The concept of a national clearing-house is being developed to address two main objectives:
 

1.	facilitate exchange of information
2.	facilitate scientific and technical co-operation, both nationally and internationally.

The clearing-house will be established following the principle of decentralisation. It will serve as an active instrument for the implementation of the Convention on the national level. Besides data management it will, to a certain extent, also organise or promote training programmes and workshops to facilitate scientific and technical cooperation.
The clearing-house will gain information from the main biodiversity databases of the country. This will include information on biodiversity, general policies, legal instruments, use of biological resources, etc. New databases will have to be established to address all the issues covered by the Convention.
The highway technology of data communication will be used to exchange publicly available information and will aim to secure data quality and regular up-dating.
The national focal point will administer national meta-information and facilitate the international exchange of data.

Strategic directions:
 

	further develop the concept of the national clearing-house mechanism including the promotion of access and exchange of information and their protection against abuse;
	recognise the wide scope of information for exchange, including the results of technical, scientific and socio-economic research, and information on training and surveys and specialised and traditional knowledge;
	identify the information gaps;
	adopt appropriate regulations to ensure access to information;
	strengthen existing biodiversity databases, in particular the National Fauna Data Bank;
	fill the gaps in biodiversity databases, establish a national flora data bank and a national data bank of micro-organisms;
	promote the application of new technologies in data management;
	facilitate the repatriation of information;

The following are examples of existing biodiversity databases in Slovakia:   1.  The National Fauna Data Bank collects information on the distribution of fauna species in Slovakia, including their habitats and ecology It is run by the Zoology Department at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Commenius University 2.  The Institute for Forest Management Planning operates a central data management system on species distribution, forest types, site characteristics, and ecological stability classification. 3. The Liptovský Hrádok Research Station of the Forest Research Institute operates a central information system on registered gene resources of forest tree species (gene reserves, approved seed collection stands, plus trees, seed orchards). 4. The Biological Diversity Information System of the Slovak Republic (BIODIS) provides basic documentation on all activities and databases, including results and monitoring of biological diversily It uses the local computer network which was developed by a team from the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra. 5. The GENOTYPDATA is an information system for documentation and evaluation of genetic resources of cultivated species for research, breeding, and commercial use, with image documentation. lt was established and processed at the Slovak Agricultural University in Nitra. 6. The BIOACNET information system on biodiversity activities targets participants of distance education in the fields of biodiversity conservation and ecology through INTERNET,