Progress and plans
GBIF Work Programme
- contributions for 2019: 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 2b, 2c, 3a, 3c, 4b, 5a
- plans for 2020: 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 2b, 3a
Mission
The vision of GBIF Benin is to promote a prosperous Benin where researchers, teachers, students, natural resource managers, traditional practitioners ..., have free access to the maximum occurrence data on the country's biodiversity and use them commonly for the purpose of research to inform decision-making on the management and sustainable management of biodiversity.
To achieve this vision, the mission of GBIF Benin is as follows:
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Coordinate and promote biodiversity occurrence data publishing in order to make them freely accessible to researchers, students, teachers, traditional healers, natural resource managers ... all over the world via the Internet;
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Train the partners of GBIF-Benin (students, researchers, teachers, traditional healers, natural resource managers ...) in biodiversity informatics so as to enable data mobilization and data use;
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Achieve in-depth capacity building to students through the master program in biodiversity informatics that opened its classes in November 2017.
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Computer biodiversity training at the master and Ph.D. levels of learners to meet the challenge of lack of skills in the field of computer biodiversity in Benin;
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Promote relevant data uses to inform decision-making on the conservation and sustainable management of natural resources.
Funding
The funding sources of the Node are essentially through projects. The main funders are:
- JRS Biodiversity Foundation
- EU through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
- University of Abomey-Calavi through the master program in biodiversity informatics
History
Benin has been a member of GBIF since 2004. The signature of the GBIF memorandum on the affiliation of Benin to GBIF was made, on behalf of the Government of the country, by the ancient Ministry of the Environment, today, Ministry of the Living and Sustainable Development. Benin acquired the status of voting member in November 2011.
Structure
The host institution of the GBIF Benin Node is the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi.
The team of GBIF BENIN is composed of a head of delegation (Dr. Gaston AKOUEHOU), a node manager (Professor Jean Cossi GANGLO); a Responsible for GBIF Benin’s activities planning (Dr. Augustin KN AOUDJI), and a Responsible for GBIF Benin’s site management (Dr. KOURA Kourouma).
The steering committee is composed of the head of delegation (who comes from the General Direction of Waters, Forests and Hunting) and the node manager (who comes from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Abomey-Calavi).