CEPF E-News Update January 2012

“While most of the countries in this hotspot face tremendous challenges in terms of human needs and development pressure, there are also great opportunities for preserving vital ecosystems that are critical to human well-being,” said Patricia Zurita, executive director of CEPF. “We are eager to deliver support to communities and civil society organizations in the hotspot to help them protect their amazing natural wealth for generations to come.”

The Eastern Afromontane stretches over widely scattered but biogeographically similar mountains, covering an area of more than 1 million square kilometers from Saudi Arabia to Mozambique and Zimbabwe. The rich biological diversity in the hotspot is mirrored by the massive ecosystem services that it provides—particularly as watersheds for vast areas in the region, extending far beyond its formal boundaries. Its ecosystems also provide crucial support to agriculture and ultimately food security.

This project marked the first time CEPF has worked in the Arabian Peninsula. “Our deepest thanks go to the Saudi Wildlife Authority, Yemen’s Ministry of the Environment, and biologists from the peninsula for helping us get a comprehensive view of the species and ecosystems of this portion of the hotspot,” said Zurita.

CEPF also particularly appreciates the hard work put in by the profiling team, led by BirdLife International, and supported by CEPF and Conservation International scientists. They gathered information and feedback from more than 200 experts in five national workshops, two regional workshops, and countless exchanges of letters. The profiling team weighed the extensive data and analyzed the status of species, ecosystems, current environmental investments, socioeconomics and policies to build an overall conservation strategy for the hotspot. They also developed a specific strategy for CEPF’s investment, including four strategic “directions,” or goals, CEPF will pursue in up to 36 priority sites over the next five years. Those goals are:

1. Mainstream biodiversity into wider development policies, plans and projects to deliver the co-benefits of biodiversity conservation, improved   
   local livelihoods and economic development in priority corridors.
2. Improve the protection and management of the key biodiversity area (KBA) network throughout the hotspot.
3. Initiate and support sustainable financing and related actions for the conservation of priority KBAs and corridors.
4. Provide strategic leadership and effective coordination of CEPF investment through a regional implementation team.

CEPF’s investment will focus on four priority corridors containing 22 of the 36 KBAs. The first one is the Itombwe-Nyungwe Landscape shared by DRC, Burundi and Rwanda, on the watershed divide between the Nile and Congo rivers – the two most important river systems of the continent. The Northern Lake Niassa (or Lake Malawi) Mountain Complex, shared by Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique includes in particular the botanically rich grasslands of Kitulo and Nyika plateaus. In Ethiopia, CEPF has prioritized two corridors of incredible biological value, but yet underinvested in terms of conservation: the Western part of the Kaffa and Yayu Coffee Biosphere Reserve – whose forest preserve water flows for the Omo rivers and Gambella plains - and the Lake Tana Catchment, main source of the Blue Nile, to which have been associated a small number of sites on the Amharic Escarpment. Within these areas are some of the most important freshwater sites in the hotspot, including Lake Malawi and Lake Tanganyika. Two other corridors have also been identified as high priority, and will be eligible for support under some investment priorities: the Arabian Peninsula Highlands, with six top-priority KBAs in Yemen, and the Chimanimani-Nyanga Mountains, the latter including five smaller Zimbabwean KBAs in the vicinity and three KBAs known as the Montane Islands of Mozambique.

The profile also provides a roadmap for others interested in joining strategic conservation efforts in the region, and CEPF will work with conservation and development entities in the hotspot to engage other donors in protecting the Eastern Afromontane’s natural areas, which are critical to the well-being of its people and all of humankind.

India has always stood out from other developing countries because of its dynamic environmental movement, which reaches throughout all strata of society. Scientists study all manner of environmental issues. Activists campaign for sustainable development and social justice. Journalists speak out against mines and other destructive developments. Local villagers organize self-help groups to manage and restore forests. Urban professionals spend their leisure time as amateur naturalists, documenting the wildlife of the country.

What all these groups of people have in common is that they generate and need information. However, so much of the data that is generated sits in notebooks, scientific reports, computer hard drives and camera memory cards. If this information was freely available in the public domain, it could be used to spur more effective environmental research and action. Small pieces of information could be pulled together (‘crowd-sourced’) into bigger pictures in which patterns could be seen. Data sets from different researchers could be analyzed to look for new correlations. Information on the biodiversity values of particular locations could be made available to scientists preparing or critiquing environmental impact assessments for development projects there, helping to integrate these values into decision-making. Overall, the environmental movement in India could be given new impetus.

It is these issues that are being addressed by the Western Ghats Portal, (www.thewesternghats.in), an innovative collaboration between the French Institute of Pondicherry and Strand LifeSciences Ltd., a private IT company based in Bangalore. With funding from the CEPF the two partners are bringing together cutting-edge French and Indian expertise to create an open-access, Web-based portal on the biodiversity and ecosystem service values of the Western Ghats. The portal is populated and maintained by an active community of data-holders. It leverages Web 2.0 technologies to transform data availability and thereby facilitate mainstreaming of biodiversity into development sectors, empower citizen engagement in public policy development, and foster citizen science initiatives by amateur naturalists.

