UNEP-WCMC

(UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre)

Tim Wilkinson <tim.wilkinson@unep-wcmc.org>

proposal

Strategic Selection

Some species are endangered, but not very genetically interesting, while some very interesting species are (fortunately) rather common. International legislation and conservation efforts should be prioritised accordingly, but there is so much data to be taken into account that it is hard to decide where to expend one’s efforts.The http://www.speciesplus.net/ application provides taxonomy, legislation, distribution and trade information on controlled species (which you can search filter and download), and the Trade Database, http://trade.cites.org/ gives historic trade data on all animals traded and which are covered under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). Your task is to create an evolutionary family tree that, rather than emphasising natural selection, helps users navigate toward branches of the tree that need strategic selection.

early ideas

We work on data visualisations, on-line geospatial mapping and taxonomic databases, generally focused on trying to communicate complex data to non-specialists (policy & decision makers), so we believe in taking a strong user centred development approach to our work.

In terms of taxonomic databases a good place to start would be our http://www.speciesplus.net/ application which lists taxonomy, legislation, distribution and trade information on controlled species (which you can search filter and download), and the Trade Database, http://trade.cites.org/ which gives historic trade data on all animals traded and which are covered under the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). Again, you can filter and download this data freely.