Liang said the GFBI model works because it addresses two core issues surrounding data sharing — motivation and means. Once data is handed over, its developers often lose control and often don’t get credit for their work. The GFBI requires those who use shared data pools to include the original data contributors as co-authors for research papers or in the acknowledgements. It also offers an easy cyberinfrastructure for uploading data to one central location for use by hundreds of initiative members.
“We’re interested in answering questions about the amount of carbon being fixed in plants, the change of biodiversity in forests each year and other questions that require large amounts of data from all over the world,” Liang said. “We’ve developed a database that is easy to use and benefits both those sharing the data and those using it. We think the model has worked well so far and see a great opportunity to work with the FAO to add further data that can become available to government officials, scientists and non-governmental organizations around the world.”
García Pérez, the first author of the article, believes that increased data sharing can spur more action on forests and more clearly articulate their role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Showing changes on a global level and areas in which change can be made can better focus and motivate private interests and non-governmental organizations, García Pérez said.
“It is time to open the forest data and work together to come up with better models so society and governments can come up with better solutions for climate actions,” he said. “Meanwhile, it is important that open databases follow standards to minimize misuse and misinterpretation.”
Moving forward, the authors point to ongoing FAO efforts to establish interactive platforms and dashboards for accessing global forest data through a project focused on increasing transparency in the forest sector; the development of open source tools, such as the OpenForis initiative, to facilitate data collection, analysis and reporting; and continued efforts to create agreements with countries around the world to share their forest data.
“FAO and the GFBI Hub at Purdue are working together to publish more forest data to strengthen our collective efforts to identify and apply solutions for forests as key responses to the climate emergency,” Liang said.
