Electronic Information Systems

The SABONET project has provided all participating countries with computers, training, and software to allow databasing of herbarium collections. The software (PRECIS) is appropriate to countries’ needs. South Africa’s NBI (now SANBI) has provided considerable support. SABONET has also provided resources to check data quality.

Initially, data capture was slow due to the following:

Lack of resources directed towards IT support in the beginning.

Difficulty in employing suitable persons to support PRECIS other than in South Africa.

Lack of IT management skills.

Data capturers attending courses.

No working relationship between institutions and local service providers.

Non-compliance of existing databases with PRECIS (at two institutions), implying that approximately 5,000 specimens had to be re-entered. Most problems, however, have now been solved.

Databasing works best in the institutions where IT is supported, either by a staff member or local service provider (LSP). But LSPs often have a high staff turnover or are situated some distance from participating institutions.

The low implementation capacity of some institutions means staff were unable to develop sufficient IT skills owing to other work pressures. Implementation of PRECIS is sustainable, but there are concerns whether it applies to institutions that lack the necessary IT skills.

Approximately 200,000 specimens have been databased as a direct result of the project. The mean rate is 11 specimens per data capturer per working day. However, databasing of national collections will not be completed in all institutions before the end of the project. The Poaceae was the priority target group, but otherwise no clear strategy was designed for prioritising data capture. This is important for institutions that will not complete databasing during the project. Databasing of grasses is likely to be completed by all countries by the end of the project.

Production of distribution maps has been identified as a priority, but some countries cannot produce these and will need further assistance. There is also a concern over the quality of geo-referenced data. Some countries only have geo-referenced data for some specimens, others only provide Quarter Degree Grid resolution. There is a need for point data in all the institutions. There is also no clarity concerning priorities: some countries try to database as many specimens as they can; others devote resources to capture quality information to enable mapping.

There is a lack of clarity or understanding of the division of labour between SECOSUD and SABONET, particularly for databasing and mapping. There is a danger that SECOSUD and SABONET will compete for the same resources of time and expertise, particularly in smaller institutions and in the central PRECIS support unit at the NBI (now SANBI).

The SABONET project intends to pool the data gathered during the project to analyse the information on a regional basis. Such regional data is an important resource. Sharing information highlights other issues such as data ownership and control of use. A draft bilateral agreement between the NBI and the National Herbarium of Namibia (WIND) has been drawn up.

The following recommendations were made:

A strategy outlining databasing priorities must be produced. It is suggested that countries focus on increasing the quality of their data to allow accurate mapping. Latitude and longitude details should be added where possible. Proposals to database additional taxa should demonstrate the importance of the activity to the broader botanical community. Red Data Listed taxa could be given priority.

SABONET should support the ability to produce distribution maps from PRECIS. However, SABONET should not allocate resources to further GIS research, leaving this element to SECOSUD. There needs to be a clear division of resources between the two projects.

A regional databasing strategy is needed. The aim of pooling data from all countries needs to be clarified and a product identified. This will help guide the databasing priorities. This strategy should also include data security and the management of data.

The draft data-sharing agreement between WIND and the NBI should be completed. This document can then serve as a model to facilitate regional projects, which can highlight to the region the use and relevance of information held in the national institutes.

The data-sharing agreement should be used by SABONET to influence governments to ensure that legislation covers access to genetic resources and that information derived from them is practical and does not impede cross-border scientific research. This will assist countries to develop protocols and memoranda of sharing.

For future projects, it should be ensured that PRECIS can accept data transferred using international data standards, such as HISPID. This will maximise data input, allow transfer of data to other regions, and facilitate future transfer to GIS.

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