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Home page of GEO BON
GEO BON stands for the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network. By facilitating and linking efforts of countries, international organizations, and individuals, GEO BON will contribute to the collection, management, sharing, and analysis of data on the status and trends of the world’s biodiversity. Read more about GEO BON….
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Highlights
GEO BON is growing
GEO BON's different partners and participants are building the implementation plan that will be presented at the next GEO plenary. In the meantime, GEO BON is becoming more visible and a recent article in Science (vol 321, 1044-45) is now available.
This article is describing GEOSS, GEO BON and its contribution to Biodiversity observation and conservation. This is an important step forward to ensure GEO BON recognition and its development over next months will be important.
For more information, please contact GEO Secretariat. |
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GEO BON News
Convention on Biological Diversity or CBD supports GEO BON
The 190 member governments of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) adopted a decision on 30 May recognizing the importance of the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON). The decision on "Monitoring, Assessment and Indicators" has not yet been posted at the CBD web site, but the paragraphs inviting governments, organizations and other stakeholders to support GEO BON can be read here:
10. Notes the initiation of a Biodiversity Observation Network, established under the Group on Earth Observation, and the development of an implementation plan for the network, as part of the implementation of the Societal Benefit Area on Biodiversity of the Global Earth Observation System of Systems, and invites Parties, other Governments, relevant organizations, scientists and other relevant stakeholders to support this endeavour;
11. Requests the [CBD] Executive Secretary to continue collaborating with the Biodiversity Observation Network with a view to promoting coherent biodiversity observation with regard to data architecture, scales and standards, observatory network planning and strategic planning for its implementation.
The Group on Earth Observations is currently developing the implementation plan for GEO BON with the aim of adopting it at the GEO annual meeting next November in Beijing.
GEO BON deployment - continued
The first GEO BON workshop, hosted by the Government of Germany in April 2008 in Potsdam, was attended by over 90 organizations and government agencies active in the field of biodiversity monitoring. After three days of discussions, the participants agreed to start building GEO BON. This means that national, regional and global organizations are now starting to take practical steps to harmonize their data and information systems, identify and address gaps and overlaps in existing coverage, and ensure the continuity and sustainability of biodiversity information.
The next several years will be critical to GEO BON’s development. A key priority will be to establish an enhanced ability to identify ecosystems that are unique or highly diverse; that support migratory, endemic or globally threatened species; that are of socio-economic importance; and that can support the 2010 target agreed under the Convention on Biological Diversity.
GEO BON creation
GEO, January 2007, The Group on Earth Observations, NASA and DIVERSITAS announces the formation of a new global partnership to collect, manage, analyse and report on the status and trends of the world's biodiversity. The newly established community seeks to ensure that adequate biodiversity data and information will be generated, analysed and included in the ongoing effort to establish a Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS).
A workshop of governmental, non-governmental, academic, national and international institutions co-sponsored by DIVERSITAS, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Global Terrestrial Observing System GTOS, UNESCO-MAB and GEO was held in Geneva 23-25 October 2006 with over 40 biodiversity conservation institutions represented.
The members of this workshop proposed to establish a website which provides a declaration defining the goals of the initiative.
Biodiversity News
Extinction threat growing for mankind’s closest relatives
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Grey-shanked douc langur, (Pygathrix cinerea), Asia - Tilo Nadler |
IUCN Press Release August 08 - Mankind’s closest relatives – the world’s monkeys, apes and other primates – are disappearing from the face of the Earth, with some being literally eaten to extinction.
Issued at the 22nd International Primatological Society Congress in Edinburgh, Scotland, the report by the world’s foremost primate authorities presented a chilling indictment on the state of primates everywhere. In Asia, more than 70 percent of primates are classified on the IUCN Red List as Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered – meaning they could disappear forever in the near future.
Habitat destruction, through the burning and clearing of tropical forests, which also emits at least 20 percent of the global greenhouse gases, is a major threat to primates. Other threats include the hunting of primates for food and an illegal wildlife trade.
Elsewhere, species from tiny mouse lemurs to massive mountain gorillas face challenges to survive.
Read the full story!
New species discovered in Brazil
Conservation International, 29 April 2008, BRAZIL -- Researchers discovered a legless lizard and a tiny woodpecker along with 12 other suspected new species in Brazil’s Cerrado, one of the world’s 34 biodiversity conservation hotspots.
An expedition comprising scientists from Conservation International (CI) and Brazilian universities found 14 species believed new to science – eight fish, three reptiles, one amphibian, one mammal, and one bird – in and around the Serra Geral do Tocantins Ecological Station, a 716,000-hectare (1,769,274-acre) protected area that is the Cerrado’s second largest.
The scientists call for an improvement in Protected Areas knowledge, which will improve the management plan of these conservation hotspots and other relevant natural areas.
For more information go to: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-04/ci-nsd042808.php
Endangered river dolphins
WWF, 10 March 2008, SANTIAGO DE CALI, COLOMBIA -- A milestone in the protection of the world's endangered river dolphins has been achieved with the successful completion of an ambitious 13 river, five nation census survey of South America's river dolphins.
The census, which took two years and recorded 3188 pink and gray dolphins in 3.600 km of rivers in the Amazon and Orinoco basins, was key to development of a standard methodology for assessing river dolphin populations and the threats they face.
Read full WWF web article…
Wetlands International
The Wings Over Wetlands Project (WOW) has launched its website. The site is presenting a wealth of information about this major international project.
The project is working to enhance the conservation of waterbirds and the wetlands they depend on in the African Eurasian region. For this we train people, conduct demonstration projects, develop webbased information tools and advocate the flyway approach internationally.
Wetlands International is the overall technical lead organisation of the Wings Over Wetlands Project, and is contracted by the donor, UNOPS/UNEP-GEF as the senior lead contractor.
The project is conducted together with Birdlife International, the African Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA,) the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, UNOPS, UNEP-WCMC and several other partners on specific issues.
Go to www.WingsOverWetlands.org to see this beautiful new website
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