Are ‘Invasive Species’ -- also known as ‘Invasives’ -- simply a way to prove global information sharing ability? Read on and decide for yourself. Look at the funding for these ‘programs’ and ‘initiatives.’
IABIN is an initiative of the Summit of the Americas on Sustainable Development and was mandated as Initiative 31 of the Action Plan resulting from the December 1996 Summit in Bolivia.
IABIN - The United States node of the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network.
The Inter-American Committee on Sustainable Development (CIDS) of the Organization of American States endorsed IABIN in a resolution passed in October 1999. Twenty-eight countries http://www.iabin-us.org/partners/focalpts.html in the Americas have designated official IABIN Focal Points to coordinate national efforts to implement the network. The U.S. Geological Survey is the U.S. Focal Point for IABIN. The IABIN Council comprises the official national Focal Points as well as representatives from interested inter-governmental organizations and initiatives. The Executive Committee guides the operations of IABIN and executes the policy decisions of the Council. The Biological Resources Division of the U.S. Geological Survey is the federal government office responsible for coordinating U.S. participation in IABIN. This site is sponsored by the National Biological Information Infrastructure and managed by the USGS International Initiatives desk. The U.S. strongly supports IABIN because we believe that a key to preserving this hemisphere’s incredibly rich biodiversity is an understanding of the factors affecting biodiversity within a regional context. Species do not recognize political boundaries. Therefore, issues such as invasive species, migratory birds, amphibian decline, and the spread of diseases can be addressed effectively only if we share information across borders. Through international information exchange, we can multiply the value of our activities and research, learning from each other what has failed and what has worked.
IABIN has received funding for its projects from the Global Environment Facility, the Organization of American States, the World Bank, the U.S. State Department, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as from the governments of many of the participating countries. Activities that demonstrate the value of transnational exchange of biodiversity information within the Americas include: a pilot project on invasive species in the Americas, a survey of New World holdings in European collections, a project on harmonizing metadata initiatives throughout IABIN, and training in “Species Analyst,” a software package that supports analysis and decision-making. More about current projects: More about future projects.
IABIN works closely with other regional and global biodiversity information networking initiatives, including the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the North American Biodiversity Information Network, and the Clearing-House Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity. These collaborations, as well as our partnerships with agencies at all levels of government, non-governmental and intergovernmental organizations, academia, and private sector enterprises, ensure that these various efforts are complementary and that scarce resources are leveraged to provide a greater return on investment.
In 2002, IABIN is focusing on three activities. As part of an invasive species project funded by the U.S. State Department, eleven IABIN countries each receive support to inventory their invasive species information. Two additional countries participate without State Department funding. This effort builds on an earlier IABIN project that defined the information priorities for the invasive species community. The national information inventories focus on developing a list of species considered invasive, a directory of invasive species experts, a database of projects, and a catalog of datasets relevant to invasive species research and management. More...
Implementation of IABIN as an integrated network has been hampered by the lack of a recurring financial base. To further IABIN development, USAID has funded a study that examines various options for funding IABIN development and recommends a strategy to ensure the network’s financial sustainability. More...
A Global Environment Facility (GEF) grant is funding a consultative process to allow IABIN to develop a strategic plan for network development and a large-scale (around $4 million) proposal to GEF to initiate implementation of that plan.
IABIN will continue to advance toward its objective through establishing cooperative linkages with other regional and global initiatives; investigating appropriate standards and protocols and recommending selected standards for network adoption; evaluating software tools for possible network-wide use; and seeking support for projects that build capacity within participating countries and institutions while accomplishing the goals of information exchange throughout the Americas.
Read about the organizational structure of IABIN. http://www.iabin-us.org/about_iabin/structure.html
View various slide presentations and a poster describing IABIN. http://www.iabin-us.org/
Invasive Species in the Americas Prototype Development. Development of a prototype on-line data system on invasive species in the Americas, based on the pilot project described below. To see the prototype catalog for this project: http://iabin.ucdavis.edu/ and click on " IABIN Metadata Catalog". Terms of Reference. The Netherlands/World Bank Partnership funded this activity in 1999 and 2000 for the Consolidation of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. (See the World Bank's Central American Environment Projects page for information on this partnership.) The I3N and Invasives Hub projects grew out of this project.
