International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development Kathmandu, Nepal ICIMOD’s Biodiversity Information and Gaps in Information Availability and Sharing in HKH Region Suman Jaiswal Knowledge Management and Database Assistant 5th AP-BON Meeting, Nov Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines

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

Regional Programmes & Thematic Areas

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

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

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

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

The HKH biodiversity data Status- what we know Estimated number of species (Various sources) AmphibiansReptilesBirdsMammals Vascular Plants Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan China India Myanmar Nepal Pakistan

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

Data sharing mechanism and platforms open 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

Data Portals

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 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

Global Outreach ABCD.Net

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 ( ) – 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

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

Thank you