Download Upgrading the data infrastructure for the IGAD region

Biodiversity Management Programme
Horn of Africa region - IGAD
Upgrading the data infrastructure for the
IGAD region focusing on botanical data
Denis Filer and William Hawthorne
Consultants for IGAD BMP
Oxford
Biodiversity Management Programme in the Horn of Africa region
There is need to identify the ecosystems, biomes
and habitats that harbour rare, habitat dependent
species at risk of extinction and to compile data into
databases…
To achieve this, it is necessary to build national, regional and
continental databases that provide information on the level of
endemism of key species, pinpoint the areas where
concentrations of endemic species are found, and assess the
rate of habitat loss in these areas…
Strengthen the botanical infra-structure for IGAD region
Our proposed activities are to strengthen the botanical
infra-structure for IGAD region. By focusing initially on
botanical data:
 The project upgrades the capacity of the regional
herbaria.
 The data can be used locally to generate and map
high resolution biodiversity results .
 The data can be shared with the RRIS.
 The processes developed can be used as a
template for other data categories such as marine.
Upgrading the IGAD region herbaria data – long
overdue
 The herbaria of the IGAD region are long overdue a serious and well orchestrated
project to upgrade their capacity to use and share their invaluable data.
 All the herbaria in the region have explicitly requested the capacity to speed up
their data capture, build databases, and exchange regionally.
 Store data in a standard format across the IGAD herbaria (and in fact more widely
in Africa) and ensure that these data can be easily exchanged in any reasonable
format.
 Create desktop and online databases at the national level capable of exchange and
transfer to the regional level as appropriate.
 In particular, generate new baseline data to allow sensible assessments for
narrowly distributed species, ecosystem vulnerability and other data required for
biodiversity assessment.
Lack of botanical data within this region
• Patterns of bioquality for the
IGAD region divided into half
degree grid cells.
• The higher the resolution
(smaller the locality defined for
the record) the more useful the
data are.
• Even at half degree resolution,
much of the IGAD area has too
few data records to be confident
of the biodiversity content.
Bioquality calculation (GHI = hotspot heat) using half degree grid cells
• Results calculated using specieslocality verified herbarium
specimen data
Areas of great interest – poorly understood
 Flora Regions (FTEA and Somalia)
showing the bioquality (GHI = heat
of hotspot) calculated from the
species databased for the
polygons (incomplete).
 The Scores > 800 in Somalia
represent the hottest hotspots
known in tropical Africa with a
very large proportion of species
endemic or near-endemic to the
region.
Areas in Somalia represent the hottest hotspots known in tropical Africa
 Results calculated using specieslocality verified herbarium
specimen data
Zooming into K7 – showing hotter localities
• GHI scores calculated for Kaya forest
check-lists (Robertson & Luke 1993).
Rabai (in South), Kambe, Jibana,
Kivara (North).
• GHI scores at this scale provide a
reasonable basis for defining the
global rarity value of a particular
forest patch.
• Even finer samples <1 ha, typical EIA
and ecological samples, reveal subtle
local variation of importance to local
biodiversity management.
• Results calculated using specieslocality verified herbarium specimen
and plot data
The ability to summarise the flora of discrete regions easily
• Once the hard work of digitising
individual plant locations is tackled,
any database will be able to
summarise the flora of discrete
regions easily.
• Examples are to calculate total # of
IUCN endangered species; % flora
threated, and list such species.
• These will be helpful for aspects of
CBD / Aichi targets.
Data from ‘Bioquality Hotspots in the Tropical African Flora’
Marshall et al. (2016) Current Biology
• A crucial part of the framework for
this is already available for the IGAD
BMP project: all species classified
into 4 levels of global rarity called
Stars.
Building a plant species list for the IGAD region
• Defining the taxonomic framework to the
infraspecific level with e.g. synonyms, habit
category, IUCN status, local restictions on use,
etc. is a long term challenge.
• We have compiled a starting list of all known
IGAD plant species using existing web
resources e.g. the Plant List, African Plants
Database; recent publications.
• Each species is assigned a STAR value. Star
values are calculated using a number of
parameters but mostly refect rarity. Black star
species are the rarest.
• These can be used for different categories of
biodiversity analysis.
The stars are transferred online and used for hotspot calculations
GHI = Genetic Heat Index reflects the heat of hotspots
A need to strengthen the botanical infrastructure
 The botanical data for the IGAD region are mostly locked away in
herbarium cabinets.
 Without these data, it becomes difficult to provide meaningful
conservation assessments.
 The regional herbaria are the key resource. Their data needs to
be databased and made more widely available helping us to
assess biodiversity at a far higher resolution.
 It would also be useful for plot data (e.g. all-species samples
from EIAs and research projects), to be maintained within the
same herbarium databases.
Working with all the IGAD herbaria
Databases for each herbarium
developed as appropriate. Also
capable of storing sample plot data.
Each national level herbarium with its
own online BRAHMS online (BOL)
portal.
Data from all herbaria queryable
from a central IGAD BOL website.
Summary data submitted to RRIS.
A sample website set up to receive and manage multiple IGAD
region herbarium and other relevant databases.
http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/igad
The BRAHMS online system has also
been installed on server in Nairobi
Verifying species names and linking to resources
such as the Africa Plant Database
Africa Plants Database
BRAHMS online species listing
Extending to marine data
BRAHMS online can be configured fir different catgegories of data
http://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/cordiotest/explore
Sampling stations treated as sample plots containing
the list of species sampled.
How to upgrade the IGAD region botanical data infrastructure
 The East African Herbarium in Kenya is the logical place to
start. But extend to other herbaria quickly.
 Use innovative, cost effective procedures to capture
specimen images and have data entered as resources
permit.
 Augment process using web based citizen science capture.
 These data, available at the national level, would be
provided to the regional information system in the
appropriate format.
An image based data capture initiative
• The traditional process for specimen data capture is rather slow.
• The IGAD BMP project, for the first time, offers a possibility to speed this
up – dramatically.
• We have developed an innovative process to barcode and image
specimens and their labels using low cost but effective technology.
• The images (and data as available) will be fed online as they are generated,
creating an immediate online resource with facilities for online data
capture.
Example application with reference to Aichi Target 11
 The current analysis of protected area coverage of ecoregions in the RRIS
does not prioritise or analyse coverage areas of particular importance for
biodiversity and ecosystem services. Many ecoregions are well covered by
PAs while others are poorly covered.
 Our botanical data can help focus in on those areas that we suspect have
high GHI but are poorly represented with data.
 The analysis would be refined by using Land Cover Maps (showing
remaining natural vegetation by ecoregion) and/or Potential Natural
Vegetation maps in place of Eco-regions. Land Cover and PNV maps are
much finer resolution for the IGAD region.
 Preparation of high quality EIAs for botanical (and other taxon groups) using
a globally standardised method to identify bioquality – the relative
conservation importance of patches of vegetation surveyed during EIA.
Demonstration system installed in Nairobi
With help from Lawrence
Monda, a draft BRAHMS
online system has been
installed on the IGAD project
server at NMK.
This system is now available to
use for IGAD project data.
Demo URL: http://197.254.120.53/
A draft IGAD region website
installed on a server in Oxford
– but can be transferred to the
NMK server.