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The official launch of the project, held in Dar es Salaam on 13 March 2007, will be attended by representatives of many biodiversity-related institutions, organizations and Tanzanian government agencies. The Guest of Honor will be His Excellency Bjarne Sørenson, the Danish Ambassador to Tanzania. Other important speakers will include Prof. Burton Mwamila, Chairman of the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), Director General of COSTECH Prof. Brig. Gen. Y.M. Kohi, Mr. T. E. Mlaki (Director of Information and Documentation - COSTECH), and Dr. J.L. Edwards, Executive Director of GBIF.

The Capacity Enhancement Programme for Developing Countries (CEPDEC) is a multi-stakeholder approach being taken by countries, in cooperation with GBIF, to support sustainable social and economic development by making biodiversity information easily accessible and improving capacity to utilise this information in developing countries.

The major goals of the pilot project in Tanzania are to establish a network of Tanzanian biodiversity institutions (providing data and using them), to develop a functional coordinating unit for the network in Tanzania, and to establish a set of tools and procedures for developing and sustaining a Tanzanian biodiversity information facility, which can also be adapted to and be a model for other developing countries.

The Department for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has awarded 3M Danish kroner (€400,500) to support a pilot project for Tanzania. Thanks to this grant, Tanzania will become the first country to test and develop the CEPDEC approach.

This 3-year pilot project will aid Tanzania to gain access to, and learn how to utilise, information about its biological diversity held within the country as well as in the world's natural history collections, project databases, and literature. This project will help mobilise biodiversity data and information to target the Millennium Development Goals (MGDs) while assisting the scientific community in Tanzania.

Partners in the project are the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH), the GBIF Secretariat and the Department for the Environment and Sustainable Development of the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA). Additional expertise will be provided by DanBIF, ETI and other GBIF Participants.

There are many ways in which yet other potential stakeholders can be part of, benefit from or contribute to this CEPDEC Pilot Project in Tanzania. For instance,

• Tanzanian institutions can become TanBIF data providers
• Institutions in other countries are encouraged to promote and facilitate the repatriation of digitized biodiversity data on Tanzania through the GBIF network
• Assistance is needed with identifying information needs and priorities relevant for various user groups
• As the TanBIF network grows and fills with content (there are already approximately 145,000 records available through GBIF), more biodiversity data and information will become available to support important decisions for the country
• A number of training and capacity-building activities for institutions and individuals will be offered as part of this project.