TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2000
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2000
Flora, fauna to be databased
TOKYO (AFP) - Japan is planning to build a database of 1.75 million species of fauna and flora, living in 12 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, a government official said Monday.A special feature of the database is that it will be capable of recognising the multiple scientific names used for any given species around the region, said Kazuo Ooba from the Environment Agency's nature conservation bureau.
"For the same species of creatures, each country has its own way of referring to them," he said. "The database is aimed at eliminating such confusion".
"The project will also allow us to learn how the same species of animals live in different countries in Asia," he added. "The database will advance our understanding of the biology of plants in Asia as well."
The database will cover Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.
The National Institute for Environmental Studies will start a fully-fledged computer network by 2005 to share information from the database on genes, habitats, populations and photos, Ooba said. Users of the network will be able to retrieve the information by entering any of the recognised scientific names for the species, he said.
The national institute in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, 50 kilometres (31 miles) northeast of Tokyo, is looking for 50 million yen (US$460,400) from the government out the fiscal 2001 budget to finance the project.
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