Nine projects dedicated to the mobilization and use of biodiversity data in Asia will receive funding totalling €120,000 from the Biodiversity Information Fund for Asia (BIFA) programme. The latest call drew a highly competitive set of responses leading to the selection of project teams representing 13 Asian countries and seven international partners and covering a wide range of target areas for mobilization of data. Cofunding from GBIF nodes and other agencies leveraged by these projects brings the total funding value to more than €225,000.
2019 BIFA project grantees
| Project | Country of main contact | Funding from BIFA | Cofunding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Major historical collections from North Korea | Republic of Korea | €15,000 | €17,442 |
| Sumatran flora (part II) | Indonesia | €14,881 | €8,086 |
| Using acoustics to fill the gaps of bat biodiversity information for Southeast Asia | Malaysia | €14,838 | €23,935 |
| Indonesian butterfly collections at the Museum Zoologi Bogor | Indonesia | €14,700 | €13,900 |
| Expanding the value and reach of plant data mobilization in Pakistan | Pakistan | €15,000 | €16,714 |
| Butterflies of Singapore & Peninsular Malaysia | Singapore | €14,728 | €14,728 |
| Reptile and amphibian specimens at the Bombay Natural History Society | India | €14,006 | €14,828 |
| Plant species occurrences and sampling-event data from Northern Lebanon | Lebanon | €2,000 | €4,000 |
| Vietnamese herbarium cryptogam collections | Viet Nam | €14,990 | €10,070 |
Project activities will kick off with representatives from all projects attending the upcoming GBIF regional engagement meeting and data mobilization workshop in Hanoi, Viet Nam, in early July.
Managed by the GBIF Secretariat, the BIFA programme is funded by the Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan to support network activities in Asia.