An open-source GIS-enabled lookup service for Nagoya Protocol party information

Area of Science:

• Biodiversity Law
• Scientific Data Management
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• The Nagoya Protocol governs access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing, crucial for legal data utilization.
• Ensuring research data re-usability under FAIR principles requires clear provenance and re-usage conditions.
• Linking genetic resource data to Nagoya Protocol information, especially for public data, presents a significant challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the Nagoya Lookup Service, a tool designed to facilitate legal and FAIR data management in biological sciences.
• To assist stakeholders in navigating Nagoya Protocol compliance for genetic data publication and re-use.
• To simplify the process of checking legal requirements for genetic resources.

Main Methods:

• Developed a service providing Nagoya party status based on GPS coordinates.
• Integrated open data from ABS Clearing House, Marine Regions, GeoNames, and Wikidata.
• Offered access via a REST API and a user-friendly web form, deployable using Docker.

Main Results:

• The service provides up-to-date Nagoya status information for geolocations.
• It directs users to relevant authorities for further legal guidance.
• Enables researchers to estimate potential Nagoya Protocol applicability for their data.

Conclusions:

• The Nagoya Lookup Service effectively supports legal and FAIR data practices in biological sciences.
• It addresses a critical gap in managing genetic resource data compliance.
• The open-source, accessible nature of the service promotes widespread adoption and data integrity.