Interests in biosphere data

The New Zealand Biological Heritage Science Challenge and the NEXT Foundation have co-funded our Data Commons work due to their interest in the potential for improved data reuse and integration to support the coordination and mobilisation of efforts to sustain New Zealand’s ecosystem.

There are two principal areas of endeavour for these two communities. At the superset level is the interest of the scientific and conservation community in monitoring the health of New Zealand’s bioheritage and biosecurity. Within this is a Community of Interest in Predator Free New Zealand who have a restoration focus. We think that there is enough overlapping interest to treat these both as a single case study. This is because much of the data will be of interest to both parties if it can be shared and is likely to be collected and used for a range of ecology, science, and conservation projects.

Note also that the Predator Free and bioheritage interests may overlap with biosecurity and border security interests and primary sector and economic interests in detecting and stopping invasive pests.

The co-producers of value and insight and consumers of biosphere data include:

• Scientists, conservationists, philanthropists, the Department of Conservation, the Ministry for the Environment, citizen volunteers, and NGO groups with a professional interest in ecology and pest eradication.

• Recreational users of the natural environment such as tourists, trampers, hunters, and watersports enthusiasts.

• The primary sector, as it interacts with ecology, bioheritage, pest eradication, and farming and agriculture interests.

• Government in general: the benefit of success in the 2050 objective will be to achieve a long-run reduction in pest eradication liability. There are also national-level economic, health, and environmental goods to be gained through effective management of the ecosystem.