WP7

1. WP7 APPLYING TAXONOMY TO CONSERVATION State Museum of Natural History, Stuttgart (SMNS) Christoph Häuser & Klaus Riede Kickoff Meeting

2. Table of contents 1- WP7 goals and objectives 2- WP7 workplan – activities and deliverables 3- WP7ATBI+M operations 4- WP7site selection: workshop results Kickoff Meeting

3. Introduction The Challenge:Shortage of comprehensive (scientific) information for biodiversity conservation: • unknown dimensions of species/taxa still undiscovered (5 to >100 mio spp.??) • no global biodiversity catalogue / register at hand ! • no complete national fauna or flora available for many / most countries! • no completebiodiversity inventory available yet for any protected area in the World !! Kickoff Meeting

4. The Challenge No completebiodiversity inventory available yet for any protected area in the World !! Species details: „No details are currently available for any species. If you know of a species which exists in this protected area please complete the comment form.“ Kickoff Meeting

5. The Background ATBIs - All Taxa Biodiversity Inventories • ...attempting to record and document the entire biodiversity occurring at a specific site or area. • Where ATBIs have been undertaken at some depth, they have considerably increased the knowledge of the biodiversity of the area, frequently including the discovery of • dozens of new species or • hundreds of species previously unknown to the region Example: ATBI in Great Smoky Mountains National Parkhttp://www.dlia.org/atbi/index.shtml Kickoff Meeting

6. Objectives Strengthening the input of taxonomic expertise in Europe for biodiversity conservation programmes and policies, especially for inventories, assessments, and monitoring of biodiversity. Integrating user needs for taxonomic expertise from the conservation management side with research agendas for biosystematics and biogeography from leading European centres of excellence. Further development and promotion of standards, techniques and methodologies for state of the art and cost efficient biodiversity assessments including a new approach for an "All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory & Monitoring" (ATBI+M) programme. Establish a European expert task force for undertaking and supporting biodiversity inventories, assessments, and monitoring activities. Kickoff Meeting

7. WP7 Activities [7.1] Assessing biodiversity inventory and monitoring needs, evaluating relevant taxonomic capacities, and raising stakeholder awareness [7.2] Mobilising taxonomic resources and establishing the ATBI+M task force network [7.3] Developing standards, protocols, and toolsfor conducting an ATBI+M programme [7.4] Operating the ATBI+M task force and evaluating relevant methods and techniques [7.5] Sustaining the European ATBI+M task force and long term study sites Kickoff Meeting

8. Milestones and Deliverables Assessments: Needs for (taxonomic expertise for) biodiversity inventory and monitoring, particularly for selected areas of conservation concern across Europe Agreements: for operation of ATBI+M pilot sites (including management and sharing of data)- for participation in ATBI+M task force (assessment teams) Outputs: ATBI+M task force established Inventory data forEuropean ATBI+M sites available (M18, ongoing) Kickoff Meeting

9. Operations [M1-18] • Select and establish first ATBI+M pilot sites: • A first workshop was held at SMNS, 22-25 May 2006 • Mobilize taxonomic expertise: • Expressions of interest from taxonomists willing to participate in ATBI activities are available from Questionnaires distributed at the SMNS workshop. To establish the ATBI+M task force, input from the WP2 expert basis will be needed • Standardise protocols for (field) data capture and web publication: • Methods and tools for taxa inventories and monitoring have to be reviewed, standardised and promoted. A workshop on “Methods and Protocols for Field data Capture will be held around M11. Taxa Inventories will be published by a robust mySQL database, accessible through GBIF (in cooperation with WP5s “Internetplatform for cybertaxonomy”). • Outreach: Promote EDIT ATBI+M approach to conservation community: • Mobilisation of additional funds will be needed for full All Taxa Inventories and Monitoring for conservation and the 2010 targets. Kickoff Meeting

10. Establishing Pilot sites Call for Site Proposals from EDIT partners: 22 (16) proposals for Europe (and appr. 25 for Overseas sites) Kickoff Meeting

11. Establishing Pilot sites 22 proposals for Europe were entered into a GIS database Kickoff Meeting

12. Establishing Pilot Sites: Workshop Sites and Criteria were discussed during a workshop in Stuttgart. Our pilot trip plans • 40 participants from 14 countries. • Results were published on CD, distributed among all EDIT Team Leaders • Feedback by questionnaires (Ranking: 6-1) • Database established for ranking, comments and taxonomic expertise Kickoff Meeting

13. Selection of Pilot Sites: Criteria • Relevance for conservation • Available information on fauna & flora • state of the art of inventories, on-going monitoring • Ecosystem • representative of a region, heterogeneous, • threatened habitats and species, pristine • Logistics and Feasibility • Accessibility • Infrastructure (field station, accommodation, transport) • Support through counterparts and local hosts, including staff • Site administration interested to host ATBI (for long term) • Interest to seek additional funding for ATBI • Complementary data of the non-living world: existing (GIS) data on • meteorology, soil, geology, topography • future data collection assured • Potential Regional Network Our pilot trip plans Kickoff Meeting

14. Pilot Sites: other considerations Based on criteria and feedback from EDIT partners, we plan to select 4 European sites for the first phase (M1-18). Further sites can be added in the future (open, dynamic list). This selection has to be balanced geographically (incl. Eastern Europe) and taxonomically, reflecting interests and capacities of EDIT partners. Some sites are already running complementary activities, and EDIT might bestow a label, without investing much resources. Several sites have considerable potential for outreach. Other sites will not have any ATBI activity unless EDIT will take charge. Our pilot trip plans Kickoff Meeting

15. Proposed European pilot sites Feedback/Rating by partners Our pilot trip plans Kickoff Meeting

16. Next steps and perspectives • Besides pilot visits and negotiations with European sites • we need to organise and mobilise the (EDIT) taxonomic community! • We plan additional workshops on: • Methodology (sampling protocols, data capture & exchange) (Winter 06/07) • Overseas sites (early 2007) • We will install a prototype database before the end of 2006, which will be improved in cooperation with users and WP5 staff Our pilot trip plans Kickoff Meeting

17. Thank you Kickoff Meeting