The Centre for Biodiversity and Natural Products (CBNP) hosts a number of Natural History collections of significance from Papua New Guinea. These collections include a herbarium, entomology, mammalogy/zoology and fish.
Currently each collection operates independently with its own databasing system—mostly as record cards/catalogue or simple digital records using Microsoft Access or MS Excel. The proposed project aims to organise all these collections and employ a standard databasing system, and link it to other natural history collections within the country, for example, the National Herbarium in Lae (LAE), which is the biggest in the Pacific and houses about 300,000 plant specimens, the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port Moresby, which houses significant anthropological and archaeological collections, and Government Agencies such as Conservation and Environment Protection Authority and PNG Forest Authority.
Overall, the mobilization of the natural history collections will ensure a bigger, user-friendly database; to incorporate the traditional collection or species record cards system, specimen images and geo-referencing. Thus, the project envisaged a standalone server with good back-up system (internal and external). The data mobilisation will involve training for data entry, data cleaning and data management. Final year students from the University of Papua New Guinea will be engaged as part of their job training and capacity building, to enter data in the respective collections. Staff in each collection will also be trained by data basing experts, e.g., someone who is familiar with data entry, cleaning and management in their work.
Project progress
The project has successfully been closed, with key achivements acomplished:
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Data mobilization and enhancement for project lead who was awarded a basic badge, and another one for project staff who were awarded certificates for successfully completing the training before they started the data mobilization work. This training has provided the necessary skills and tools for the collection managers to confidently commence their data work in their respective collections. Additionally, the project lead was able to guide them in their daily data work with the skills she learnt from GBIF,
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GIS and Remote Sensing – this course was very useful for our data management, and biodiversity work. The skills and tools will be used to determine the distribution of flora and fauna of our country, and to be able to establish a good understanding of distribution patterns to inform policy makers, conservationists and the community at large.
