New biodiversity tool to encourage conservation-driven decision making
UNEP 3 Aug 10;
Cambridge (United Kingdom), 3 August 2010 - Mount Kenya, the second-highest peak in Africa has been renowned for its wide tableau of animal and plant life, from the bamboo zone with its dense stands of bamboo to the upland forest, laden with orchids, ferns, wildflowers and trees.
But according to a new United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) database, animal and plant species living on the 5,199 meter peak are globally threatened.
In collaboration with leading conservation organisations, the UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) has devised Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) for governments, development banks and private sector organisations to access accurate and reliable information on biodiversity and critical natural habitats on a worldwide scale - to answer the seemingly simple question "Where on earth is biodiversity?"
Jon Hutton, Director of UNEP-WCMC said, "In the International Year of Biodiversity, IBAT proves a major stepping stone towards pushing conservation issues higher up the development agenda."
"Information generated by the tool can be factored into risk assessment reports and national or regional development strategies. It can also assist industries in implementing environmental safeguard policies and industry best practice standards," he added.
Presently, there is an overwhelming amount of information scattered across countless websites, publications and the broader scientific community, but no single, reliable, trusted place to retrieve this information.
However, in the case of IBAT, a family of web-enabled systems synthesise and interpret the most significant biodiversity information available for key decision-makers in the project planning stages when alternatives and changes are most economically viable.
Besides UNEP-WCMC, the IBAT Alliance comprises three other globally-respected international conservation organisations; BirdLife International, Conservation International (CI), International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) working on a shared programme of work in partnership with leading institutions from the public and private sectors.
These four organisations also represent some of the most established networks of national and regional environmental experts and organisations on the planet.
The IBAT Alliance represents an unprecedented step towards conservation data sharing and integration, enabling the private and public sectors to incorporate critical biodiversity information at key decision points in the planning and operation of development projects.
To achieve the broader vision of IBAT, the conservation partners are seeking to expand their collaboration to include additional partners from the private, public and community development sectors, particularly those organisations involved in implementing environmental safeguards and screening such as the multilateral development banks.
