The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)

GBIF is an international organisation that is working to make the world's biodiversity data accessible anywhere in the world.  The GBIF network allows providers of biodiversity information to extend their reach by promoting their data using international data standards.  GBIF currently serves over 100 million species "occurrence records" through our data portal http://data.gbif.org. This term refers to two broad classes of data:  field observation records of living specimens and specimen data originating in natural history collections.  Both of these data types carry critical geographic, temporal and taxonomic information that serves to place a species at a particular location at a particular time.  Collectively, these data represent  the primary basis of understanding species distribution and their changes over time.

The GBIF work programme includes the Electronic Catalog of Names of Known Organisms (ECAT).  ECAT seeks to develop an integrated catalog of names for all the worlds species.  This catalog includes all currently accepted forms of species names as well as all previous taxon names.  Given the global and historic scope of data mobilized within the GBIF network, all of these names are represented within the network.   A global checklist of bees provides an expert vocabulary for accessing the total GBIF-mobilized dataset and retrieving those records that pertain to bees.  A classification of valid taxa allows these data to be organized and browsed in a biologically intuitive manner. 

 GBIF has provided support for a number of international meetings in support of the development of a global bee checklist.  It supports the development of this site in partnership with EDIT and has supported the revision of a provisional global checklist in partnership with the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS).