The Biodiversity of the ABC Islands

There may be no country in the world where nature has been studied as thoroughly as in the Netherlands. This is largely due to the thousands of volunteers involved in collecting biodiversity data. Yet there are parts of the Kingdom of the Netherlands about which we know far less: the Caribbean islands. Which species occur there, how can they be identified, and how are they faring? For many groups of animals and plants, these are questions that we are currently unable to answer adequately.

Undescribed species

The Caribbean part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of six islands, three of which - Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao - are located off the coast of Venezuela. Nature on these islands has not yet been very thoroughly documented. For groups such as grasshoppers, bees and beetles, no species lists are available, and all of these groups still include species on the islands that have not yet been formally described.

Over the past 200 years, however, a great deal of fieldwork has been carried out on the islands. Specimens were collected and some were used in publications, but much of the material gathered remains unused in the collections of Naturalis Biodiversity Center. To make this knowledge more accessible and available for nature conservation, the ABC Natural History Collections (ABC-NHC) project has been launched.

The ABC-NHC project is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO) as part of its research programme on collections with a colonial context. The project is a collaboration between the University of Aruba, University of Curaçao, Leiden University, Naturalis Biodiversity Center, and the three nature conservation organisations: Aruba Conservation Foundation, Stinapa (Bonaire), and Carmabi (Curaçao).

Together with a large group of volunteer experts, the project partners will spend the coming years documenting and digitising material from the ABC Islands held in the Naturalis collections.

Time machine

This information will be used to describe new species, publish species lists and produce new field guides. Much of the material is more than half a century old. This creates opportunities to use the collection as a time machine: which species occurred on the islands in the past? One of the project’s aims is to improve the integration of the ABC Islands into the existing digital research infrastructure.

To this end, students from Aruba and Curaçao will receive training, DNA barcodes will be added to databases, the image-recognition system for the Caribbean islands will be updated, and initial work on sound recognition will begin. The project will conclude with the publication of the book The Biodiversity of the ABC Islands.

More information

• The Dutch research council (NWO) has a program for research into collections with a colonial context.
• Last month, Naturalis presented the most recent overview of the biodiversity of the Netherlands, including the Caribbean part of the Kingdom.
• Earlier fieldwork by researchers and volunteers on the islands has already led to a quadrupling of the number of invertebrate species on Bonaire, and the description of a new species of praying mantis on Aruba.
• Read more about the work of the Aruba Conservation Foundation, Carmabi, or Stinapa

Text: Vincent Kalkman, Naturalis Biodiversity Center
Images: Carmabi (leadphoto: Christoffel National Park Curacao); John Anderson, Getty Images; Naturalis Biodiversity Center; K Jorgen, Getty Images