Sistema Nacional de Información sobre Biodiversidad (SNIB)

Overview

The SNIB (Sistema Nacional de Información sobre Biodiversidad) is Mexico's National Biodiversity Information System, managed by the Comisión Nacional para el Conocimiento y Uso de la Biodiversidad (CONABIO). It functions as a national scientific data repository and distribution platform compiling, organizing, and publishing primary data on the biological diversity of Mexico — one of the world's most biodiverse nations.

History and Founding

CONABIO was created in 1992 by presidential decree under President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to coordinate efforts on biodiversity knowledge. The mandate to establish the SNIB was formalized in the Ley General del Equilibrio Ecológico y la Protección Ambiental (LGEEPA, Article 80, Section V), which required the establishment of a national biodiversity information system. From its inception, CONABIO adopted a model based on primary specimen data — individual biological specimens held in scientific collections — as the backbone of the system, supplemented by observational records and geographic data. The system has continuously expanded through funding partnerships with hundreds of national and international research institutions.

Collections and Holdings

As of 2025, the SNIB contains approximately 47,958,578 presence records covering 118,092 species in its taxonomic catalogs; technical species accounts for over 3,700 native Mexican species and more than 1,300 exotic species; more than 18,000 maps of species distributions and land cover; and over 620,000 satellite imagery files and 155,000 photographs of species and ecosystems. These data derive from 994 funded research projects producing 1,177 individual databases integrated into the system over its history.

Access and Usage

The SNIB is freely accessible online through its geoportal at snib.mx, which allows queries and downloads by geographic region (state, municipality, protected area, watershed, ecoregion), taxonomic group, or funded project. All data are published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license compatible with Mexico's open data policy. The geoportal also links to companion platforms including EncicloVida, a public-facing species encyclopedia, and Naturalista, a citizen science observation platform.