BackgroundPrimary biodiversity data records, available on-line, are essential for conservation planning. Of the mega diversity countries, Brazil have reached a high level of scientific research in describing their biodiversity. However, there still remain significant limitations in recovering, collating and organizing available information on Brazil's biological diversity and its distribution. Since the colonial period, biological material were often collected and transferred to other countries, which were characterized, stored and maintained. As a result, natural history museums worldwide possess large amounts of primary biodiversity data originally from Brazil which are then published on-line in the international Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) infrastructure. Aiming to recover these data, the Brazilian Biodiversity Information System (SiBBr) developed an automatic repatriation tool capable of retrieving all records registered in Brazil but published outside Brazilian territory in an automated manner.New informationThus, 2,459,366 records were added to SiBBr’s Repository in one day. Europe and the United States hold about 80% of all records. The data set covers all life kingdoms. Animalia is the most represented group with 3 main phylum's: Chordata, Arthropoda and Mollusca, within more than 40% of all records. Plantae also comprises a large portion of the records with angiosperms having the major number of entries.

Habitat degradation and fragmentation has driven much of the extinction process of current species. Biodiversity loss compromises ecosystems goods and socioeconomic activities, and can be managed through holistic conservation policies that prioritize where and how to spend efforts and resources. Hence an easy-to-use information tool that crosses biodiversity data with geographical locations is key for the development of effective conservation policies. The Brazilian Biodiversity Information System (SiBBr), a government initiative and the Brazilian node of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), aim to consolidate biodiversity primary data in one platform, making it available for researchers and policymakers over the internet through several tools to facilitate and disseminate the analysis and use of biodiversity data.Because macroecological or biodiversity-related phenomena usually occur in geographically delimited spots, showing the correlation of factors that favor their establishment, spatial tools to test and describe such geospatial relationships are required. Unfortunately, most of methods to evaluate gains and losses of biodiversity and to establish future scenarios require specialized skills with GIS software, combined with the knowledge of how to apply conservation methodologies with this tool.

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