Building Biodiversity Information Networks for the Compilation of Kenya’s

Natural Capital

TDWG 2012 Annual Conference: October 22-26 Beijing CHINALucy WARUINGI, African Conservation Centre.

KENYA

Biodiversity Conference Findings and Recommendations

KENYA’S INVESTMENTS IN BIODIVERSITY INFORMATICS

EA Global strategy for plant conservation

UVIMA project – Pests, Pollinators and invasive species

2010 International Conference on Biodiversity and Climate Change.

A Conference sub-theme was Biodiversity Informatics

Policy brief session on A National Conservation Framework

Outcomes

Biodiversity Informatics training for collection managers and Biodiversity information Managers

A new project from the Govt. Of Kenya: to collate and analyse all available biodiversity data/information and compile Kenya’s Biodiversity Atlas

The Objectives• To develop an illustrative guide to Kenya’s biodiversity

• To document Kenya’s natural capital – its biodiversity and the ecosystem services it supports, the threats it faces and the national framework for its conservation

• To assemble the scattered and disparate datasets that exist across various institutions into a common integrated biodiversity database and atlas

• To bring together various national and international conservation organizations to develop a suite of tools and maps for mapping, valuing and sustaining Kenyan’s biodiversity.

KENYA’S RICH HERITAGE

A Biodiversity ATLAS of KENYA

A CollaborativeProcess• A Consortium led by African Conservation Centre

– National Museums of Kenya– Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for

Development– Nature Kenya & Birdlife International– Kenya Wildlife Service– World Resources Institute & International Livestock

Research Institute– Green Belt Movement– Yale University-USA York University-UK, – Missouri Botanical Gardens-USA– And more…

A Consultative Process• TEAM MEETINGS

– Lead Authors and co-authors

– Data working group

– Website working group

– Monthly meetings of consortium

– Chapter teams meets twice a month

– Synthesis teams

– Secretariat: GIS analysis, Data and Information sourcing

Collation of data/informationCollate and analyse all available biodiversity

data and information– Data sharing protocols

– Data standards for museum collections; spatial data , metadata catalogues

– Portal for linkages to existing online data: GBIF, Web of Life, EOL…

– Networking with similar initiatives in East Africa: KenBIF, UgaBIF, TanBIF, Rwanda and Burundi

– Developing tools for data integration

Chapter 1: KENYA’S NATURAL HERITAGE

• The importance of biodiversity in sustaining the productivity, welfare, resilience of ecosystems and human well being.

• The importance of mapping and auditing natural capital and ecological services along with economic and social capital

• Kenya’s Cultural Heritage A diversity of cultures, languages and lifestyles

Chapter 2: Kenya’s Diverse Environments

Mt KenyaRift Valley

Chapter 3: Major Ecosystemschange analysis of the major ecosystem categories

Identifying threats of priority ecosystems

Chapter 4: Wealth of Species

Kenya has thousands of (vascular) plant species, in hundreds of families.

Kenya is home to over 600 plant species that do not occur anywhere else in the world.

Declining wildlife threatens

tourism – We need to

understand distribution

patterns and trends.

Data Source: DRSRS; Photos ILRI, Ron Beaton

1970s

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2000s

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a) Elephant

b) Hunters hartebeest

Numbers# <100# 100 - 200# >200

Numbers# <75# 75 - 175# >175

Chapter 5: Valuing Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services

• Benefits of Kenya’s Ecosystems

– Provisioning services

– Regulating services

– Cultural services

– Supporting services

• Natural capital accounting: production of national statistics on the environment and its relationship with the economy to monitor these interactions

Chapter 6 - Threats• Population growth and trends

• Land use change

• Sustainable use including overharvesting and illegal use

• Pollution

• Climate change

• Invasive species

• Human-wildlife conflicts.

Ensuring Future Diversity

• Develop a National framework for conservation of Kenya’s Biodiversity

• Policy Implications for the conservation of Kenya’s biodiversity

– Establish a National Biodiversity Institute

– Build capacity in Biodiversity Informatics

– Establish and maintain an open infrastructure for biodiversity information management

– Develop tools for decision making support

WEB-PLATFORM

Web portal for Biodiversity Decision Making

Akin to Atlas of Living Australia

Data discovery tools

Biodiversity Informatics tools

Capacity Building

Citizen science engagement

2013 - Launch Biodiversity Atlas of Kenya

The FUTURE of Biodiversity

Informatics in AFRICA?

Building Networks

document…

assemble…

bring together…

Building Broader BIODIVERSITY INFORMATICS NETWOKS

Previous support from JRS foundation, BioNET, NASA-ServirAfrica, GBIF, ..

In Kenya, JRS foundation support to ACC, BGCI and NMK explore feasibility of establishing a Regional Centre of Excellence in Biodiversity Informatics in East Africa.

Regional workshop held in May 2012 in Nairobi with Kenya, Uganda,Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi and idea endorsed

Growth in AFRICA …..

GBIF nodes already underway in the region: TanBIF, UgaBIF and KenBIF. Burundi & Rwanda in progress. East Africa has a heritage of Common flora and fauna

Regional training efforts over last 3years have built capacity on common standards such as Brahms, Specify, IPT toolkit, georeferencing, metadata etc..

Web platform will be robust to allow participation of EA countries.

EA Governments keen to provide policy framework under EAC through the Science and Technology Institutitutes

AFRICA will benefit from the advancements in TDWG and leverage the global initiatives

>>>>>>>>> See you in Africa, 2014

THANK YOU* TDWG Conference Committee* JRS Biodiversity Foundation* Tulane University, USA

* Royal Museum of Central Africa* Ministry of Environment and Mineral Resources, KENYA

Lucy WARUINGI, African Conservation Centre.

Lucy.waruingi@acc.or.ke