International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

Kathmandu, Nepal

ICIMOD’s Biodiversity Information and Gaps in Information Availability and Sharing in HKH Region

Suman JaiswalKnowledge Management and Database AssistantEmail: sjaiswal@icimod.org

5th AP-BON Meeting, 25-28 Nov. 2013Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines

About ICIMODInternational Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD)

Afghanistan

Bhutan

Pakistan

Myanmar

India

China

Bangladesh

Nepal

Intergovernmental organization serving 8 regional member countries mandated for the Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH)

Regional platform for mountain learning, knowledge and enabling centre

Promote regional cooperation

Build capacities and link research with policy and practice

Regional Programmes & Thematic Areas

Regional Database Initiative

• Centre-wise database platform

• Incorporates geospatial, socioeconomic and multi-thematic data

• Integrated management of time-series databases and information systems

– Thematic organization of data

– River basin approach

– Transect/Landscape approach

• Data and information sharing policies

Livelihoods

Water and Air

Geospatial Solutions

Ecosystem Services

Long-term environment monitoring parameters & spatial scales

Household

Ecosystem

Landscape Approach

Variables: State and DynamicsIndicators: Net primary productivity, Greening/browning, Altitudinal shift of vegetational zones, etc.

Indicators: Demography pattern, Income, Pattern, Livestock pattern, etc.

Variables: Socio-economics of local communities

Variables: Flora

Indicators: Phytodiveresity, Phenology, Vegetation shift, etc.

Variables: Fauna

Indicators: Pop. Density,Diversity indices, CorridorsAnd habitat shift, expansion,etc.

Variables: Atmosphere

Indicators: Temperature, Precipitation, Relative humidity, Wind velocity, Solar radiation, etc.

Variables: Cryosphere

Indicators: Snow cover, Glacier area, Mass balance, Melt water yield, etc.

Drivers

of change ->

Cause

-effect

linka

ge -> Im

pact -> R

esponse

Landscapes and Transects in the HKH region

• Consistent and comparable data

• Co-location and network of centres for long-term monitoring on climate and ecological system

• Representation with latitudinal and longitudinal coverage

Biodiversity Significance of the HKH region

Crisis Ecoregion Biodiversity Hotspots

Endemic Bird Areas

Centre for Plant Diversity

Megadiversity Countries

High BD Wilderness Area

Frontier Forests

Last of the wild

Global 200 ecoregions

39% of terrestrial area under protected areas (488 PAs); 330 Important bird areas; 29 Ramsar sites; 60 Ecoregions Chettri et al. 2008

The HKH biodiversity dataStatus- what we know

Estimated number of species (Various sources) Amphibians Reptiles Birds Mammals Vascular

Plants

Afghanistan 6-8 92-112 428-515 137-150 3500-4000

Bangladesh 23 154 632 131 7400

Bhutan 2 29 770 165 5500 China 340 424 1221 502 32200 India 233 521 1200 422 18664 Myanmar 300 285 1200 300 7766

Nepal 77 123 864 203 6973 Pakistan 17 190 666 195 4950

Rationale for an open access database

• Scattered and isolated datasets with many players

• Lack of culture towards open access to data

• Intellectual property rights and other legal issues

• Lack of data discovery mechanism

• Fewer data are digitised and published

• Lack of compliance with data interoperability standards

• Variations in priorities, expertise and data requirements

Data sharing mechanism and platformsopen access, free data, public domain

• Regional Database Initiative• Thematic Geo Portals

(web-based access to GIS data and satellite imagery, interactive mapping and visualization, with the aim of providing scientists, environmental managers, and decision-makers with easy access to information)

• Land cover dynamics (Myanmar, Pakistna, Bhtan, Nepal)

• HKH Conservation Portal• HKH HYCOS (Regional Flood Info system)

• Status of Glaciers in the HKH Region• Forest Fire Detection & Monitoring (Nepal)

• Kathmandu Valley Earthquake Emergency & Response Management System

• Indus Basin Initiative• And many more

• HIMALDOC• HKH-BIF

Data Portals

Data Portals: HKH-CP, HKH-BIF, Mountain GeoPortals

• Regional repository - contains biodiversity and conservation related information from the HKH region

• Open access - which promotes free and open access to both primary and secondary data, information, and knowledge for conservation purposes

• Mutual benefit - encourages users to both use and contribute data, information, and knowledge

• Rights and responsibilities - gives full attribution to contributors for any use of their data

HKH-Conservation PortalPAs in proposed landscapes = 44PAs in HKH Region = 488Recorded Species = 10,571Threatenend Species = 86Data sets from HKH region = 46Total species from data sets = 17,201

PAs include IUCN Category from I to VI. Data available are from 2008.

HKH-BIFMore than 14,000 species list published More than 13,000 geo-referenced data collated and ready for publicationExtensive data collection from other protected areas and the landscapes in progress

By the end of 2013/14 more than 30,000 species listing expected

Global Outreach

ABCD.Net

Challenges and way forward

• Data sharing for improved decision making is not that easy (culture, practices)

• Addressing taxonomic anomaly and incentive for data publishing is still not very clear

• Sustaining activities without long term funding is a challenge

• Capacity building of partners limited – New MoUs with GLORIA, RBGE

• ICIMOD is in new MTAP (2013-2017) – Data-knowledge-policy interface – focusing on scientific and convincing – Data papers in preparation

• Continued support from GBIF members, mentoring, special agreement for initial stage support necessary

Future perspective

• Discover ALL available data

• Demand-driven publishing

• Be scientifically and socially relevant

• Follow components of ‘Strategy’ devising process.

• 5-10% budget for data generation and publishing from all biodiversity related projects

• Data management emphasized initiatives

• New features to be integrated in existing data portals

• Aspiration to be important partner to IPBES

Thank you