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Member Countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean),
through the Asean Centre for Biodiversity (ACB), are working
together to share information that will strengthen efforts to
conserve the region’s rich biodiversity. On June 9 to 11, the
European Union-funded ACB held the second Sub-Regional Workshop on
Mechanism for Biodiversity Data Sharing and Harmonization in Lao PDR
to establish effective ways to share the region’s wealth of
biodiversity information among Asean Member Countries. The first
sub-regional workshop was held in Hanoi, Viet Nam on March 11 to 14.
Home to over 64,000 of the world’s known
species of plants and animals, the Asean Region is a treasure trove
of biodiversity information waiting to be shared among countries to
aid in conservation efforts. However, the region lacks a
well-established mechanism to efficiently share such information
among the 10 Southeast Asian countries.
“A biodiversity information sharing mechanism
is crucial to ensuring the protection and conservation of the
region’s rich biological diversity. The workshop will provide a
venue for representatives of Asean member-countries to build a means
of exchanging not only data, but experiences, best practices, and
other learnings, as well, It is expected to strengthen biodiversity
information exchange networks in the region, and build much-needed
capacity on database management and utilization,” ACB executive
director Rodrigo Fuentes said.
The Biodiversity Information Management (BIM)
Component of ACB is organizing the sub-regional workshop in Luang
Prabang, a World Heritage Site in. Lao PDR. Participants are
biodiversity information managers and data providers from
government, non-government organizations, universities, and research
institutions of Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Lao PDR.
BIM Director Connie Garcia said the sub-regional
workshop in Luang Prabang is a follow-up to a regional workshop on
Biodiversity Data and Information Harmonization conducted by ACB in
Vientiane, Lao PDR in November 2007. In the Vientiane workshop
action plan, the participants recommended the holding of a series of
sub-regional workshops on information sharing, database development,
and networking to serve as venue for mentoring and discussion on
strengthening networks of data providers and users.
“Central to the Luang Prabang and future
sub-regional workshops will be the discussion on the Clearing House
Mechanism (CHM), a knowledge management tool designed to facilitate
the exchange of biodiversity information. ACB is promoting the use
of CHM not only as a tool to share biodiversity information, but
also as an aid to effectively implement national biodiversity
strategies and action plans of each country. Through a series of
workshops, ACB will assist Asean Member Countries in establishing
their CHM national focal points and websites. Information shared
among countries will assist conservation policymakers and
stakeholders in meeting their countries’ obligations to the
Convention on Biological Diversity,” Director Garcia explained.
Joining Director Garcia in the roster of
workshop speakers are Lucy Fish, UN Environment Programme World
Conservation Monitoring Centre WDPA data manager, and Janice
Bautista, ACB knowledge management specialist.
For details, call (+6349) 536-2865 and (+6349)
536-1044, e-mail contact.us@aseanbiodiversity.org, or visit www.aseanbiodiversity.org.
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