Making sure your observations are shared to GBIF
We are over 4,150 Research Grade observations now - and more observations coming in all the time!
Our aim here is to share wild flowering plant observations with the scientific community through GBIF.org (the Global Biodiversity Information Facility), where they are brought together with other location records from databases around the world.
This happens when (i) the observation is Research Grade (wild plant, identification agreed upon by by two iNaturalist members, with location, photo and observation date).
AND (ii) the license of the observations permits automatic onward sharing by iNaturalist by GBIF. Only observations having CC0, CC BY, or CC BY-NC licenses will be shared with GBIF: see https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/help#GBIFdata
If you want to make sure this is happening, please visit your profile on the website and choose 'Edit account settings and profile' - its surprising how many users are not sharing their data this way. Thank you!
PS for more on the (separate) licensing of the photos that are attached to observations, see https://www.inaturalist.org/blog/48165-we-want-you-to-license-your-inaturalist-photos-before-april-15th
