Biodiversity Data Platforms: how to choose the right system for conservation, research and consulting
As biodiversity declines at an unprecedented rate, decisions can no longer be based on scattered spreadsheets or PDF reports buried in shared drives. Biodiversity data platforms are becoming the invisible yet strategic backbone of conservation, research and environmental consulting. When chosen well, they transform fragmented observations into actionable insights to protect species and habitats.
This article explains how these platforms work, which features genuinely matter, and how to select the right solution for your specific context: university, NGO, consulting firm, public authority or citizen science project. We also highlight specialist providers such as Natural Solutions, who support the deployment of digital tools dedicated to biodiversity.
By the end, you will have a clear framework to assess options, compare platforms, run a pilot project and build a robust data strategy that supports your conservation and research objectives.
What biodiversity data platforms are and why they matter
A biodiversity data platform is a digital system that enables you to collect, store, structure, analyse, visualise and share biodiversity data: species records, field surveys, genetic data, habitats, pressures, management actions and more. It provides a technical and methodological framework that turns raw data into usable information for scientists, decision-makers and conservation practitioners.
Several broad categories can be distinguished:
Large biodiversity data infrastructures: global or national platforms aggregating millions of records (e.g. national portals, international infrastructures). Their main purpose is data aggregation and sharing.
Biodiversity data management platforms: solutions used by an organisation or network (university, NGO, consultancy, administration) to manage its own data lifecycle, from field collection through to final reporting, with workflows and access rights.
Decision-support tools for conservation planning: analysis- and scenario-oriented tools (habitat prioritisation, protected-area network optimisation, cumulative impact assessment) that consume data supplied by management platforms.
Centralising and standardising biodiversity data has become critical for several reasons:
Conservation planning: identifying priority sites, designing ecological corridors, modelling the impacts of climate change on species.
Environmental impact assessment: building robust, comparable and auditable baselines, and ensuring long-term monitoring.
Public policy and reporting: informing national biodiversity strategies, international convention reporting, and tracking progress toward global targets.
Typical users of these platforms include universities and research institutes (monitoring programmes, PhDs, teaching), NGOs and naturalist associations (inventories, conservation projects), consultancies and environmental engineers (impact assessments, regulatory monitoring), citizen science projects (public engagement), as well as government agencies and local authorities responsible for policy and regulation. Specialist providers such as Natural Solutions often act as a bridge between these different user groups.
Key features of modern biodiversity data platforms
A modern biodiversity data platform must combine technical robustness with ease of use. On the technical side, several elements are essential:
Standardised taxonomic and spatial data models: support for scientific names, synonyms, threat status and precise georeferencing (coordinates, polygons, grids), aligned with international standards such as Darwin Core.
APIs and interoperability: the ability to exchange data with other systems (national portals, thematic databases, monitoring systems), as well as with statistical and modelling tools.
Integration with GIS tools (Geographic Information Systems): export to common geospatial formats, web mapping services, and links to QGIS or ArcGIS for advanced spatial analyses.
From the user perspective, the following capabilities are decisive:
Dashboards and mapping: instant visualisation of data (maps, charts, indicators) to steer projects and programmes.
Quality control: checks on coordinates, taxonomic consistency, outlier detection and expert validation workflows.
Customisable workflows: data entry, validation and publication stages aligned with the organisation’s processes.
Stakeholder-ready reporting: automatic export of tables, maps and indicators for funders, authorities and clients.
One major decision concerns the model: open source or proprietary. Open-source solutions typically offer:
Flexibility and extensive customisation potential;
Lower licence costs, but development and maintenance costs that must be anticipated;
User communities that contribute to continuous improvement.
Commercial solutions, on the other hand, often provide:
Contractual technical support and regular updates;
Clear accountability for security and service availability;
Ready-to-use features tailored to specific use cases (consulting, industrial site monitoring, etc.).
For threatened species monitoring, platforms should include:
Alert systems (sharp declines in abundance, local disappearance, detection of invasive alien species).
Habitat mapping tools (critical habitats, breeding areas, ecological corridors).
Trend analyses (time series, state and pressure indicators, alert thresholds).
Some providers, such as Natural Solutions, offer integrated suites tailored to these challenges, available via their products, combining data management, species monitoring and mapping tools.
Main use cases: conservation planning, consulting, academia and citizen science
Biodiversity data platforms support a wide range of use cases, with specific needs depending on the sector.
Conservation planning
For public agencies, NGOs and conservation trusts, the platform should enable:
Habitat prioritisation: identifying areas of highest conservation value by combining species richness, rarity, threats and connectivity.
Protected-area design: zoning scenarios, simulation of different network configurations and gap analyses.
Climate resilience analysis: projecting species distributions, identifying climate refugia and potential migration corridors.
