The RIPARIAS target species list is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains (1) the target species of the LIFE RIPARIAS project (LIFE19 NAT/BE/000953), all of them invasive alien species (IAS) of the Regulation (EU) 1143/2014 (https://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/invasivealien/) and (2) the alert list species that currently do not occur in the LIFE RIPARIAS project area, but have proven to have negative impacts on biodiversity and need to be rapidly removed should they be encountered. The alert list was drafted within the LIFE RIPARIAS project following an evidence-based methodology involving climate matching and risk assessment (Branquart et al. 2022). By publishing this list on GBIF it can be used for general reference, early warning systems, data extractions, baseline reporting, project KPIs etc. Issues with the dataset can be reported at: https://github.com/riparias/riparias-target-list We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be. This dataset was published as open data for the LIFE RIPARIAS project (Reaching Integrated and Prompt Action in Response to Invasive Alien Species https://www.riparias.be/), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO).

Waarnemingen.be / observations.be - List of species observed in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by Natuurpunt and Natagora. Waarnemingen.be (in Dutch) and observation.be (in French) are the two local Belgian subsites of the global observation.org website. The checklist comprises 18.785 species observed in Belgium. Here, it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each species: the scientific name, higher classification and stable taxon identifier (in the taxon core), its status (native, introduced) and first and last observation date per region (Flanders, Brussels Capital Region, Wallonia) in Belgium (in the distribution extension). Only observations which were approved by species specialists based on provided evidence (photograph or sound), or which were approved based on expert judgment by the validating experts were considered for publication (see Swinnen et al. 2022 for the validation procedure). Observers’ data-sharing settings were respected at all times. When the first or last observation from a species in a region was not to be shared, observers were contacted to request an exception for this species list. In the few cases this authorisation was not acquired, the next (for the oldest record) or previous (for the most recent record) observation date was considered for publication. This species list does not represent a complete overview of Belgian biodiversity, only species that are recorded in the citizen science platforms waarnemingen.be and observation.be. Other datasets and checklists have to be considered for the compilation of a complete Belgian overview. We have released this dataset under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). We would appreciate it, however, if you read and follow these norms for data use (http://www.natuurpunt.be/normen-voor-datagebruik). If you use these data for a scientific paper, please cite the dataset following the applicable citation norms and/or consider us for co-authorship. We are always prepared to provide more information or knowledge on how to use the data, so please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or natuurdata@natuurpunt.be. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017, Groom et al. 2022), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). The subset of introduced species is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium published as the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - Belgium (Desmet et al. 2021). This way, validated newly reported alien species on the waarnemingen.be/observation.be citizen science portal (Swinnen et al. 2018) quickly find their way to the scientific tools supporting alien species policies and management in Belgium.

The Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - Belgium is a species checklist published by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG). It contains information on 3,000+ validated non-native taxa in Belgium and serves as the national reference for the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species (GRIIS, Pagad et al. 2018). The checklist is created through an open and reproducible workflow developed for the TrIAS project (http://trias-project.be, see Methodology). It is published here as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each taxon: the scientific name, higher classification and stable taxon identifier, provided by the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy (in the taxon core) and related information in three extensions, provided by the source checklists (or the most trustworthy one in case of competing information). The related information consists of the year of first introduction and last assessment/observation in Belgium and where available its regions (given as a year range in the event date in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension) and the pathway(s) of introduction, native ranges (following UN geoscheme), and invasion stage in Belgium (in the description extension). The source for each piece of information is credited. Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/unified-checklist We have released this dataset under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). We would appreciate it if you follow the GBIF citation guidelines (https://www.gbif.org/citation-guidelines) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don’t hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via https://twitter.com/trias_project. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO).

The Checklist of alien species in the Scheldt estuary in Flanders, Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on 61 invertebrate alien species occurring in the Belgian Scheldt estuary, detected between 1835 and now. Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each species: the scientific name, higher taxonomy, stable taxon ID (in the taxon core), the year of first introduction and/or last assessment in Flanders (given as a year or year range in the event date in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension) and the native range(s), pathway(s) of introduction and degree of establishment in Flanders (in the description extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/alien-scheldt-checklist We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium.

RINSE - pathways and vectors of biological invasions in Northwest Europe is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains detailed information on 359 taxa, comprising all non-native Mollusca, Osteichthyes (bony fish), Anseriformes (wildfowl), Mammalia and all non-native, invasive Angiospermae occurring in the wild in the Two Seas region countries (Great Britain, France, Belgium and the Netherlands). This dataset is the result of the screening of 33 national and international print and online sources by Zieritz et al. (2017, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-016-1278-z), where it was originally published as supplementary material (Table S2). Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each taxon: the scientific name, higher classification and stable taxon identifier (in the taxon core), the country where it is established as a non-native taxon, the year of first introduction and last assessment in that specific country (given as a year range in the event date in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension), the pathway(s) of introduction and native range(s) (in the description extension) and an overview of the consulted literature for each taxon (in the literature references extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at: https://github.com/trias-project/rinse-pathways-checklist We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via https://twitter.com/LifeWatchINBO. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium.

