BERDS Newsletter Vol 1, No. 2<br/>
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Dear BERDS participant:<br/>
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Many things have happened since the last newsletter in February. The idea was to produce a quarterly newsletter, but three months pass by so quickly. Sorry for the delay.
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A few interesting highlights of the very busy and productive past 4 months:
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BERDS is now being regularly indexed by Google which has resulted into a tripling of the number of monthly visits. It has also lead to more requests from international users. Most of these requests deal with mapping data, both shapefiles and satellite imagery.
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Clearly the site is being used as a spatial resource. Random observations at various international meetings confirm the use of BERDS. Increasingly, we see maps being displayed in PowerPoint presentations that were downloaded from the mapping section of BERDS. This is evidence that BERDS has proven a useful resource base for those both in and outside of Belize.
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NEW PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
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BERDS has a new "promotional" feature which is an automated RSS syndicated news service. If you want to know what that means, have a look at the homepage, look in the lower left-hand corner and there you see a "sticker" with the latest 'clickable' news items.
<br/>==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/about/newsletter/
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In April:
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BERDS was featured in the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association Newsletter.
<br/>==> http://www.gsdi.org/newsletters/SDILACv3n4English.pdf
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BERDS was featured in the Neotropical Newsletter for the Society for Conservation Biology
<br/>==> http://www.conbio.org/Publications/NeoCons/archives/Vol6No2-Abril-Abril-Avril-April2006.cfm
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In May:
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BERDS presented at the Belize Natural Resources Week. Our theme was "BERDS as an Educational Tool". Three posters were produced for this purpose. You can find the posters in the resources section. One of the hardcopy posters was actually stolen from the display!  BERDS takes that as a compliment!
<br/>==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/find/resource/profile.phtml?dcid=40604
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In June:
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BERDS was featured as 'Best Lessons Learned' on the Rainforest Alliance's EcoIndex website
<br/>==> http://www.eco-index.org/new/lessons/new.cfm?projectID=992
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BERDS held a User Workshop for the Belize Audubon Society, a new sponsoring member
<br/>==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/find/orgs/profile.phtml?dcid=4
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All of this is nice, of course, but what has changed in BERDS that is of use to you and your organisation?
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NEW BIOLOGICAL DATASETS:
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- More than 40,000 data records now reside in the BERDS database, of which more than 39,000 are specimen data.  BERDS now allows for the inclusion of literature-based historical specimen records.
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- In a continuous effort to keep BERDS accurate, scientific nomenclature used on the site has been adjusted to reflect changes in the 2006 IUCN Red List:
<br/>==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/find/resource/profile.phtml?dcid=40035
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- Many new documents and biodiversity datasets have been added. There are too many to list, but here are a few select examples:
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     New 'Compilation of Information on Biodiversity in Belize' document released for InBIO/
     Forest Dept co-funded study
    <br/> ==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/find/resource/profile.phtml?dcid=37547
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    Incorporation of important literature-based specimen data including those on the 
    Morelet's Crocodile (based on the 1996 report by Steven Platt)
    <br/>==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/find/species/profile/profile.phtml?species_id=253
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NEW SPATIAL DATASETS:
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New spatial data for Turneffe Atoll.  Every GIS user is aware of the inaccuracies of the existing GIS base files for the outer atolls. At least the Turneffe Atoll Baseline data (boundaries) have now been updated using a 2004 Landsat image and are now correct up to a scale of 1:50,000. You can download this shapefile for free.
<br/>==>http://www.biodiversity.bz/find/resource/profile.phtml?dcid=39979
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New spatial data for the New River Lagoon. Free download.
<br/>==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/find/resource/profile.phtml?dcid=40608
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The 2006 fire season data from NASA Modis satellite imagery has been added to the Map Explorer.
<br/>==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/mapping/map_explorer/
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New version of Ecosystems dataset. Major improvements to the Turneffe Atoll dataset have been made. It is also available as a download.
<br/>==> http://www.biodiversity.bz/mapping/map_explorer/
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NEW PARTNERSHIPS:
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BERDS welcomes the Belize Audubon Society, the University of Calgary and the Nature Conservancy as new Sponsoring Members and the UN Clearing-House Mechanism, Cathalac/SERVIR and the Invasive Species Specialist Group as new Collaborating Networks.
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In June, BERDS began a collaboration with the Global Invasive Species Database (part of the IUCN/SSC Invasive Species Specialist Group) to update various invasive species entries both on BERDS and on the GISD. It is now possible to search for GISD database entries from within our species profiles. We are also exploring possibilities for co-funding a joint-invasive species project for Belize.
<br/>==> http://www.issg.org/database
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BERDS is now in the process of becoming a member of the NatureServe Network. Talks were held in early June and the formal paperwork is in process.
<br/>==> http://www.natureserve.org
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In conjunction with Conservation International's Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund, BERDS is exploring funding opportunities related to threatened and endangered species in Belize.
<br/>==> http://www.cepf.net/xp/cepf/
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Last but not least, BERDS is now in discussion with the Wildlife Conservation Society to fully incorporate the Belize Biodiversity Information System (BBIS) into BERDS. This is a very exciting development as this will lead to a richer, more comprehesive knowledge experience enhanced by BERDS geospatial technologies. Keep your eyes peeled!
<br/>==> http://fwie.fw.vt.edu/wcs/
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All good news, but help BERDS become even better by adding your own data & documents to BERDS. Only as a 'team' can we make the system really useful to you and your organisation!
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Thanks in advance for your contributions.
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Jan Meerman<br/>
Director<br/>
BERDS<br/>
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