The Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility (FinBIF) offers users several ways to utilize species observations as geospatial data.
Data Download from Laji.fi
Through the Laji.fi portal, you can easily download species observations in formats such as Shapefile or GeoPackage. Alternatively, you can download them as a table or TSV file containing coordinate information.
In the public portal, some observations may be generalized or hidden. If you need access to all restricted data, you can request access to our authorities portal if you are a public administration authority, or submit a data request otherwise.
API Connections
Downloading data directly to your computer is not always the most flexible way, so we have developed an easy-to-use OGC API interface. This API allows data to be directly imported into GIS software such as QGIS and ArcGIS. Currently, the API only includes data restricted by government regulations, but we plan to add all our geospatial data to the service in the future. See the instructions for more details.
If you need all the observations right now, you can use our REST API, which requires a bit more technical expertise. Instructions are available here.
Spatial Data Products
FinBIF offers multiple ready-to-use spatial data products. See more info.
R Package
If you are familiar with the R programming language, you can easily access the data using our R package. Note that the previously mentioned geoapi.laji.fi is also compatible with R.
Map Service
The Species Information Center’s map service offers a variety of thematic map layers and map tools.
Other GIS instructions
Here you can find other instructions related to geospatial data services and products, such as data column names and explanations.