Towards transboundary access of nature observation data

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The project will promote transboundary access to nature observation data in three Central Baltic countries: Finland, Sweden and Estonia. Our goal is to use the joint potential of the national nature observation databases, including those covering the museum collections, and make their contents accessible to interested target groups in all the project countries. The project supports the development of national data bases in similar platforms and developing data exchange formats for common display of the data. The target groups who benefit from this project are teachers and students, naturalists (bird watchers, entomologists, geologists), and also civil servants working in the field on nature conservation or planning. The goal of the project is to support and encourage the knowledge of biological and geological diversity and to strenghthen the basis for transboundary co-operation on nature conservation and environmental education. Common data sets are not only valuable for those interested in nature, but they also support the transboundary social networks interested in studying and observing the natural diversity. The observations of grassroot level naturalists are valuable for analysing the patterns of migration of the organisms. Alongside the field observations, the museum collections provide a valuable insight to natural diversity. By attracting the interested people to follow the variability in the nature, there is better chance to communicate how science works, and how and why the fragile nature should be conserved. The three work packages focus on project management (WP1), data base development (including structure and contents) and IT support (WP2) and outreach and publicity activities (WP3). The overall management will govern and co-ordinate all the project activities and outsourced services. The development of data base structure and contents in WP2 will give outputs that will be promoted by the outreach activities of WP3, step by step. The planning is coordinated by project meetings, and permanent communication between the WP-s.

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