Info Links to Belizean Species.

• Author: Hardman, Chris
• Position: Brief Article

INFORMATION CAN be a powerful conservation tool, and with today's computer technology, information can be stored, accessed, and compiled more quickly and efficiently than ever before. Wildlife Conservation Society biologists Bruce and Carolyn Miller have taken full advantage of current technology and created the most comprehensive natural history database ever compiled for the country of Belize.

The Belize Biodiversity Information System (BBIS) links a series of databases with information about species location, habitats, and abundance for plants and animals endemic to Belize.

"Today we have somewhere in excess of 350,000 records in the system," says Bruce Miller.

Primarily used by Belizean conservation organizations and Belizean governmental departments, the BBIS generates reports that can be very general or very specific. For example, if an organization needs to know all the places in the country where armadillos live, the BBIS can provide the answer.

All of the data in the system have come from years of field research by the Millers and many other biologists. The Millers began the project in 1995 when the Belize government asked them for help with the National Protected Areas Management Plan. The Millers were charged with the daunting task of compiling a list of species for seventy-eight areas of conservation concern. To manage the data, Bruce Miller created a database similar to the one Virginia Tech's Conservation Management Institute uses for U.S. federal agencies.

Since then, the BBIS has grown in use and importance. By linking the textual database to a geographic information system (GIS), the BBIS can be used not only to describe where species live, but also to predict what species might...