How can we employ networks of cooperative observers and new technologies to map the geographical distribution of all species on earth to maximize their conservation?

Global biodiversity is being lost today at an unknown rate – unknown because there are not enough field biologists, nor funds, to support the required field expeditions to many parts of the world to document the existing biodiversity. Existing procedures prevent mapping the geographical distribution of all species on the planet with sufficient detail to determine the minimum areas needed for preserving a major fraction of the remaining diversity. Suitably-trained scientists and support staff cannot be increased fast enough to carry out such work in any reasonable time. However, it may be possible to enormously extend the reach of the research community through recent technical developments that include 1) the global expansion of the Internet 2) the widespread adoption of digital cameras by the general public, and 3) increasingly accurate knowledge of where pictures are taken – using GPS and GOOGLE Earth –type technology. It should be possible to rapidly increase the documentation of existing biodiversity and biological landscapes through the development of a digital photographic archive produced by individuals around the globe. All images could be made publicly available in a manner similar to those of current online digital imagery archives. Individuals might send digital photos with relatively detailed documentation to a central website, where they would then be forwarded to specialists who would attempt to identify them and, if needed, communicate further with the photographers. Scanned slides could also be sought out since these offer a valuable historical record of landscapes. The global research community would effectively have a greatly expanded team of international collaborators. The main problems to implementing such an idea would be the need for volunteer help in sorting the large number of images likely to be submitted, the guiding of photographers towards priority subjects, and help in maintaining the database.

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