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

1. ICIMOD’s Biodiversity Information and Gaps in Information Availability and Sharing in HKH Region Suman Jaiswal Knowledge Management and Database AssistantEmail: sjaiswal@icimod.org 5th AP-BON Meeting, 25-28 Nov. 2013 Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines

2. About ICIMODInternational Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) 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 Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan China India Myanmar Nepal Pakistan

3. Regional Programmes & Thematic Areas

4. 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

5. Long-term environment monitoring parameters & spatial scales Landscape Approach Variables: Atmosphere Indicators:Temperature, Precipitation, Relative humidity, Wind velocity, Solar radiation, etc. Ecosystem Variables: Cryosphere Indicators: Snow cover, Glacier area, Mass balance, Melt water yield, etc. Variables: Flora Indicators: Phytodiveresity, Phenology, Vegetation shift, etc. Drivers of change -> Cause-effect linkage -> Impact -> Response Variables: Fauna Indicators: Pop. Density, Diversity indices, Corridors And habitat shift, expansion, etc. Household Variables: Socio-economics of local communities Variables: State and Dynamics Indicators: Net primary productivity, Greening/browning, Altitudinal shift of vegetational zones, etc. Indicators: Demography pattern, Income, Pattern, Livestock pattern, etc.

6. 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

7. Biodiversity Significance of the HKH region • Biodiversity Hotspots • Endemic Bird Areas • Crisis Ecoregion • Centre for Plant Diversity • Megadiversity Countries • Global 200 ecoregions • High BD Wilderness Area • Frontier Forests • Last of the wild 39% of terrestrial area under protected areas (488 PAs); 330 Important bird areas; 29 Ramsar sites; 60 Ecoregions Chettri et al. 2008

8. The HKH biodiversity dataStatus- what we know

9. 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

10. 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

11. Data Portals

12. 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 Portal PAs in proposed landscapes = 44 PAs in HKH Region = 488 Recorded Species = 10,571 Threatenend Species = 86 Data sets from HKH region = 46 Total species from data sets = 17,201 PAs include IUCN Category from I to VI. Data available are from 2008. HKH-BIF More than 14,000 species list published More than 13,000 geo-referenced data collated and ready for publication Extensive data collection from other protected areas and the landscapes in progress By the end of 2013/14 more than 30,000 species listing expected

13. Global Outreach ABCD.Net

14. 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

15. 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