Events at CBD Conference of Parties (COP11) outline data mobilization projects, better information on invasive species, and a shared vision for ‘biodiversity intelligence’
Hyderabad, India – GBIF has used the 11th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP11) to support a number of initiatives to enhance the quantity and quality of data available to monitor the state of biodiversity and ecosystems.
A side event on Monday, 8 October, reported on initiatives involving GBIF partners to encourage online publication of biodiversity data from new sources, including:
- Data from camera traps set by wildlife managers in India, based on a partnership between Norway and India to help build capacity on the use of data for conservation policy;
- Support for biodiversity data publishing by local governments, based on guidelines developed with the ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability network; and
- Encouragement for publication of data from environmental impact assessments, following a pilot project involving GBIF nodes in South Africa and India.
See presentations from this side event...
On Tuesday, 9 October, the GBIF Executive Secretary, Donald Hobern, made a statement to the conference reiterating GBIF's commitment to providing the data foundations for governments' efforts to halt biodiversity loss.
On Wednesday, 10 October the GBIF Secretariat signed a Memorandum of Collaboration with the CBD and other partners to set up a Global Invasive Alien Species Information Partnership (GIASIP), aimed at greatly improving the information available to governments to help tackle this major driver of biodiversity loss.
See presentations from the launch event...
On Thursday, 11 October, GBIF Executive Secretary Donald Hobern spoke at a side event entitled World Flora Online by 2020. The event was organized by the Global Partnership for Plant Conservation and Missouri Botanical Garden. Hobern presented on the mobilization of botanical data and information, in support of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) and its national implementation.
Download presentation (.pdf, 480 KB)
Also on Thursday, 11 October the GBIF Secretariat hosted a side event to report progress on the Global Biodiversity Informatics Outlook, a framework for coordinating many separate initiatives to harness data capture, data access and modelling to build better understanding of biodiversity, helping countries to meet targets to halt its loss.
See presentations from the side event...
On Monday, 15 October senior advisers from the Government of India endorsed a proposal for a 'biodiversity information grid' to enable access to data in the country, using the GBIF national node to coordinate the content.
On Tuesday, 16 October GBIF took part in the Cities for Life Summit held alongside the conference. On Wednesday, 17 October local government representatives took part in a training workshop organized by ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability in collaboration with GBIF and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).
The CBD conference was hosted by the Government of India's Ministry of Environment and Forests.
For more information please contact:
Tim Hirsch
GBIF Secretariat
thirsch@gbif.org
