The Circumpolar |
The Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program (CBMP) is an international network of scientists, government agencies, Indigenous organizations and conservation groups working together to harmonize and integrate efforts to monitor the Arctic's living resources. The CBMP facilitates Arctic biodiversity conservation and the sustainable use of the region's natural resources.
Its goal is to facilitate more rapid detection, communication, and response to significant biodiversity-related trends and pressures. It does this by (1) Harmonizing and enhancing Arctic monitoring efforts, thereby improving the ability to detect and understand significant trends; and (2) Reporting to, and communicating with, key decision makers and stakeholders, thereby enabling effective conservation and adaptation responses to changes in Arctic biodiversity.
Below is the for summary of main CBMP activities, further details on timelines and budgets can be found in the annual reports and work plans for each of the CBMP Monitoring Plans.
Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio EcoHealth Alliance |
Miguel Fernandez NatureServe |
Intro coming soon...
coming soon...
Maria Cecilia Londoño |
Since 2015, GEO BON directly works with Colombia’s Alexander von Humboldt Institute to design a Colombian National BON. During 2015, and with the cooperation of GIZ (Germany), an assessment of the national capacities for Biodiversity Observation Systems in Colombia was undertaken. Following the Bon in a Box components (i.e. collection, management, analysis and reporting), an inventory of the tools produced and used by National Environmental Information System (SINA) institutions was consolidated.
In 2016, a core team from the SINA produced a Conceptual and Methodological Framework for Biodiversity Regional Assessments that was based on the 9 steps proposed by GEO BON to establish an Observation System (Fig. 9) and the Conceptual Framework for Regional Assessment of IPBES. The focus of this Framework is to link decision-makers’ information needs with biodiversity indicators and observation systems.
The work on the development of the Colombian BON has served as an example for other countries, namely Brazil and South Africa, in order to establish their National BONs. The overall process and approach for designing the national BON will be communicated as a CBD Technical Publication that will be used by GEO BON to serve as an applied provider of biodiversity observation expertise to the Parties of the CBD.
Haigen Xu |
China BON has received wide support from the Central Government, Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), Ministry of Finance (MF) and the scientific community from China, with an annual financial allocation of approximately US$ 5.8 million from MEP and MF. Under the planning and coordination of Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, China BON has attracted approximately 3500 trained biologists, protected area managers and volunteer citizen scientists from over 400 universities, research institutes, protected areas and civil societies to get involved in field monitoring of biodiversity, currently consisting of mammals, birds, amphibians and butterflies. China BON adopted national standards and field protocols for biodiversity monitoring promulgated by MEP. 441 target regions (counties) were selected and applied for monitoring with >9000 line transects and point transects.
In China BON, raw data were systematically collected, including the name of species, location and number of individuals, type and vegetation of habitats, weather conditions, and categories of anthropogenic disturbance (e.g. infra-structure development, resources exploitation, pollution, hunting, tourism, agriculture, husbandry and fishery) and extent (strong, moderate, low or none). The corresponding EBVs that can be generated by China BON encompass abundance and distribution, taxonomic diversity, habitat structure and quality, and phenology.
To enhance the sustainability of China BON, trained biologists were coupled with volunteer citizen scientists. At least one professional biologist was included in each monitoring team while well trained volunteers are also involved to extend limited staff and budgets for the long-term monitoring goal. At present, China BON’s Work Plan has been approved by the State Council of China. In particular, the operationalization of biodiversity monitoring networks based on this study has been listed as one of the key action plans by China National Economy and Social Development Planning in the 13th Five-Year Plan and approved by the National People’s Congress in 2016.
Currently, China has experienced a very rapid growth in population and economy. Biodiversity monitoring can provide timely and accurate data for regional or national management needs and policy making. Lack of monitoring data can reduce the capacity for informed decision-making and timely reporting on progress towards conservation targets. Hence, the activities of the China BON for the 2017-2020-time period will focus on the monitoring of mammals, birds, amphibians, and butterflies.
Yvan Le Bras National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) |
Jean-Denis Vigne National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) |
ECOSCOPE is a national “biodiversity (meta)data hub” dedicated to “Observation for Research on Biodiversity”. It is led by the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) - a science-support & science-policy interface founded by eight French research institutions: CNRS, INRA, IRSTEA, IRD, IFREMER, BRGM, MNHN, CIRAD. The overall objective of the French BON is to contribute to document the state and to understand the trends of the biodiversity and to build scenarios for the future.
From 2018 onward, ECOSCOPE will join the national Data Synthesis Centre (CESAB) in a common joint venture, covering data analysis and scientific topics (including EBVs). The technical part may be transferred to the national node of GBIF (GBIF-France) with the following requirements: to widen the coverage of the levels of organization of biodiversity in the French information system and to allow management of metadata, not only specific biodiversity data.
Tetsukaza Yahara Kyushu University, Japan |
Eun-Shik Kim Kookmin University, Seoul Korea |
Sheila Vergara ASEAN Centre for Biodiversity |
The Asia Pacific BON, or AP-BON, was organized by the participants of the International Workshop for Networking Biodiversity Observation Activities in Asia Pacific Region held from July 21-22 2009, in Nagoya University, Japan. It was established as a regional network related to GEO BON, covering most countries of the Asia-Pacific region and covering all levels of biodiversity and ecosystems. As of 2017, some BONs are already operational at the national and sub-regional levels but there remains a need to organize more National BONs and organize their network, with the support of the GEO BON Secretariat and BON Development Working Group. Training courses were organized and are available through GBIF as funded by BIFA. There is however still a need to expand to other areas and parts of Asia and Pacific.
The core objective of the APBON for the 2017 – 2020-time period is to move toward developing a broader network of biodiversity observations (Table 14). To that extent, AP BON will promote data sharing to increase access to biodiversity related information that will enable the effective monitoring of changes in biodiversity. Gaps in available information will be addressed by improving collaboration among researchers in observation sites, designing incentives for data publications and deriving solutions to relevant science questions.
AP BON also highlighted the need to improve communication and collaboration among BONs, to identify more national, thematic and regional BONs and to reach out to other parts of Asia and the Pacific. The future of AP BON relies on the participation of young scientists and will thus endeavour to engage them in participating in deriving solutions to conservation issues and in preparing joint publications.