Consulting and environmental impact assessment
Environmental consultancies use platforms to:
Structure field inventories (fauna, flora, habitats) for impact assessments and regulatory submissions.
Automate part of the analysis (species richness, regulatory constraints, protected species detected, before/after comparisons).
Simplify compliance reporting for clients (industry, developers) and set up multi-year monitoring of environmental commitments.
Specialised solutions, delivered as dedicated products, can include modules tailored to consulting workflows (project, client, site and reporting management).
Universities and research institutes
Academic needs are diverse:
Teaching: providing example datasets for courses in conservation biology, ecology, GIS and statistics.
Collaborative research: centralising data from multiple teams and study sites, with managed access rights, versioning and metadata.
Time series: long-term monitoring of reference sites, permanent plots and biodiversity observatories.
Citizen science and public engagement
Citizen science projects rely on platforms to:
Mass-collect observations via mobile apps or web forms.
Implement validation mechanisms (community vetting, expert review).
Give feedback to participants (dynamic maps, local summaries, leaderboards) to sustain engagement.
A well-designed platform can therefore simultaneously “speak science” with researchers, “speak action” with site managers and “speak fieldwork” with citizens and volunteer naturalists.
How to choose a biodiversity data platform by sector
Selecting a biodiversity data platform requires a structured approach. A step-by-step framework can guide the process.
Key steps in the selection process
Clarify your objectives: conservation, consulting, research, citizen science or a combination of these.
Map your users: researchers, consultants, volunteers, administrators, policy-makers, clients.
Identify data types: species, habitats, pressures, genetics, eDNA, telemetry, photo/video, sensor data.
Analyse what you already have: existing tools (GIS, internal databases), commonly used formats, regulatory and contractual constraints.
Define technical requirements: hosting, security, interoperability, APIs, integration with GIS and modelling tools.
Assess costs and internal capacity: budget, IT skills and time available for implementation.
Comparison criteria
Key criteria to assess include:
Support for data standards (e.g. Darwin Core for species occurrence data).
Scalability: the ability to handle growth in data volume and users.
Security and confidentiality: handling of sensitive data (threatened species, private sites, client information).
Licensing and conditions governing data use.
Training needs and availability of documentation and support.
Total cost of ownership (licences, hosting, maintenance, development, training).
Targeted checklists
For conservation planning teams:
Does the platform handle habitat layers and protected-area boundaries?
Does it enable advanced spatial analysis or export to GIS to optimise conservation networks?
Does it facilitate reporting on conservation targets (indicators, dashboards)?
For consultancies and environmental engineers:
Can you manage multiple clients, projects and sites with separate permissions?
Does the platform allow easy export of standardised reports (species lists, regulatory maps)?
Are the implementation timelines compatible with your commercial constraints?
For threatened species monitoring programmes:
Are there time-series monitoring modules (series, indicators, trends)?
Can you configure automatic alerts in case of significant change?
How is the confidentiality of sensitive data handled (precise locations, breeding periods)?
Finally, it is crucial to assess the platform’s collaboration capabilities: roles and permission management, data-sharing policies, options for exporting to national or international infrastructures, and integration with tools already used in the lab, in the field or within GIS teams. Providers such as Natural Solutions can support this analysis to ensure that the technical solution is aligned with your processes.
Open-source vs commercial platforms and key tools to consider
The choice between an open-source platform and a commercial solution depends on your context, resources and long-term strategy.
Open source: advantages and limitations
Advantages:
No licence fees and extensive customisation freedom.
Possibility of self-hosting and full control over the infrastructure.
Active communities that enrich the ecosystem (plugins, modules, documentation).
Limitations:
Requires internal skills or an external provider for installation, maintenance and security.
Shared responsibility for code sustainability and upgrades.
Commercial platforms: strengths and constraints
Strengths:
Often a "turnkey" solution with methodological support.
Customer service, uptime guarantees and scheduled updates.
Industry-specific modules for certain sectors (consulting, industry, protected-area management).
Constraints:
Licence or subscription costs that must be included in multi-year budgets.
Less freedom to modify the core platform.
Landscape of well-known platforms and infrastructures
Among the key reference infrastructures and platforms (often focused on aggregation and sharing):
GBIF (Global Biodiversity Information Facility): an international infrastructure aggregating billions of species occurrence records from around the world.
iNaturalist: a citizen science platform collecting photographic observations verified by the community.
OBIS (Ocean Biodiversity Information System): an infrastructure dedicated to marine biodiversity data.
BISON (Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation): a US infrastructure aggregating biodiversity data, now integrated into federal services.
Atlas of Living Australia and similar national initiatives providing country-level biodiversity portals.
VertNet: a network of institutions sharing vertebrate collection data.
Alongside these infrastructures, there are many specialised platforms:
Tools dedicated to threatened species monitoring (breeding site management, individual tracking, telemetry).
