Managing biodiversity information: the good, the bad and the...
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Managing biodiversity information: the good, the bad and the ugly… Jon Hutton SANBI BIMF 2012
Transcript of Managing biodiversity information: the good, the bad and the...
Managing biodiversity information: the good, the bad and the ugly…
Jon Hutton
SANBI BIMF 2012
Disclaimer!
You are about to hear my own personal views, not those of UNEP…
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This presentation…
1. Introduce you to UNEP-WCMC (briefly)
2. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly w.r.t biodiversity ‘data’…
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Data gathering
Data organising
Data sharing
Data synthesis
Analysis Tools for decisions
3. Data shortcomings; ‘citizen science’; remote sensing...
4. National infrastructures; international stuff, taxonomists…
5. GBIF; Open Access; Barriers to Sharing…
6. Semantic web; Mash-ups and quality control…
7. Understanding needs; Perfect vs Good…
UNEP-WCMC is UNEP’s specialist Biodiversity Assessment Centre
Started by IUCN 1980
Then IUCN, WWF & UNEP
Became an ‘integral part of UNEP’ in 2000
Pioneered much of the global conservation infrastructure we work with today.
UNEP-WCMC
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Data gathering
Data organising
Data sharing
Data synthesis
Analysis Tools for decisions
What do we do these days?
A few current examples…
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Biodiversity Indicators Partnership
UNEP-WCMC led the review of the evidence in 2010
Butchart et al., Science 328, 1164-8, 28th May 2010
Secretariat of the SGA Network
Over 80 SGAs around the world
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UN REDD – Multiple Benefits…
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Support to biodiversity MEAs...
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Conferences of the Parties
No of paragraphs incl WDPA, 2010 BIP & CC
No of decisions incl WDPA, 2010 BIP & CC
Support to the business sector…
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Biodiversity Modeling, Scenarios etc
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Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
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Biodiversity data and information….
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Data gathering
Data organising
Data sharing
Data synthesis
Analysis Tools for decisions
Variety - the number of different types.
Quantity - how much there is of the different types.
Composition - how are the types combined?
Distribution - where is it located.
Quality - how intact/degraded is it?
Measuring biodiversity is not a trivial task....
Biodiversity – multi-dimensional & complex
Plus there are different and competing views of what important biodiversity is…
Except for vertebrates, data is sparse...
MEASURE WITHIN SPECIES AMONG SPECIES ECOSYSTEMS
Variability – usually number
of types
Number of different:
genes/genomes,
individuals,
or populations.
Number of species: measures of richness and of diversity.
Number of different ecosystems.
Global distribution
Mapped distribution of genes/genomes, individuals or populations.
Mapped distributions of species richness and diversity.
Maps of ecosystem distribution.
Global amount
Total amount of genetic material, number or biomass of individuals or populations.
Total species population count or biomass.
Biomass of ecosystems
Trends over time
Changes in number, distribution and amount of genetic material, individuals or populations
Loss of species (extinctions).
Loss of distribution (range loss).
Loss of amount (population declines).
Habitat alteration.
Land use change.
Fragmentation.
Megafauna & Flora
Good for narrow sub-set
Good for narrow sub-set
Good for narrow sub-set
No classification
Improving
Poor, esp marine
Remote sensing coming into play
Some populations
Some populations
Data gathering…
1. Generally unsystematic & disorganised
2. Not designed to answer questions
3. Has no agreed framework…
4. Not assembled to allow comparisons over time…
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The stirrings of change?
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• Role of citizen science/crowd-sourcing/wiki?
• Its not new…
• e.g. birdwatchers’ and their observations
Quantity vs Quality?
• Opportunities extended by mobile technology
• e.g. beach/air quality in Europe (Eye on Earth)
Worth look….
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Lessons learned…
• Its not just about technology
• It is hard to create communities of users
• Best if build on existing communities…
• Create ‘reliability’ thresholds or rankings
• Think twice before creating a new Wiki!
• Significant issues arise - storage and attribution
• May need some new skills – marketing!
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Emergence of competing standards?
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Remote Sensing…
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Some marked successes - LIDAR
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Detection of deforestation…
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Terra-I machine learning approach
But where is the automatic monitoring?
