On June 13-14, GBIF Participants from Asia will join with representatives from partner networks and other Asian countries as they seek to strengthen engagement and enhance national and institutional capacity for mobilizing and using biodiversity data throughout the region.
The meeting's remit supports GBIF's broader strategic and annual priorities to empower the global network and fill data gaps. Its principal objectives will be to:
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Analyse biodiversity data gaps in Asia and devise an action plan for filling them
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Consolidate current Asian national participation in GBIF and engage new countries to join the network
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Build links between GBIF Asia and other related regional networks
The assembled node managers, heads of delegation and partner representatives will receive updates on the achievements of the first projects completed for the Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia, or BIFA programme and get a first glimpse of three new projects:
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Checklist of mammals in the southwestern Mongolian-Manchurian Ecoregion
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Filling a long-standing data gap for birds in the Central Highlands of India
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Compiling a multi-language gazetteer for occurrence distribution in Asia
Viet Nam is not currently a GBIF national Participant, but a recently completed project funded through BIFA sought to establish a network of potential biodiversity data publishers in the country and to develop a roadmap for participation in GBIF.
The 8th GBIF Asia Regional Meeting is organized by the GBIF Secretariat, the GBIF Asia regional nodes committee, and the Biodiversity Conservation Agency of the Viet Nam Environment Administration in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
Support for the meeting is provided by the Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA), contributed by the Ministry of Environment, Government of Japan, and earmarked for activities in Asia.