Enhancing institutional capacity for biodiversity data management in the Hindu Kush Himalaya using the Global Biodiversity Information Facility’s Open Access Platform

About the regional training

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), under their Memorandum of Understanding, aim to support ICIMOD’s  Regional Member Countries (RMCs) – namely Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan – in publishing various biodiversity datasets for the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) using structured open-access data publishing toolkit, such as that developed by the GBIF.

This regional training is designed to strengthen the capability of key institutions working for biodiversity management in the aforementioned RMCs to manage, standardise and publish biodiversity data; in effect, building a community of data-publishing institutions that can leverage and amplify the use of open access data (for example, GBIF-mediated data) in biodiversity research and decision making.

The regional training is supported by GBIF’s Capacity Enhancement Support Programme and ICIMOD. The National Biodiversity Centre of Bhutan, Zoological Survey of India, Forest Action-Nepal and the National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, China, are providing technical expertise. This collaboration is expected to build future partnerships for joint actions and proposal development. Following this workshop, there will be post-training national dissemination webinars on sensitising other agencies/institutions in the participating countries.

Objectives

This training workshop aims at:

• Strengthening open-access biodiversity data mobilisation capability of institutions working for biodiversity management in the HKH region.
• Imparting knowledge on GBIF’s global biodiversity data publishing platform and strengthening the know-how of making such data more useful for biodiversity research and management decisions.
• Raising awareness about the Hindu-Kush Himalaya Biodiversity Information Facility (HKH-BIF) – a regional data publishing platform, comparable to GBIF’s open access platform, hosted at ICIMOD.
• Initiating and securing endorsement of participating institutions and others, such as individual researchers, as GBIF publishers.
• Introducing training participants on the formal participation process in GBIF and facilitating further discussions based on interest.

Background

The HKH region, housing four global biodiversity hotspots, faces significant biodiversity threats from land-use change, habitat degradation, climate change, pollution, and invasive species. Despite advancements in biodiversity research across the HKH countries, there is a notable gap in institutional awareness about the importance of open access biodiversity data and consequently, in the technical capacity of mobilising and managing such data in the region. This gap is particularly evident in the underutilisation of platforms like the GBIF and its regional nodes, such as the HKH-BIF hosted by ICIMOD. It is vital to enhance understanding and utilisation of these platforms for effective biodiversity data publishing and sharing, and fostering uptake of such data in biodiversity research and decision making. To address these capacity needs ICIMOD is leading a project on enhancing the capacity of institutions working for biodiversity management within the region, in collaboration with partner organisations from Bhutan, China, India, and Nepal.

Participation

Participants in the regional workshop were selected through an open call. We received applications from 90 individuals. Based on their stated interests and ability to advance the biodiversity data publishing work in their respective countries, we have selected 10 participants from Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, and Nepal for this regional training workshop.