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Remote sensing still hasn’t delivered on its early promise…
1. Interests and incentives are not aligned.
2. Skill-sets often wrong.
3. Changing priorities and funding are significant.
4. But also, we haven’t defined what we want!
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The Economist May 12th 2012
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Data gathering
Data organising
Data sharing
Data synthesis
Analysis Tools for decisions
National Data initiatives
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There aren’t enough high quality national biodiversity centres…
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In contrast…
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?
Taxonomy (and Taxonomists!)…
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Are taxonomists helping or hindering?
Descriptive Taxonomy…
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Why hasn’t alpha taxonomy been the
priority for the community?
ACTION 8: Complete a comprehensive coverage of information on known species at the global level, then use it by 2020 to assess the status of biodiversity at national or regional levels including information on abundance, distribution, functioning and conservation in the ecosystem.
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Data gathering
Data organising
Data sharing
Data synthesis
Analysis Tools for decisions
GBIF
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Quality data behind pay-walls…
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On the other hand there are issues about ‘Open Access’ and simplistic attitudes to data sharing…
“All your data should be freely available for anyone and everyone to use”
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A case study….
World Database on Protected Areas
2003 +/- 45,000 records
2007 +/- 60,000 records
2011 +/- 197,000 records
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Restricted for Commercial use…
Sometimes is immoral NOT to pay!
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Barriers to the free interchange of data and information are complex and may be:
1. Related to the nature of the information itself: languages, taxonomies, standards etc
2. Technical and/or practical: Discovery, storage, transfer etc
3. Resource constraints: State or donor funding etc
4. Behavioural
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Behavioural –reluctance to disclose or share
1. Career advancement – not just academics…
2. Concerns about inappropriate use
3. Sensitivity of data e.g. endangered species
4. Issues of Brand and competition
5. Concerns about fairness, recognition, attribution
6. Issues of value
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BL & CI Processes
Governments, national & regional
processes
IUCN SSC Species - Experts and Processes
IUCN WCPA & NGOs
UNEP-WCMC processes
RedList (Species)
$24m
$80m
Aggregating Tools
WBDB (KBAs)
WDPA (PAs)
A coordinated effort to lift the Barriers…
1. Governments: Public goods need public funding
2. Donors/Funding Agencies: Build data management into projects
Accept long term data commitments
Research permissions tied to open data…
3. Publishers: Should all require underlying data to be made available
4. Academics: Find a way to credit the publication of data
5. Institutions: Need to find a consistent licensing approach to ‘branded’ datasets
6. Business: Has to internalise the cost of biodiversity data
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Data gathering
Data organising
Data sharing
Data synthesis
Analysis Tools for decisions
Semantic Web and Technologies….
A vision for converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of data”
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Bringing data together - mashups etc.
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Overlaying biodiversity and carbon…
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1. Endemic Bird/Plant Areas?
2. Protected Areas?
3. Threatened RedList Species?
4. KBAs?
5. National Priorities (SCP)?
6. Threatened Ecosystems?
7. Global 200 Ecoregions?
8. Hotspots?
9. Wilderness Areas?
10. Etc. x30
www.biodiversitya-z.org
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing
Alexander Pope 1688-1744
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1. Differencing two carbon stock maps derived from land-use from Globcover 2005 and 2009 is simple intuitive and…
…. wrong!
2. “…. reliable change detection can never be achieved by comparing two independent successive land cover maps. Therefore, the GlobCover 2009 land cover map cannot be used for any change detection application. In particular, the direct comparison with the previous GlobCover 2005 product should be avoided since it cannot guarantee accurate land cover change quantification” (Bontemps et al. 2010).
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This analysis is totally misleading…
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Quality control?
1. How do tackle this growing problem?
2. Peer Review is either missing or not picking up on it…
3. Encourage publication of methodology and assumptions…
4. Standards and guidelines?
5. Training?
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Data gathering
Data organising
Data sharing
Data synthesis
Analysis Tools for decisions
Most of us don’t understand the needs of decision-makers…
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www.protectedplanet.net
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Understanding Biodiversity Standards…
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The perfect is the enemy of the good (Voltaire)
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Tittensor et al. 2010. Global patterns and predictors of marine biodiversity across taxa. Nature 466: 1098-1101.
Few understand the needs of decision-makers…
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But SANBI clearly does!
Thanks for your attention…
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www.unep-wcmc.org
