Costa Rica News – Do you want to learn more about Costa Rica’s biodiversity, then this is the place to go online.
Costa Rica, which is home to 5 percent of the world’s biodiversity, has created an online atlas of its natural wealth.
“Free, no-cost access to data and information on the country’s biodiversity aims to support research, education and conservation,” National Institute of Biodiversity researcher Maria Mora said during the presentation of the atlas, known as CRBio.
With versions in both Spanish and English, the CRBio Web site includes more than 6 million records of species sightings, upwards of 50,000 images and roughly 5,000 detailed descriptions of Costa Rican flora and fauna.
The CRBio Web site uses special software originally developed for the Atlas of Living Australia and the Global Biodiversity Information System.
The atlas offers a complete virtual tour of Costa Rica.
While the National Institute of Biodiversity provided about 60 percent of the information available the CRBio, the project also drew heavily on the work of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, with the remaining data coming from some 160 institutions in 34 countries.