Invasive species - Chinese muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) in Flanders, Belgium is a sampling event dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on 120 sampling events with 64 validated occurrences of invasive muntjac (M. reevesi) and native roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) starting from 2004. These occurrences mainly originate from casual observations or cullings of individuals. Here the dataset is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each event: a stable eventID, date and location of observation, and a short description of the sampling protocol (in the event core), supplemented with specific information for each occurrence: a stable occurrenceID, the scientific name and higher classification of the observed species, the number of recorded individuals, sex, life stage, and a reference to the observer and identifier of the record (in the occurrence extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/data-publication/issues We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO).

Invasive species - Ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) in Flanders, Belgium is a sampling event dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on 107 sampling events with 88 validated occurrences of invasive ruddy duck (with 2 extra occurrences reporting on white-headed duck) starting from 2009. These occurrences mainly originate from observations or cullings (through shooting or trapping) of individuals associated with official control actions in Flanders, North Belgium in response to the Bern Convention Action Plan on ruddy duck eradication (Robertson et al. 2015; Bern Convention 2016; Hall 2016). The data are used for feeding the Flemish biodiversity indicator on the progress of ruddy duck eradication. Also, they are used for official reporting to the Bern Convention Action Plan on the eradication of ruddy duck from the Western Palearctic (Bern Convention 2016; Hall 2016) and, as the species is included in the list of invasive species of Union Concern since 2016, for reporting to the EU IAS Regulation (1143/2014) (European Union 2014). The data are also used for research purposes. Here the dataset is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each event: a stable eventID, date and location of observation, and a short description of the sampling protocol (in the event core), supplemented with specific information for each occurrence: a stable occurrenceID, the scientific name and higher classification of the observed species, the number of recorded individuals, sex, life stage, and a reference to the observer and identifier of the record (in the occurrence extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/data-publication/issues We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. (2017)), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO).

Invasive species - New Zealand pigmyweed (Crassula helmsii) occurrences in Flanders, Belgium is a sampling event dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on 274 sampling events with 162 occurrences of invasive New Zealand pigmyweed starting from 2013. This dataset is a subset of a larger vegetation analysis and focuses only on the Crassula helmsii occurrences. Here the dataset is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each event: a stable eventID, date and location of the observation, and a short description of the sampling protocol (in the event core), supplemented with specific information for each occurrence: a stable occurrenceID, the scientific name and higher classification of the observed species, the number of recorded individuals and a reference to the observer of the record (in the occurrence extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/data-publication/issues We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the GBIF citation guidelines (https://www.gbif.org/citation-guidelines) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via https://twitter.com/trias_project. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO).

The Belgian Coccinellidae dataset which is published, is the result of a merge of 4 datasets. The INBO (Research Institute for Nature and Forest; Flemish Region Database), the DFF database (The Walloon Region Database), Observations.be data provided by Natagora (The Walloon Region and Brussels Capital Region) and the Walloon Region Online Encoding Tool (DEMNA - OFFH, observatoire.biodiversite.wallonie.be/encodage) data. At present, the database contains about 80.000 records, of which 15% come from museum collections and literature data. Collection events minimally consist of species, number of individuals, stage (adults, larvae and pupae), observation date, observer and location. Original locations as well as collection material were attributed to 1x1 km or 5x5 km grid cells of the UTM grid (Universal Transverse Mercator). A large part of the Belgian territory has been surveyed for ladybird beetles: the database contains records for at least 85% of all 5x5km UTM grid cells (N = 1376) in Belgium. Additionally, data on substratum plants, height in the vegetation, sampling method, habitat type, surrounding landscape, slope orientation, soil type, humidity, vegetation cover and behaviour were noted. In 1999, the Belgian Ladybird Working Group Coccinula launched a large scale field survey on 40 native ladybird species (Coccinellinae, Chilocorinae and Epilachninae) and to date has more than 500 volunteers providing distribution data. They actively search for ladybird beetles in a variety of habitats using sweep nets, beating trays, visual search, light trapping, pitfall traps and other sampling methods. Distribution, habitat and substrate plant information is also noted on a standard recording form. The working group maintains a database of observations, literature and collection data of Coccinellidae from 1800 onwards. Preliminary atlases have been published for the whole Belgian territory (Branquart et al., 1999; Adriaens and Maes, 2004) and updated distribution maps are available online, on demand and through the working group's newsletter. The published dataset contains most of the data maintained by the working group. For the time being, only the original INBO database is published.

The checklist of alien herpetofauna of Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on alien amphibian and reptile species recorded in the wild in Belgium since 1968. Both established species and occasional records are included, but with information on the degree of establishment of species following the unified invasion framework of Blackburn et al. (2011). The checklist is published here as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each (sub)species: the scientific name and classification (in the taxon core), the presence in Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region, year of first and last observation in Belgium (given as a year range in the event date in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension), and the degree of establishment, pathway(s) of introduction and native range(s) (in the description extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/alien-herpetofauna-belgium. We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the GBIF citation guidelines (https://www.gbif.org/citation-guidelines) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don’t hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via https://twitter.com/trias_project. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium.