IABIN STANDS 2-2 FOR THE SEASON...

Both the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.S. State Department have recently awarded grants to the USGS to further IABIN development in 2001.  USAID has provided $35,000 to support a study to examine various options for funding IABIN development and recommend a strategy to ensure the network’s financial sustainability.  Implementation of IABIN as an integrated network has been hampered by the lack of a recurring financial base.  The study will consider all the suggestions on funding sources offered by IABIN participants in meetings to date, as well as other options that may be discovered.

As part of an Invasive Species Project funded by the State Department, 11 IABIN countries will each receive $12,000 to inventory their invasive species information.  Earlier IABIN invasive species projects defined four types of information as priorities for the invasives community:  species considered invasive; experts in invasive species; invasive species projects; and datasets relevant to invasives research and management.  Acknowledging those priorities, the Terms of Reference for the State Department project will request that the national information inventories focus on these four areas.  Additional funds from State, as part of the same project, will provide seed money to begin the integration of invasive species datasets into “Species Analyst” (a decision support tool), to host a workshop to develop a strategy for the establishment of invasive species nodes, and to implement such nodes in Mexico and South Africa.

…and leads in the bottom half of Game 5

A proposal to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), requesting $350,000 for IABIN development, has been completed and is ready for submission to the World Bank, pending receipt of letters of support from the five countries that are submitting the proposal on behalf of all of IABIN.  This grant would fund a consultative process to allow IABIN to develop a strategic plan for network development and a large-scale (around $6 million) proposal to GEF to initiate implementation of that plan.

IABIN is an international initiative to promote greater coordination among Western Hemisphere countries in the collection, sharing, and use of biodiversity information.  You can find information on IABIN at <www.iabin.org> (international site) and at <www.iabin-us.org>, the new URL for the U.S. site.

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