SiB Colombia Biodiversidad.co (Sistema de Información sobre Biodiversidad de Colombia)

Overview

SiB Colombia (Sistema de Información sobre Biodiversidad de Colombia) is Colombia's national open data network for biodiversity information. Accessible through its main portal, Biodiversidad.co, SiB Colombia provides free and open access to data and information about Colombia's biological diversity. It is Colombia's official node in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and is coordinated by the Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt (Humboldt Institute).

History and Founding

SiB Colombia was established by Decree 1603 of 1994 as part of the creation of the National Environmental System (SINA) under Law 99 of 1993. Active coordination began in the early 2000s under the Humboldt Institute. The network grew to encompass over 100 partner organizations, including universities, biological collections, research institutes, environmental authorities, NGOs, and citizen science initiatives. Funding comes principally from the Colombian National Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development through the Humboldt Institute.

Collections and Holdings

The portal provides access to millions of biodiversity occurrence records, species lists, taxonomic checklists, and metadata from partner institutions across Colombia. Holdings include records from biological collections, field surveys, remote sensing, and citizen science projects. SiB Colombia manages a national GBIF-compatible data infrastructure and publishes open datasets on species distributions, conservation status, and ecosystem data. It also operates an integrated publishing toolkit (IPT) for partner organizations.

Access and Usage

The Biodiversidad.co portal allows users to search, filter, visualize, and download biodiversity data by taxon, geography, or institution. Data are published under open access and Creative Commons licenses. SiB Colombia provides training resources through its campus virtual and guidance on data management, privacy, and research ethics. Governance is provided by a Directive Committee (CD-SiB) representing partner ministries and research institutes, supported by a Technical Committee and coordinating team.