Projects to establish biodiversity indicators in African countries
The CEBioS programme funded by the Belgian Development Cooperation developed a capacity development concept linking scientific data to policy development in some African countries. To guarantee shared ownership, academic institutes and organisations or authorities with responsibilities in biodiversity policy were invited to jointly submit competitive project applications on the development and use of biodiversity indicators. Projects from Burundi, Benin and DRCongo were selected and are now over: the reports are available online (http://www.biodiv.be/cebios2/calls/mrv-calls/2015-call).
A workshop on exchange of best practices and lessons learnt revealed that especially ground truthing, economic valuation of biodiversity, and the application of modern technologies in biodiversity monitoring were missing capacities in the global South. Also, efforts are needed to avoid that indicators remain a theoretical concept. A closing workshop will take place in Cotonou in October to establish a strategy for the dissemination of results among management and political actors of biodiversity. A new call was launched this year in DRCongo and projects about charcoal, fisheries and bushmeat already started.
More information on: http://www.biodiv.be/cebios2/calls/mrv-calls/