Biodiversity Conservation Investments DatabaseThis workspace presents the "Biodiversity Conservation Investments Database" project and invites questions, comments and suggestions from all interested parties.
Project Summary
December 2008
The overarching goal of this project is to improve and foster the coordination of biodiversity conservation investments and efforts in the developing world.
Information gaps and lack of coordination
The lack of an integrated system to monitor investments in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the Andes-Amazon region has been recognized as an important limiting factor for coordination between funding agencies and the design of informed investment strategies. So far, efforts to track investment flows in the region have been conducted on an ad-hoc basis, without consistent follow-up from grant-makers or other stakeholders (GEF, 1999, James et. al., 1999, Mansourian and Dudley, 2008, Spergel and Taïeb, 2008). Although some efforts have been made to coordinate actions targeted at specific protected areas or groups of protected areas (Parks In Peril, Eco-Index, ParksWatch, Living Landscapes Program, Amazon-Andes Protected Areas Information Database-AAPAD), an actual monitoring system that allows different interest groups to track conservation investments at the regional level remains to be created. An information system capable of relating donor programs and interests with actual conservation needs and projects in the field, while also providing detailed and varied statistical data on investment trends, is likely to foster greater donor coordination and increase efficiency of resource allocation by reducing the duplication of efforts, leveraging existing resources and exposing funding gaps and inconsistencies.
The Biodiversity Conservation Investments Database (BCID)
Instigated by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Biodiversity Conservation Investments Database (BCID) project aims to develop a state-of-the-art online monitoring system of investments and funding opportunities in biodiversity conservation. Simple to use and user-friendly, this Web portal is meant to satisfy the information needs of a wide variety of stakeholders, such as grantmakers, governments, NGOs, scientists, jobseekers, students, aspiring volunteers, and the public at large via a transparent online donation system supporting individual parks.
Increased efficiency and effectiveness
A premise of this project is that the systematic reporting and monitoring of conservation investments in the region should allow for better priority-setting and fund allocation by the donor community (national environmental funds, multilateral and bilateral donors, governments, and NGOs), resulting in increased efficiency of expenditures and more effective actions on the ground.
Informing on major trends and highlighting funding gaps
By providing systematic information on past, present, and future investment trends and on the projects supported and proposed in the region through a structured online monitoring system, the BCID is intended to become the clearinghouse on conservation finance data in the Andes-Amazon region. Focusing on both public and private conservation investments, the BCID will not only provide information on financial flows according to numerous search criteria, but through its various interactive data visualization tools allow the detection of thematic and geographic funding gaps as well as the assessment of investment sustainability trends in the region.
RedLAC
This monitoring system will be initially applied to the Andes-Amazon region (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, French Guiana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela), where it will rely on the data collection, monitoring, and curation capacity of the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Environmental Funds (RedLAC) (see map of RedLAC focal points in the study region). RedLAC’s mission is to foster cooperation between environmental funds, strengthening their abilities and supporting conservation and sustainable use of natural resources in Latin America and the Caribbean. RedLAC is composed of 19 environmental funds, out of which ten operate in the Andes-Amazon region. Due to both its geographical distribution and the level of coordination among its members, this unique network is well positioned to collect and manage the data needed for the planned monitoring system and to negotiate commitments with key stakeholders in order to ensure its maintenance and continuous development over time.
A free service with differentiated user rights
Once amply tested and refined, the prototype that will result from this pilot phase is likely to be scaled up both functionally and geographically so as to become a global clearinghouse integrated with, and complementary of, the other major hemispheric or global bioinformatics initiatives underway, such as the Interamerican Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), the World Conservation Basemap (National Geographic Society & partners), and the IUCN Red List.
Scaling up
The resulting system will be available in three languages (English, Spanish and Portuguese) and free of use for non-commercial purposes, although data access right policies will restrict the type of data and analysis tools available to different user categories in relation to data property issues and in order to avoid information misuse. The differentiation of access rights, which can be likened to a customization of data services, is also meant to stimulate stakeholder participation by granting data providers access to unique strategic or mission-critical information.
Timeline
The following timetable outlines the project’s agenda throughout its 2008-2009 pilot phase:
Documentation
›› Executive Summary: English | Spanish (700 kb, 8 page pdf document)
›› Full Project Presentation: English | Spanish (4 Mb, 28 page pdf document)
Contact information
›› Project Manager: Daniela Lerda, Head of the Applied Knowledge Department, FUNBIO.
Email: danielal@funbio.org.br
›› Project Coordinator: Stéphane Pauquet, Founder and Director, GreenVest; Program Manager, ParksWatch.
Email: spauquet@parkswatch.org
Largo do Ibam, 01/ 6° andar - Humaitá
Tel: +55 (21) 2123-5300 – Fax: +55 (21) 2123-5354
Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil - CEP: 22271 070
http://www.redlac.org | www.funbio.org.br
Literature cited
›› Global Environment Facility. 1999. Experience with Conservation Trust Funds. Evaluation Summary Report #1-99.
›› James, A., M. Green, and J. Paine. 1999. A Global Review of Protected Area Budgets and Staff. WCMC Biodiversity Series No.10.
›› Mansourian, S. and N. Dudley. 2008. Public Funds to Protected Areas. WWF International.
›› Spergel, B. and P. Taïeb. 2008. Rapid Review of Conservation Trust Funds.
›› Conservation Finance Alliance. Working Group on Environmental Funds. Second Edition.
