*4.4.5 Case study: DCBD*

The Dutch Caribbean Biodiversity Database (DCBD, https://www.dcbd.nl/) is a central repository for biodiversity related research and monitoring data from the Dutch Caribbean. Research and monitoring data can be submitted to the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance (DCNA) secretariat for the DCBD. Material stored includes books, scientific articles, maps, charts, reports, biodiversity projects as well as portals to other global databases. Monitoring is continuous (www.dcnanature.org/ resources/research-monitoring). The historical and ongoing taxonomic collections from the Dutch Caribbean are held at Naturalis in Leiden, the Netherlands.

Understanding biodiversity changes requires comparison with historical collections. Fortunately, Naturalis houses 10,000 specimens from Saba, St Eustatius and St Maarten including those collected in 1908. However, by 2013, only 10% of this herbarium collection had been digitized. In the Netherlands, all Caribbean collections are housed in a single institute where about 100 scientists work on biodiversity [92]. The flora on Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao comprise 569 indigenous and naturalized species composed of South American, Central American and Caribbean species and 86 foreign species (imported accidentally or purposefully). Nine endemic species have been identified (**Table 6**). The flora is continually being updated. Local naturalists can email pictures taken by digital cameras to online photo-libraries to get plants identified or new ones added to the collection.

Coral reefs are an area of focus. Elkhorn (*Acropora palmata*) numbers have decreased by 97% since the 1980s [93]. This is due to a multitude of issues such as disease, coral bleaching, hurricanes, human activity and collapse of the long-spined sea urchins (*Diadema antillarum*) populations that grazed the reefs keeping it clear

#### **Figure 9.**

*Cockpit Country: (A) proposed boundaries [78] and (B) CCPA and proposed bauxite mining area SML173 (Observer newspaper, p. 12, August 04, 2019).*

of algae. Research includes outplanting of *Acropora* spp., identification of coral diseases, and growing coral on artificial structures.

The Bonaire Deep Reef Expedition I was carried out from May 30th to June 1st, 2013 when the deep reef of Bonaire was explored by researchers from IMARES Wageningen UR. The Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs commissioned the research institute IMARES to study the deeper reef as part of the EEZ management plan for the Dutch Caribbean—they went down to 200–250 m. An interesting find was that lionfish were found as deep as 165 m. More interesting information can be found on the DCBD website.
