Brazil to digitalize Amazonian biodiversity with help of IBM

English.news.cn 2011-06-16 10:08:55

BRASILIA, June 15 (Xinhua) -- The Brazilian government signed a partnership agreement with IBM on Wednesday, which will enable Brazil to digitalize information on Amazonian biodiversity with the help of the U.S. company.

"We need to make a digital encyclopedia of Amazonian biodiversity," said Brazilian Minister of Science and Technology Aloizio Mercadante, who signed the agreement here with IBM Brazil president Ricardo Pelegrini.

The project, called Wikiflora, aims to allow the research community such as scientists and teachers to share knowledge and findings on biological diversity by the model of "citizen science", similar to Wikipedia.

Brazil has strong IT infrastructure to do the project, said the Ministry.

The project was proposed by Mercadante after he visited earlier this year the forest reserve Adolpho Ducke, an experimental base of research and development on sustainable exploitation.

Sphere: Related Content