Biodiversity Information Standards

TDWG was founded in 1985 as the Taxonomic Databases Working Group;[1] the first meeting took place from September 28–30, 1985, at the Conservatory and Botanical Garden of the City of Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland. The organisation was formed to establish an international collaboration to promote the wider and more effective dissemination of information about the world's heritage of biological organisms for the benefit of the world at large. It was accepted as a commission of the International Union of Biological Sciences in October 1988. Initially focussing on plant taxonomic databases, it expanded its scope to over all taxonomic databases in 1994.

TDWG organises an annual meeting for its members. The organization was founded at the first meeting in Geneva in 1985.

The association currently:

1. Develops, adopts, and promotes standards and guidelines for the recording, discovery, exchange, and integration of data about organisms,
2. Promotes the use of these standards and guidelines through the most appropriate and effective means, and
3. Acts as a forum for discussion about biodiversity informatics standards

This organization publishes conference proceedings in the Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS), published by Pensoft.

• Audubon Core
• Darwin Core
• GUID applicability statements
• TWDG Access Protocol for Information Retrieval (TAPIR)
• TDWG Standards Documentation (SDS)
• Natural Collection Descriptions (NCD, not ratified)

• Best Practices for Development of Vocabularies of Values
• Collection Descriptions (CD)
• Darwin Core Chronometric Age Extension
• Data Quality Use Cases
• Extension for Geosciences (EFG)
• Framework on Data Quality
• Invasive Organism Information
• People in Biodiversity Data

• Official website
• List of TDWG standards
• Biodiversity Information Standards (TDWG)
• Biodiversity Information Science and Standards (BISS)