Since 2004, with funding from the US State Department, GBIF, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Group on Earth Observations, and others, an informal group of invasive species information managers have been developing standards and protocols to share information among diverse online databases. The Global Invasive Species Information Network, or GISIN (http://www.gisin.org), provides both draft standards (a proposed extension to Darwin Core) and a test implementation of the data models created by the GISIN community over a period of four years.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD, http://www.cbd.int) and GBIF are now supporting the development of the first program of work for invasive species in CBD's history, to develop globally-coordinated invasive species information services that will use the data models developed by the GISIN to facilitate the exchange of information, provide invasive species lists (built in part on existing GBIF data), promote database templates and training in their use, improve access to online invasive species risk assessments, and share tools for modeling to enable more informed decision making.

The proposed program of work is designed to support the CBD Strategic Plan's Aichi Biodiversity Target 9: "By 2020, invasive alien species and pathways are identified and prioritized, priority species are controlled or eradicated, and measures are in place to manage pathways to prevent their introduction and establishment." The related information document that will be presented for consideration at the CBD's November meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA, http://www.cbd.int/sbstta) will be made available at TDWG for those who are interested.

This presentation will also briefly describe the progress in the development of the GISIN extension to Darwin Core, which will consist of concepts with controlled vocabularies for three data models developed by four international working group meetings during 2008/2009: Occurrences, SpeciesStatus, and SpeciesResourceURL. Three other data models are under development.

To encourage broader implementation of the GISIN data model vocabularies, they are in the process of being submitted to GBIF's vocabulary community. Mapping the GISIN data models to the GBIF Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT) will facilitate the recruitment of additional data providers to the GISIN's online implementation at http://www.gisin.org and the inclusion of invasive species datasets to GBIF. The added value of the GISIN extension to Darwin Core is to provide a means for the integration of disparate invasive species data types. Integrated invasive species data may be used for modeling, prioritization, and the creation of invasive species watch lists for improved decision making.