Abstract: 
Ecology is a synthetic discipline benefiting from open access to data from the earth, life, and social sciences. Technological challenges exist, however, due to the dispersed and heterogeneous nature of these data. Standardization of methods and development of robust metadata can increase data access but are not sufficient. Reproducibility of analyses is also important, and executable workflows are addressing this issue by capturing data provenance. Sociological challenges, including inadequate rewards for sharing data, must also be resolved. The establishment of well-curated, federated data repositories will provide a means to preserve data while promoting attribution and acknowledgement of its use.
Conservation Commons
Principles of the Conservation Commons:
1-Open Access: Promotes free and open access to data, information and knowledge for conservation purposes.
2-Mutual Benefit: Welcomes and encourages participants both to use resources and to contribute data, information and knowledge.
3-Rights and Responsibilities: Contributors have full right to attribution for any uses of their data, information, or knowledge, and the right to ensure that the original integrity of their contribution to the Commons is preserved. Users of the Conservation Commons are expected to comply, in good faith, with terms of uses specified by contributors and in accordance with these Principles.
Search Our Archives:
View Comments 
There are several new and updated species distribution datasets available for download from the Red List website, including many marine groups like Angelfish and Butterfly fish. All Mangroves and Seagrasses have also been posted. Other than that, many species within the Amphibians and the Mammals group have also been updated. Distribution data is now available for about 20,000 species.
A new international body aimed at reversing the unprecedented loss of species and ecosystems vital to life on Earth due to human activity has passed its final hurdle with approval by the United Nations General Assembly. In a resolution adopted by consensus, the Assembly yesterday called on the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) to take the necessary steps to set up the Intergovernmental Science Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the final approval needed for the body for which the groundwork had been laid at UNEP-sponsored meetings earlier this year. "IPBES represents a major breakthrough in terms of organizing a global response to the loss of living organisms and forests, freshwaters, coral reefs and other ecosystems that underpin all life, including economic life, on Earth," UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner said today. 
During a plenary meeting held yesterday in New-York, the United Nations 65th General Assembly (UNGA) approved the creation of an Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). 
The Global Coral Disease Database (GCDD) is an online database for coral disease information, providing interactive maps and dynamic statistics of world-wide coral disease distribution, highly customizable search options and a number of supporting functions, including guidance on survey methods. 
The copyright system is hopelessly unsuited to the twenty-first century and needs major reform, says Lawrence Lessig. 
Influential copyright scholar Larry Lessig yesterday issued a call for the World Intellectual Property Organization to lead an overhaul of the copyright system which he says does not and never will make sense in the digital environment. A functioning copyright system must provide the incentives needed for creative professionals, but must also protect the freedoms necessary for scientific research and amateur creativity to flourish.
A new website have launched in Nagoya today – The A-Z of areas of biodiversity importance – 
Since its creation in 1979 WCMC has produced well over 1500 books and reports. These include both published documents and ‘grey’ literature, commissioned reports and items in the public domain. UNEP-WCMC has selected 380 of the most important books and reports from this collection, and has worked with the Biodiversity Heritage Library to make these freely available online.
