Indo-Norwegian pilot project for new science-policy platform targets conservation strategies for large mammals

Data obtained from the evidence of camera traps could help conservation of tigers, leopards, elephants and snow leopards in India.

The species are being targeted in a partnership between India and Norway to demonstrate capacity building under the new Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem services (IPBES).

Priorities for the project, which GBIF is helping to facilitate, emerged at a meeting in New Delhi involving senior government representatives from the two countries.

The two-year pilot project will help make images and information available from cameras equipped with motion sensors, set up to capture pictures of wild animals in remote or large areas that are difficult to monitor.

Data from the Rajaji National Park in Uttarakhand, national parks in Sikkim and heavily populated agricultural areas in Maharashtra will be digitized as part of the project. Image data from camera traps installed in agriculture-dominated areas and buffer zones of national parks will help in planning corridors for key wildlife species.

The project will demonstrate the use of such data in decision-making, and will focus on developing strategies for the conservation of tigers and elephants in the Rajaji National Park, leopards in Maharashtra and snow leopards in Sikkim. It will also help show the benefits of data sharing in India by developing user-friendly maps and GIS-data products adapted to various users including decision makers, researchers and civil society groups.  

The government representatives reiterated support for the project at the meeting, held at the end of October.

Project plans will be put into practice in the first quarter of 2012. The €154,000 for the work comes from the Norwegian government.

The project is led by the Norwegian Institute of Nature Research (NINA) in collaboration with the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (NBIC) and the University of Oslo (UIO).

GBIF will provide guidance on standards for data publishing, on biodiversity informatics training and capacity building. The three Norwegian partners will survey and mobilize data from India stored in Norwegian museum collections, and assist with building an informatics infrastructure for the project.

For more information, please contact:
NINA: Frank Hanssen
NBIC: Arild Lindgaard
University of Oslo and GBIF Norway: Vegar Bakkestuen
WII: Vinod Mathur
GBIF: Vishwas Chavan