BIC-Plants Unit Strengthens and Expands the National Data Base on Plant Diversity Information


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Category: Articles
Date Posted: 2005-12-28

In response to the numerous inquiries and requests received from various sectors of the Philippine community such as government agencies (Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Protected Areas and wildlife Bureau, Forest Management Bureau, Department of Science and Technology, National Academy of Science and Technology, Department of Agriculture, Department of Health, Department of Tourism), academic and research institutions (University of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas, De La Salle University, Philippine Central Mindanao University, Siliman University, University of San Carlos, etc), environmental NGOs, local government units, protected area managers and staff, teachers, students and the public, in general, the Biodiversity Information Center-Plants is expanding and strengthening its present computerized plant database to provide a comprehensive-up-to-date information pertaining to Plants of the Philippines.

Now officially known as the National DataBase on Philippine Plants, or its shorter name of Philippine Plant Base, it is set up at the BIC-Plants Unit office and managed by D.A. Madulid and the BIC staff. With partial financing from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the National Museum, the Philippine Plant Base is the most comprehensive and largest database on plant information in the country. Compilation of the database actually started in 1990 as part of the Flora of the Philippine Project and the Collections Management Project supported by the MacArthur Foundation. It is divided into various subjects that are linked to each other for easy access. The database includes: plant species base (including all groups of plants from algae, mosses, fungi, ferns and fern allies, gymnosperms, and angiosperms) estimated at more than 15,000 species just for Philippine taxa alone when completed; specimen database comprised of more than 200,000 specimens deposited at the Philippine National Herbarium and more than 80,000 specimens from other local and foreign herbaria; rare, endemic, and threatened flora database which is based on the latest IUCN categories (about 3,000+ species); bibliography on taxonomy and plant conservation research (more than 2,000 titles already compiled); local/vernacular plant-names (more than 45,000 names already entered); Philippine the register (about 300 actual type specimens in the PNH and more than 1000 photographs of Philippine types from various herbaria abroad currently scanned and indexed); geographical distribution database (more than 1,000 localities already entered).

The Philippine Plant Base is linked to the Website of the International Organization for Plant Information, a Commission of the International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) and the Species 2000. D.A. Madulid is a Council Member of IOPI and provides data on Philippine plants. The PPB is mentioned in the IOPI Database of Plant Databases and the Global Plant Checklist. Its data is also linked to the World Conservation Monitoring Center, Cambridge, U.K. of which D.A. Madulid has been an active collaborator since the early 1980s.