GBIF France team, which contributes to the IPT development. Another part of the automatic data workflow will be to feed a Living Atlases portal for the West and Central African herbaria. This web application will allow public users to search, display and download herbaria data from West and Central Africa (Fig. 4). Internally, this Living Atlases application will reuse open source modules developed by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). The application is mainly written in Java, uses JQuery/Bootstrap for the interface and relies on SolR and Spark in the backend. It has been developed to be easily reusable, by only modifying configuration and doing web customization (HTML / CSS), hiding most of the backend technological complexity. The automatic data workflow will transfer datasets generated by the IPT, in Darwin Core Archive format, to the Living Atlases portal backend. A technical task orchestrator, yet to be selected, will implement this feature. Living Atlases subportals, limited to data of one participating country, could be easily set up, leveraging the existing backend resources (Fig. 5). One of the benefits of the Living Atlases portal is that we can easily deploy additional front end applications with limited data, configured by a filter (here, a filter on the data owner country). Only configuration and web customization (HTML / CSS) are required. All the backend modules, especially the ones storing data, are shared by the multiple front-ends, limiting the hardware consumption and data administration. The full automation of the workflow will allow this platform to run at a very low maintenance cost for IT administrators. Moreover, adding a new herbarium member from West and Central Africa will be quite easy thanks to the architecture of the Integrated Publishing Toolkit and Living Atlases tools (Fig. 6).

GBIF Togo, hosted at the University of Lomé, has published more than 62,200 occurrence records from 37 datasets and checklists. As a node participant of Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) since 2011, it has participated actively in several projects including the Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) programme. GBIF facilitates collaboration between nodes at different levels through its Capacity Enhancement Support Programme (CESP). One of the actions included in the CESP guidelines is called ‘Mentoring activities’. Its main goal is the transfer of knowledge between partners, such as information, technologies, experience, and best practices. Sharing architecture and development is the key solution to solving some the technical challenges and impediments (e.g. hosting, staff turnover, etc.) that GBIF nodes occasionally face. The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) team have developed a feature called ‘data hub’, which allows the creation of a standalone website with a dedicated occurrence search engine that supports data discovery (e.g. specific genus, geographic area) published by particular GBIF nodes. In 2017, a CESP project between the GBIF Benin and the GBIF France led to the creation of a new portal: Atlas of Living Beninises. This portal shared the same back-end database as the Atlas of Living France portal, while at the same time, each portal displayed and managed information relevant only to its region. In 2018, another CESP project between GBIF France and GBIF Togo shared the same goal as the previous one: implement a new Atlas of Living Australia portal for Togo. This goal will be fulfilled using a similar implementation as the previous project: a shared back-end and different front-end. Togo will be the second African GBIF node to implement this kind of infrastructure. This poster will highlight the architecture specific to the Atlas of Living Togo, and present the management procedure that distinguishes data coming from the three different countries.

The field of biodiversity informatics has developed rapidly in recent years with broad availability of large-scale information resources. However, online biodiversity information are biased (Boakes et al. 2010, Stropp et al. 2016) as a result of the relatively slow capture and digitization of existing data resources. The West African Plants (WAP) initiative approach to data capture is a prototype of a novel solution to the challenge of the traditional model, in which the institutional “owner” of the specimens is responsible for digital capture of associated data. The WAP Initiative is a consortium of West African researchers in botany, in coordination with six institutions across Europe and North America; its goal is to digitize and mobilize available, high-quality, primary biodiversity occurrence data resources for West African plant diversity (http://jrsbiodiversity.org/grants/university-of-ghana-herbaria/). Here, we developed customized workflows for data capture in formats directly and permanently useful to the “owner” herbarium, and digitized significant new biodiversity records adding to the information available for the plants of the region. Data records were captured strictly in accordance with DarwinCore standards, achieved either by (a) capturing data records from existing images (e.g., images supplied by Naturalis Bodiversity Centre), or (b) capturing data from images taken quickly and efficiently by project personnel in West African Herbaria. Digitization of images and data began in 2015 in West African partner institutions, and by middle of 2018 resulted in 190,953 records of species in 1965 genera and 331 families from 16 West African countries (Fig. 1). Our approach is cost-effective, allows development of information resources even for regions in which political situations make it impossible, and it provides a historical context against which to compare newer data as the latter become available (Peterson et al. 2016). Further measures of success of the initiative will center on whether the institutions “owning” the specimens follow through and put the new data records online. Already, several project institutions have put initial project data online as part of their GBIF data contributions, but—of course—success would consist of all project-generated data being completely available online. Note that this model is the reverse of the traditional model, in which the institutions holding the specimens create the information resources that are used by the rest of the world. This new paradigm in specimen digitization has considerable promise to accelerate and improve the process of generating biodiversity information, and can be replicated and applied in many biodiversity-rich, information-poor regions to remedy the oft-cited massive gaps in information availability.

