Capacity building for Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Progress report 2011: Indo- Norwegian pilot project on capacity building in biodiversity informatics for enhanced decision making, improved nature conservation and sustainable development

Abstract

This report describes the activities and achievements in 2011 of the Indo- Norwegian pilot project on capacity building in biodiversity informatics for enhanced decision making, improved conservation and sustainable development in India. The pilot project is initiated and funded by the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign affairs, the Norwegian Environmental Ministry and the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management. The pilot project is also highly welcomed and explicitly supported by the Government of India. Capacity building has been identified as an essential component of IPBES. The Norwegian Government acknowledges the need for capacity building and has developed and initiated several projects addressing capacity building needs in partner countries. The Norwegian Institute for Nature research (NINA) were during the spring 2011 invited by the Norwegian Directorate for Nature Management to initiate and coordinate a pilot project on ca-pacity building under IPBES. India was early identified as an ideal partner country for the reali-zation of a capacity building pilot project both because of the rich biodiversity in the country and because of the recent development towards establishment of the Indian Biodiversity Infor-mation Facility (INBIF). Coordinated by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), INBIF is the national node for linkage with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). In the context of INBIF, WII has the mandate from the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to build capacity for effective biodiversity information management. The main objective of the pilot project is to build capacity to enable free sharing, access and dissemination of biodiversity and ecosystem data in India to be used in policy and knowledge-based decision-making. This also includes a mapping of relevant biodiversity data originating from India and held in the Norwegian natural museum`s collections. The project is led, coordinated and partially executed by NINA and the Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre (NBIC). NINA will provide its expertise in managing camera-trap projects and together with NBIC and the Norwegian GBIF- node provide the expertise acquired from building the Norwegian biodiversity infrastructure. The Indian counterpart WII will be responsi-ble for the implementation and progress of the project nationally within India. The GBIF Secre-tariat in Copenhagen will provide guidance about international data standards, training and ca-pacity building on Biodiversity Informatics.