On Nov. 24, 2011, the Western Ghats Portal team organized a one-day workshop to explore the contemporary state of biodiversity informatics, to share experience and technology with people involved in similar endeavors in other countries, and to develop policies on data sharing and scientific commons suitable for India. The workshop featured 15 speakers and panelists from other biodiversity portals who interacted and shared their experience with an audience of 75 students, researchers, representatives from governmental bodies and technological platforms in India.

Presentations on other data platforms, such as the Atlas of Living Australia and the India Water Portal, were of great interest to participants, but the most vigorous discussions were reserved for the sessions on scientific commons data-sharing policies. There were lively exchanges of views on the interpretation of Indian law for portal development across disciplines; governmental policies that may hinder the development of open-source platforms; creative commons licenses and how they work for scientific data; and whether developing a biodiversity commons would help India’s environmental movement at large.

The workshop concluded with discussions of how each portal can maintain its identity and focus while, at the same time, evolve mechanisms for interoperability and exchange of information. There were open discussions on how the Western Ghats Portal could network with other portals to increase its number of users and the impact of its data. Overall, many new partnerships were built and existing ones strengthened, providing a strong foundation on which to further develop the Western Ghats Portal.

This is the third call for proposals in this hotspot and will focus solely on the themes and geographic areas identified in the call. The call is for applications to both the large and small grants components of the investment and will remain open until 17h00 (CAT) on the 15th of February 2012.

Biodiversity Conservation Lessons Learned Technical Series is a series of 10 reports sharing lessons learned in biodiversity conservation in the Pacific. These are technical reports prepared by a range of partners funded by CEPF and CI. The reports are being produced on an ad hoc basis as projects are completed, with more reports expected to be published every year.

* Editor’s Note: This technical series is being realized through Ms. Joanne Aitken, a consultant hired by CI-Pacific.

The report, "Biodiversity Conservation Lessons Learned 8: Biosecurity Guidelines for the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati, English," is the eigth in the series.

Document: Biodiversity Conservation Lessons Learned 8: Biosecurity Guidelines for the Phoenix Islands, Kiribati, English, 2011 (PDF – 1.7MB)

Final Project Reports

*Conservation Network: Linking Social and Environmental Experiences, and Developing Competencies and Organizational Capacities in the Atlantic Forest Central Biodiversity Corridor, Instituto de Estudos SocioAmbientais do Sul da Bahia, Português (PDF –51 KB) 

*Support the Sharing of Lessons Learned Across and Beyond Corridors within the Cape Floristic Region, South African National Biodiversity Institute, English (PDF – 48KB) 

*Sustaining the Gains of the Business Plan of the Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve, Cape West Coast Biosphere Reserve, English (PDF – 59 KB)

*Improving Project Development and Implementation through Support to New Entrants to Conservation and Community-Based Organizations in the Cape Floristic Region, Table Mountain Fund, English (PDF – 68 KB) 

*Baviaanskloof Mega-Reserve Consolidation Project, Wilderness Foundation, English (PDF – 60 KB) 

*Averting the Extinction of Critically Endangered Vultures in the Western Ghats, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, English (PDF – 41 KB) 

*Freshwater Biodiversity Assessments in the Western Ghats: Fishes, Molluscs, Odonates, and Plants, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, English (PDF – 70 KB)

*Institutional Strengthening in the Serra do Mar Corridor, Associação Mico-Leão-Dourado, Português (PDF – 65 KB) 

*Education for Conservation, Arboretum d'Antsokay, English (PDF – 844 KB) 

Small Grants Final Project Reports

*Increasing In-country Capacity and Regional Co-operation to Promote Bat Conservation in Cambodia with Particular Reference to Otomops wroughtoni, Harrison Institute, English (PDF – 53 KB)   

*Wildlife – Human -- Friendly Landscape in North-East Cambodia, POH KAO des Tigres et des Hommes, English (PDF – 342 KB) 

*Focused Protection for White-Shouldered Ibis and Giant Ibis in Lomphat Wildlife Sanctuary, People Resources and Conservation Foundation, English (PDF – 1.5 MB) 

*Urgent Research to Safeguard the Javan Rhino in Vietnam, WWF, English (PDF – 42 KB) 

*Feeding and Breeding Ecology and the Conservation of the Vultures in Cambodia, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Vienna, English (PDF – 207 KB) 

*Food Provision to Cambodia’s Vultures, Wildlife Conservation Society, English (PDF – 40 KB) 

*Northern Plains of Cambodia Kouprey Survey, Wildlife Conservation Society, English (PDF – 39 KB) 

*Network Based Mekong Giant Catfish Conservation, Cambodia Mekong River, Youth for Peace and Development, English (PDF – 59 KB) 

*Assessing the Conservation Status of Edwards’ Pheasant, World Pheasant Association, English (PDF – 72 KB) 

*Searching for the Last Kouprey, Global Wildlife Conservation, English (PDF – 1 MB) 

*Raise Awareness of Possible Impacts from Dams on the Sesan and Srepok River (RAPIDS), 3S Rivers Protection Network (3SPN), English (PDF – 330 KB) 

New Website! 

The Tanzania Wildlife Corridors, http://www.tzwildlifecorridors.org/, is a new website created by the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute and was funded and co-produced by the Wildlife Conservation Society, with thanks to the Udzungwa Elephant Project.

The website intends to compile in one place a summary of current knowledge on Tanzania's wildlife corridors to serve primarily as a useful reference.

The aim is to present the most up-to-date available information in a way that will be of value to all interested parties.