Solutions focused on consulting workflows (project management, client reporting, regulatory compliance).
Platforms for research data management in universities (time series, multi-site data, collaborative projects).
Integrated suites such as the products offered by Natural Solutions provide modules specifically designed for site managers, researchers and consultancies, with a strong focus on interoperability and long-term data stewardship.
Before committing, it is recommended to:
Test the platform with a pilot on a project with a clearly defined scope.
Check interoperability with your existing databases and national/international infrastructures.
Develop a long-term data management plan (governance, archiving, potential future migration).
Implementation best practices and future trends in biodiversity data platforms
A good platform alone is not enough: success depends on how it is implemented and adopted.
Implementation best practices
Map stakeholders: identify who produces data, who validates it, who uses it and who decides how it is shared.
Define governance: rules for data entry, validation, publication, citation and confidentiality.
Adopt metadata standards: clearly document protocols, sampling methods and uncertainties.
Set up a training programme: initial and ongoing training for newcomers and to keep pace with platform changes.
Data workflows should be designed upfront:
For conservation: clear links between data collection, analysis, management decisions and evaluation of outcomes.
For citizen science: the full journey from citizen observations to validation and feedback.
For consulting: seamless integration between field campaigns, analysis, report writing and post-project monitoring.
Emerging trends
Biodiversity data platforms are evolving rapidly, incorporating new data types and technologies:
AI for species identification: image (photo, video) and sound recognition (birdsong, bats), streamlining validation and processing of large datasets.
Integration of remote sensing: satellite imagery, drones and LiDAR for mapping habitats, landscape structure and changes over time.
eDNA (environmental DNA) data: incorporating DNA traces from water, soil or air, expanding the range of detectable species.
Near real-time monitoring networks: connected sensors, GPS tags and automated stations streaming data continuously.
Going forward, platforms will need to better support:
Global biodiversity targets (post-2020 global framework, national targets).
Threatened species monitoring, including sensitive and Indigenous data handling.
Climate adaptation strategies, by combining climate projections, species dynamics and management scenarios.
Organisations that anticipate these developments by structuring their biodiversity data now, with the help of specialised partners such as Natural Solutions, will be better prepared to meet future requirements from public policies, funders and scientific partners.
FAQ on biodiversity data platforms
What is a biodiversity data platform and how does it work?
A biodiversity data platform is a digital system that centralises biodiversity data (species occurrences, habitats, pressures, monitoring) and manages the entire data lifecycle: collection (web forms, apps, imports), validation (quality checks, expert review), storage (structured databases), analysis (indicators, maps, models) and sharing (exports, APIs, public portals). It transforms scattered data into organised, actionable information.
How do I choose the best data platform for conservation planning?
For conservation planning, look for a platform that handles spatial data in detail (habitats, protected areas, corridors), integrates with GIS tools, supports data standards, can calculate conservation indicators (richness, rarity, connectivity) and offers clear mechanisms for sharing data with partners. It is advisable to test the platform on a pilot site and check that it fits your existing decision-making processes.
What is the difference between open-source and commercial biodiversity platforms?
Open-source platforms are based on code that is freely accessible and modifiable, with no licence fees, but they require internal resources or an external provider for installation, maintenance and security. Commercial solutions use a licence or subscription model and usually offer dedicated support, regular updates and ready-made modules, with less freedom for deep customisation. The choice depends on your resources, internal skills and data governance strategy.
Which biodiversity platform is best suited to environmental consultancies?
For consultancies, the most suitable platform is the one that optimises the full cycle from survey to analysis to reporting and follow-up. It must manage multiple clients and projects, simplify field data capture, automate part of the analysis, produce exports ready for regulatory reports and ensure data traceability. Specialised solutions, available as professional products, often meet these needs better than generic systems.
How can universities and citizen science projects share data on the same platform?
A well-designed platform allows you to manage differentiated roles and access rights. Citizen science projects can collect data using simplified interfaces or mobile apps, while researchers have access to advanced modules for analysis and export. Validation and sharing rules (public, restricted, embargoed data) are configured at project level. In this way, the same infrastructure can host academic, NGO and citizen projects while maintaining data quality and governance.
Conclusion: moving towards a modern biodiversity data strategy
Biodiversity data platforms are no longer a luxury; they are a prerequisite for responding to the ecological emergency with evidence-based decisions. Whether you are protecting threatened species, designing a protected-area network, delivering robust impact assessments or unlocking decades of research data, the right platform is a strategic investment.
Ready to modernise your biodiversity data strategy? Review your current workflows, shortlist two or three platforms that match your conservation, research or consulting needs, and launch a small pilot within the next quarter to validate performance before scaling up. To support this process, you can rely on experts and proven solutions such as Natural Solutions and their products dedicated to biodiversity data management and valorisation.
