Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA)

Workshops, Conferences & Webinars

Open Access to, and publication of, Mountain Biodiversity Data of the Hindu Kush Himalayan region

Kathmandu, Nepal, 14-18 June 2010

Kathmandu 2010 workshop report (PDF, 461KB)

Background

The Hindu-Kush Himalayan region (HKH) is endowed with a rich variety of species and ecosystems of global importance and it is on the priority list for many global conservation agendas. This region provides numerous vital ecosystem services including fresh water that serves more than 200 million people in the immediate vicinity and 1.3 billion people living in the downstream river basins.

All the eight HKH regional member countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan) are signatories to the Convention on Biological Diversity and are committed to conservation. As a measure towards the immediate protection of globally significant landscapes, these countries have set aside more than 39 percent of their most biologically rich land terrain; the region now has a total of 488 protected areas, 29 Ramsar sites, 13 UNESCO Heritage sites and 330 Important Bird Areas.

Despite its importance, this region is one of the least studied in the globe. The available data on the HKH are sporadic, inaccessible and in different formats and standards. Inventorying, assessing, documenting and sharing HKH biodiversity information is essential to improve the understanding, conservation and effective management of this biodiversity. Because of this, there is an urgent need of filling the existing taxonomic and geographical data gaps.

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in cooperation with other knowledge enabling institutions such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment (GMBA), encourages a global effort to make biodiversity data accessible and mobilise biodiversity databases on mountain organisms, to achieve a better understanding of mountain biodiversity and predicting its changes.

Objectives of the workshop

  1. Bringing the eight regional member countries together to discuss on the opportunity that GBIF infrastructure and framework represents for primary biodiversity data discovery, publishing and use for the HKH countries and region
  2. Strengthening the capacity of biodiversity researchers and data publishers from the HKH region to discover, digitize and publish biodiversity data by adopting GBIF promoted tools, standards and processes
  3. Developing a framework and the partnerships needed for continuous promotion of easy and open access to standardized and harmonized biodiversity information on the HKH region.

Participants

  • Eva Spehn (GMBA coordinator), GMBA office, Institute of Botany, University of Basel, Switzerland
  • Eklabya Sharma, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Basanta Shrestha, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Nakul Chettri, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Birendra Bajracharya, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Kiran Shakya, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Bandana Shakya, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Vishwas Chavan, GBIF, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Falk Huettmann, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, USA
  • Sunita Chaudhary, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Suman Jaiswal, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Bikash Dangol, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Sudip Pradhan, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Jennysa Chhetri, ICIMOD, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Sayed Humayoon Jalal, Ministry Of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, Kabul, Afghanistan
  • Ahmad Shah Amarkhil, Ministry Of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock, Kabul, Afghanistan
  • Zaheer Iqbal, Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Momtaz Mahal Mirza, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • Ngawang Gyeltshen, National Biodiversity Centre, Thimphu, Bhutan
  • Singye Wangmo, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Thimpu, Bhutan
  • Wang Yun, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, P.R. China
  • He Yongtao, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lhasa, Tibet autonomous region, P.R. China
  • Han Xi, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, P.R. China
  • K Chandra Sekar, G B Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development, Almora, India
  • Gautam Talukdar, Wildlife Institute of India, Chandrabani, India
  • Uma Shankar, North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong, India
  • Anand Gazmer, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment, Darjeeling, India
  • Zaw Min Htun, Ministry of Forest, Myanmar
  • Hla Hla Yi, Ministry of Forest, Myanmar
  • Chitra Bahadur Baniya, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Ukesh Raj Bhuju, Nepal National Committee of IUCN Members, Kathmandu, Nepal
  • Gopal Prakash Bhattarai, Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, Babar Mahal, Nepal
  • Gauri Shankar Timala, Lalitpur, Nepal
  • Giorgi Mikeladze, Tbilisi Botanical Garden & Institute of Botany, Tbilisi, Georgia
  • Faiz Ali Khan, Ministry of Environment, Islamabad, Pakistan
  • Ketevan Batsatsashvili, Tbilisi Botanical Garden & Institute of Botany, Tbilisi, Georgia