A team of 40 scientists leaded by Dr. Miguel Fernandez, Dra. Laetitia Navarro and Prof. Henrique Pereira with support of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) and GEO BON, integrated for the first time evidence of the status of biodiversity knowledge in Bolivia. The final goal of this initiative is the creation of a baseline from which biodiversity change can measured and that can be used towards better informing policy and decision making.
This project constitutes the first step in the process of creating a true biodiversity observatory in Bolivia. This effort includes several local institutions such as the Instituto de Ecología, the Herbario Nacional de Bolivia, and the Museo Noel Kempff Mercado, as well as international institutions such as NatureServe, EcoHealth Alliance, GBIF and iDiv.
Although this project was developed for Bolivia, the methods, protocols and standards developed here to address taxonomic, temporal and spatial inconsistencies in the data are also applicable to other mega-diverse regions where biodiversity data is sparse.
The lead researchers in the project acknowledge their collaborators:
“We have been extremely fortunate in this integrative effort, we feel grateful for the trust that every single researcher and data provider deposited on this initiative. Without the actual data, the tools, the models and the technology are practically useless.”
The next step for this initiative is to engage and support the Bolivian government in the decision making process that will help ensure that biodiversity is sustained as the Country continues on its path of development.
The results of this project published today can be found here:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14888386.2015.1068710