Biodiversity informatics has been characterized as a rapidly growing interdisciplinary field, which aims to bring together the areas of biodiversity and informatics. A study was conducted looking at the current level of activity within the GBIF Participant countries and its associated network in relation to work-based training and/or academic teaching at universities, in the field of biodiversity informatics. It was intended to get an overview of GBIF Node Managers, (hence, member countries), already engaged in developing course curricula, or in providing training, and whether they would be willing to share resources or enter into collaborations, to further elaborate this field of science. This investigation followed a survey approach, conducted globally across the GBIF community to identify the existing capacities and resources within the network. The results indicated that the vast majority of GBIF Nodes survey respondents, are engaged in onsite training activities in biodiversity informatics areas, with a focus on professionals, mostly researchers, policy makers and students. Training includes data digitization, management, publishing, analysis and use, to enable the accessibility of analogue and digital biological data which currently resides as scattered databases/datasets. A list containing the associated URL's for training and dissemination activities in GBIF Nodes has been developed, based on survey results, and will be presented. An initial assessment of the academic teaching activities indicated that many countries across most regions were already engaged in the conceptualisation, development and/or implementation of formal academic programs in biodiversity informatics including Benin, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, India, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and Togo. This study also identified that digital e-learning platforms were a very important tool to help build capacity in a number of countries. To assess the level of potential in the network to support academic teaching and work-based training, sixty percent indicated that they would be willing to be recruited or commissioned to support teaching activities, demonstrating the value of the Nodes network to support the development of biodiversity informatics globally. The contributions and activities of various nodes across the network will be highlighted and a working high-level curriculum framework will be discussed.

In April 2021, a Biodiversity Information for Development (BID) project was launched to deliver a regional data platform of West and Central African herbaria, which just concluded in April 2023. A dataset containing 168,545 herbarium specimens from 6 different countries: Togo, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Benin, Guinea Conakry and Cameroon, is now visible on the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) website and will be regularly updated. A checklist datatset (Radji 2023a) and an occurrence dataset (Radji 2023b) obtained from herbarium parts are also available on GBIF. In addition, a Living Atlases portal for herbaria in West and Central Africa has been created to allow users to search, display, filter, and download these data. This application reuses open source modules developed by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) community (Morin et al. 2021). In addition to that, the RIHA platform (Réseau Informatique des Herbiers d'Afrique / Digital Network of African Herbaria) enables herbarium administrators to manage their own data. Thanks to all these tools, the workflow (Fig. 1) for data publication on GBIF is carried out regularly and easily and the addition of new member herbaria from West and Central Africa can be easily incorporated.

This dataset contains information on the presence and distribution of sea turtles in Togo. Observations were carried out through a network of ten ecoguards (local guides), facilitated by five fishermen, and coordinated by a field technician, all under the supervision of a scientific coordinator. Data on the occurrence or direct observation of sea turtles on the Togolese coast from September 2012 to August 2013 is presented based on 740 occurrences.

Biodiversity informatics is a new and evolving field, requiring efforts to develop capacity and a curriculum for this field of science. The main objective was to summarise the level of activity and the efforts towards developing biodiversity informatics curricula, for work-based training and/or academic teaching at universities, taking place within the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) countries and its associated network. A survey approach was used to identify existing capacities and resources within the network. Most of GBIF Nodes survey respondents (80%) are engaged in onsite training activities, with a focus on work-based professionals, mostly researchers, policy-makers and students. Training topics include data mobilisation, digitisation, management, publishing, analysis and use, to enable the accessibility of analogue and digital biological data that currently reside as scattered datasets. An initial assessment of academic teaching activities highlighted that countries in most regions, to varying degrees, were already engaged in the conceptualisation, development and/or implementation of formal academic programmes in biodiversity informatics, including programmes in Benin, Colombia, Costa Rica, Finland, France, India, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan and Togo. Digital e-learning platforms were an important tool to help build capacity in many countries. In terms of the potential in the Nodes network, 60% expressed willingness to be recruited or commissioned for capacity enhancement purposes. Contributions and activities of various country nodes across the network have been highlighted and a working curriculum framework has been defined.

This article describes the herbarium database of the University of Lomé. The database provides a good representation of the current knowledge of the flora of Togo. The herbarium of University of Lomé, known also as Herbarium togoense is the national herbarium and is registered in Index Herbariorum with the abbreviation TOGO. It contains 15,000 specimens of vascular plants coming mostly from all Togo's ecofloristic regions. Less than one percent of the specimens are from neighbouring countries such as Ghana, Benin and Burkina Faso. Collecting site details are specified in more that 97% of the sheet labels, but only about 50% contain geographic coordinates. Besides being a research resource, the herbarium constitutes an educational collection. The dataset described in this paper is registered with GBIF and accessible at https://www.gbif.org/dataset/b05dd467-aaf8-4c67-843c-27f049057b78. It was developed with the RIHA software (Réseau Informatique des Herbiers d'Afrique). The RIHA system (Chevillotte and Florence 2006, Radji et al. 2009) allows the capture of label data and associated information such as synonyms, vernacular names, taxonomic hierarchy and references.