Minister opens Meeting on Global Sharing of Biodiversity Data


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Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change opened  (MoEFCC) 21st meeting of the Governing Board of Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 16th September, 2014.

In his welcome address Shri Hem Pande, Additional Secretary, MoEFCC & Head of the Indian Delegation said that he was pleased to note that delegates from over 30 countries and institutions had come for this meeting. He said that MoEFCC was committed to develop the science of biodiversity informatics and make best use of GBIF resources. In his inaugural address to the delegates, Shri Javadekar said “While India has emerged as a global powerhouse of information technology we have not yet made use of the   full potential of biodiversity informatics in policy formulation and decision-making”. However, we stand committed to developing “biodiversity informatics” as an essential element of India’s economic, environment and social well-being. We are in the process of building a comprehensive and decentralized biodiversity information infrastructure to serve the national interests and to provide inter-operability with regional and global initiatives”. He further said that a lot of biodiversity data of Indian origin is with several natural history museums in the world and this valuable legacy data was needed by the Indian researchers. Several ongoing global and regional biodiversity informatics initiatives for sharing this biodiversity data with the countries of origin are gaining momentum. He requested GBIF and its partners to expedite and institutionalize the process of digital exchange of this data.

In a message to the governing board meeting, the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Braulio Dias emphasized that GBIF’s role was critical to improve the scientific knowledge needed in order to sustain healthy ecosystems.

“I therefore appeal, not only to this forum but also within the CBD constitutency, to recognize the benefits of a viable, active and strong GBIF, primarily to benefit countries in having access to information to guide their own sustainable development agenda,” Mr Dias said.

In his introduction to the three-day meeting in New Delhi, the GBIF Governing Board Chair Peter Schalk said that India had an important role to play in GBIF,  and carried a global responsibility, being the second largest country in the world in human population, and containing a great wealth of biodiversity including 7% of the world’s mammal species, 12% of birds, 6% of reptiles, 5% of amphibians, 11% of fishes, and 6% of the flowering plants of the planet.

 "India has a lot to offer to GBIF and the global biodiversity community in terms of data and biodiversity expertise,” Schalk commented. “In its turn, GBIF offers a good value proposition to India in terms of open data resources, ICT tools and international collaboration.”

In his own opening statement to the meeting, the GBIF Executive Secretary Donald Hobern praised India for developing a National Biodiversity Information Outlook, to provide a roadmap for developing a national infrastructure for biodiversity information.

“We live in an age in which we all increasingly depend on instant access to up-to-date digital information on finances, weather, transport and air quality,” Hobern said. “We have just as much need to be able to track the status of biodiversity and how its patterns change over time.  GBIF at the global level and GBIF nodes at the national level are all working together to create this infrastructure and to support our societies with immediate access to the best available knowledge of natural systems.”

On this occasion ShriPrakashJavedekar, Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change also released 3 Botanical Survey of India publications viz. “Flora of Lower Subansiri District, Arunachal Pradesh State”, “Fascicles of flora of India”  and “VanapatiVani”. He also released 4 Zoological Survey of India publications viz. “Fauna of Achanakmar-Amarkantak Biosphere”, “Freshwater Crabs”, “Gorgonians in Andaman and Nicobar Island” and “Fauna of State of Karnataka”. He also launched the re-engineered websites of the Botanical and Zoological Survey of India.