Invasive Species in the Americas Project Plan Development. The development of plans for two pilot projects on invasive species -- one on vascular plants and one on freshwater fish – which, when implemented, will prove the concept of an inter-American information network. Presentation at First Council Meeting. Final Report. Executive Summary (English). Resumen Ejecutivo (Español). Terms of Reference. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) provided funding in 1998 for the preparation of this study. The I3N and Invasives Hub projects grew out of this project.
European Collections of New World Vertebrates. Database. Final Report (HTML / MS Word). Terms of Reference. Presentation at First Council Meeting. The Netherlands/World Bank Partnership funded this activity in 1999 and 2000 for the Consolidation of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. (See the World Bank's Central American Environment Projects page for more information.)
Harmonizing
Metadata Initiatives Throughout IABIN.
An examination of metadata standards as they relate to biological datasets
and development of information clearinghouses. Terms
of Reference. Final
Report To see the results of this project, go to http://isite.ciceana.org.mx/
and click on "Catálogo", then click on "Mesoamérica".
The Netherlands/World Bank Partnership funded this activity in 1999 and 2000
for the Consolidation of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. (See the World
Bank's Central
American Environment Projects page for more information.)
Training in Distributed Database Technology and Synthetic Analytical Applications (Training on The Species Analyst).
Training for Latin American specialists on the use of The Species Analyst. Terms of Reference. Report. Presentation at First Council Meeting. The Netherlands/World Bank Partnership funded this activity in 1999 and 2000 for the Consolidation of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor. (See the World Bank's Central American Environment Projects page for more information.)
This site is maintained and
hosted by the National Biological Information Infrastructure.
Text
only
Credits
Disclaimer
http://www.iabin-us.org/projects/completed_projects.html
Last Updated: February 6, 2003
More
on projects
http://www.iabin-us.org/projects/index.html
IABIN Invasives Information Network (I3N) Project. I3N is building a distributed network that will provide web-accessible information on invasive species in at least 13 countries. More...
GEF PDF Project: $650,000 for building IABIN. The Global Environment Fund Secretariat has approved a grant for a yearlong consultative process through which participants, in collaboration with the Clearing-house Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity, will define the approaches and technologies needed to build the IABIN network. A detailed plan resulting from these consultations will become part of a proposal to GEF for a full-size project grant, on the order of $4-5 million, for a 5-year effort to build IABIN. More...
Financial Sustainability Study. Implementation of IABIN as an integrated network has been hampered by the lack of a recurring financial base. A study investigated and recommended a financial sustainability strategy. More...
North American Invasive Species Information Hub. The Hub will be a distributed network of databases that facilitate discovery of and access to datasets and tools needed for the prevention, early detection, management and control of invasive species affecting, or potentially affecting, North America. (For more information on this Hub, contact Bill Gregg at william_gregg@usgs.gov or Jim Quinn at jfquinn@ucdavis.edu.) The North American Invasive Species Information Hub is an important contribution to the development of a Global Invasive Species Information Network being coordinated through the Global Invasive Species Program. (For more information on GISP, contact Mike Ruggiero at ruggiero.michael@nmnh.si.edu.)
http://www.iabin-us.org/projects/index.html
http://www.iabin-us.org/projects/suggested_projects.html
This
is a continuously updated compilation of projects suggested to the IABIN
Planning Team (last updated March 22, 2002).
Listing of identified information gaps and research opportunities
http://www.iabin-us.org/projects/completed_projects.html
UNITED
STATES (Council
Chair and Executive Council)
Ms.
Gladys Cotter
Associate Chief Biologist for Information
Biological Resources Division
U.S. Geological Survey
300 National Center
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20192, USA
E-mail: gladys_cotter@usgs.gov
Database
(searchable for all countries)
http://www.iabin-us.org/projects/i3n/data.html
USA:
http://www.iabin-us.org/projects/i3n/i3n_documents/catalogs/catalog_usa.html
Catalogs
on Web site of owners: http://invasivespecies.nbii.gov/i3nXML.xml
List of invasive species of concern of the NBII Invasive Species Information Node (clicking on the species name brings up a page, created from the XML, with the actual content of all the links): http://pick1.pick.uga.edu/cgi-bin/20q?act=x_checklist&path=INVASIVES [NOTE: This is a broken link.]
Catalogs submitted to project manager:
Partial
species list with ITIS links
http://www.iabin-us.org/projects/i3n/i3n_documents/progress_reports/progress_usa_itis_links.xls