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Thematic Portal on Biodiversity – a Clearinghouse for Conservation and Livelihoods Information Sharing Biodiversity conservation has been accorded high priority and many areas have been demarcated as conservation areas, national parks and wildlife reserves by the national governments in the HKH. The success of conservation approaches depend upon the understanding of driving forces for major transformations of land, water, energy and other environmental factors; understanding the sensitivity and vulnerability to environmental variations and changes; and understanding the responses and choices for managing environmental resources. For this, there is a need for adequate information on biodiversity, natural resources base and livelihood in these areas. Biodiversity conservation has been a major focus of ICIMOD under its Natural Resources Management Program. Together with Mountain Environment and Natural Resources Information Systems (MENRIS) program, it has been working on developing information on biodiversity and natural resources using the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) tools. To further strengthen this activity and to bring in partners in generating and sharing information, MENRIS has initiated the development of a thematic portal on biodiversity. This portal will be an extension of the “Mountain GIS Portal” developed and implemented by MENRIS using the latest GIS and the Internet technologies. Information on protected areas such as topography, ecology, land cover, flora and fauna will be made available in the form of spatial and non-spatial data, metadata, maps and related reports. The information will be arranged at regional, national and local levels with varying level of details. A letter of partnership has already been signed with IUCN Nepal for incorporating the database on biodiversity and related livelihood information in Nepal it has compiled over the years. ICIMOD and IUCN will work jointly to develop the portal as a framework for improved access to information for researchers, policy makers, development and conservation organizations and local bodies for planning and monitoring of conservation and sustainable development activities and will act as a clearinghouse for biodiversity in the region. Once developed, the system will provide a common platform where organizations can publish, share and update biodiversity databases. Participation from other organizations working in the field of conservation and management of biodiversity will be sought in the portal, which will ultimately become a distributed network of partners for a coordinated and informed efforts in conservation.
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