Biodiversity Data Use and Biorepositories in Bhutan

Biodiversity information and biorepositories in Bhutan were instituted the 1990s, have contributed towards biodiversity conservation efforts country including citizen-science initiatives. Bioinformatics is still its initial stage, some incorporated systems for their collections. Some major include National Herbarium, Animal Gene Bank, Plant Invertebrates Repository, Taxidermy. Other repositories distributed at various institutions cover taxonomic groups such as fishes, amphibian reptiles, butterflies moths, mushrooms, bryophytes, agricultural pests, among others. Biorepositories are one of sources data information, where Herbarium Repository initiated digitizing plant invertebrate specimens. The digitized specimens will be made freely accessible through Portal Specimen managed by Centre (NBC). an online consortium-based platform documentation citizen science system documenting herbarium especially from (THIM). use sharing related to Clearing House, Access Benefit Sharing Biosafety Forest Information Reporting Monitoring System, Pests database. collection-based offline Royal Botanical Garden Database, Traditional Knowledge Bank institutional databases. Citizen initiatives increasing annually with participation youths. contribution young people playing a role country. most used applications iNaturalist, eBird, Portal, Global Facility (GBIF), social media sites Facebook (groups pages) blogs. Molecular on species limited country, however, collaboration international partners, molecular new species, available public, Barcode Life Data System (BOLD). There exists only handful laboratories conducting basic studies country’s would enhanced establishment advanced capacities bioinformatics. Advancements bioinformatics also contribute enhancing accessibility specimen collections around challenges non-availability experts groups, understudied groups. It imperative coordination mechanism all biodiversity, bringing relevant national stakeholders.