Charles Kahindo¹, Theeten Franck², Cael Garin², Noé Nicolas³, Manuana Jean‐Pierre, Kasajima Motonobu, Tchibozo Sévérin, 6Mergen Patricia²
¹ UOB, Université Officielle de Bukavu, DR Congo, ckahindo[at]yahoo.com;² Royal Museum For Central Africa (RMCA), Tervuren, Belgium; ³ Belgian Biodiversity Platform, ULB, Brussels, Belgium; CEDESURK, Centre de
Documentation de l’Enseignement Supérieur Universitaire et de la Recherche de Kinshasa, Kinshasa, DR Congo; UniversiTIC, DR Congo; CERGET, 6Centre de
Recherche pour la Gestion de la Biodiversité et du Terroir, Cotonou, Benin
Biodiversity Information in developing countries:
opportunities and challenges for promoting TDWG standards in
AfricaWG standards in Africa
BIODIVERSITY IN AFRICA
Wildlife, rich species diversity
Unique agr0-biodiversity
Wide range of ecosystems
WIDE RANGE OF STAKEHOLDERS
Exciting challenges and opportunities for the whole society including :biologists, computer scientists, information scientists ,bioinformaticists, policy-makers etc.
THE AFRICAN BIODIVERSITY NETWORK
Objectives
• Consolidate and expand an active and informed network of concerned Africans and their friends engaged in biodiversity issues on the ground
• Increase local and national capacity in Africa to protect biodiversity and community rights, and promote sustainable ecological practices.
• Catalyse African civil society and governments to take action that will protect and enhance biodiversity and local livelihoods.
Focus
Indigenous knowledge, agriculture and biodiversity related rights, policy and legislation.
The ABN is a network committed to unearthing and implementing African solutions to African problems and building solidarity on biodiversity and community rights issues on the continent.
BIODIVERSITY SUPPORT PROGRAMME
BSP (1993)
A Framework for Integrating Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development (1993)
The Biodiversity Support Program is a consortium of World Wildlife Fund, World Resources Institute and The Nature Conservancy, funded by the United States Agency for International Development.
This process of collaborative action between U.S. and African individuals and organizations was an educational and rewarding experience for everyone involved.
GLOBAL RECOGNITION
South African National Biodiversity
The South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) promotes easy and open access to biodiversity information. Through its Biodiversity GIS website it provides free access to biodiversity plans, maps and tools to support research, planning and decision-making.
NATIONAL AND REGIONAL LEVELS NETWORKS
SANBICentral African
Biodiversity Information Network (CABIN)
GBIF National Nodes
REGIONAL NETWORKS/MEETINGS
HIGHER LEARNING and RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS
CHALLENGES
Natural Hazards/Climate ChangeRegional Conflicts/InsecurityLimited ExpertiseSocio-economicsFunding LimitationsPoor GovernancePoor institutional frameworkFlow of raw dataData dissemination and knowledge sharing
CABIN INITIATIVE
Central Africa Biodiversity Information Network
Working closely with CEPDEC and GBIF
Workflow of Data Publication
Export in CSV document
(‘Comma separated values’)
Desktop source database
(eg. Excel)
1 2 3
GBIF portal
Local computerRegional servers publishing data on the web
Web
4
Internet PublishingToolkit
Or BioCASE provider
Workflow of Data Publication
Local computer
Regional servers publishing data on the web
WebData provider
Data consumer
Infrastructure: requires a certain degree of permanence (which can be relatively achieved by cooperation at institutional level)
User needs: more difficult to formalize-difficulty to reach scientists and base communities potentially interested in on-line information biodiversity and agriculture-dynamical evolution
Technical Support for and in Central African Countries
ChallengesLack of a common technical culture shared by biologists
and IT scientists (no IT part in many academic training scheme in biology)
Weakness of infrastructure (slow bandwidth) => but situation may improve rapidly
Academic training scheme may sometimes be « overspecialized »
=> knowledge impediment may occur according to the area of work of scientists
Technical Support for and in Central African Countries
StrengthsGood scientific and technical knowledge availableTechnical infrastructure is improving
Performant satellite connections between Universites in Congo DR (Eb@lé)
New Internet cable connection between Europe and East Africa: Eassy, etc…
Institutions of reference are already ‘open-source’ driven (factor lowering technical ‘insulation’ and obsolescence of technical know how)
Awareness of the need for local and regional synergies at institutional level and self-assess the needs in infrastructure
PLANNED ACTIVITIES
FOSTER COLLABORATION WITH MAIN AGRICULTURE RESEARCH STATIONS
PILOT PROJECT IN DRC TO INVOLVE 4 UNIVERSITIES AND 4 RESEARCH STATIONS.
PROVIDE A FRAMEWORK SETTING FOR A MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM OF SCIENTISTS,POLICY MAKERS
FOCUS ON AGRICUTURAL BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
DISSEMINATE KNOWLEDGE AND TOOLS TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES
CABIN 2010 activities
A one week training schema on «The Digtisation of Natural History Collections» has been organized in Kinshasa in June 2010. Facilities were provided by the CEDESURK (an academic library and IT resource center for higher educational institutions of Congo DR) and pedagogical content was given by RMCA and BeBIF
Pictures: Nicolas Noé (BeBIF)
CABIN 2010 activities
The GBIF manual « Digitisation of Natural History Collections Data » provided the backbone of the training.
The training session gathered 15 participants selected by a jury
One of the most important selection criterium was having a good balance between biological and IT profiles among the students
Topics covered: Introduction to the technical infrastructure of the GBIF network Introduction to the concept of metadata and DarwinCore as XML standards
mapping biodiversity data and metadata Data cleaning and quality checking Georeferencing (exercices with ‘DIVA-GIS’ and datasets provided by the attendants) Designing of a relational database model for biodiversity and ecological data
(exercices with OpenOffice « Base ») Introduction to project management (the « Project Cycle Management » approach
in capacity-building projects)
CABIN 2010 activities
The GBIF manual « Digitisation of Natural History Collections Data » is currently being translated into French (with support of the Belgian Development Collaboration, the French GBIF noe and the central GBIF secretary)
A mailing list gathering the students attending the training has been created and is very active.
CABIN 2010 activities
CABIN is also involved in the LINCAOCNET project (gathering of field data and publication of web portal on edible insects of Western and Central Africa targeting the base communities) managed by Séverin Tchibozo from the CERGET (environmelntal NGO from Benin) and supported by the OIF (‘Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie’). Ethno-Linguistical material will be provided with taxonomical and ecological information.
CABIN 2011 activities
Launching of a call to scientists from Central Africa willing use the CABIN technical infrastructure to publish their biodiversity data on the Internet (observation of collection data) and connect biodiversity networks sich as GBIF.
Mission in Kinshasa (at the CEDESURK) to maintain and update the technical infrastructure installed over there in 2009 (BioCASE data portal and BioCASE/pyWrapper provider)
• http://cabin.ebale.cd/CABINPortal
THANK YOU