22nd May has been declared as the International Biodiversity Day by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and observed every year with different themes to promote awareness and recognize the value of biodiversity. The theme for 2013 is “Water and Biodiversity”.
National Biodiversity Centre in collaboration with Babesa Middle Secondary School will be celebrating the International Biodiversity Day on 22nd May, 2013.
Venue: Babesa Middle Secondary School
Although Bhutan is small in size, it is home to a wealth of Biodiversity including many endemic and endangered species. However, aside from some preliminary assessments of flowering plants, there is little information on the status or trends of the Kingdom’s species.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the National Biodiversity Center (NBC) and Biodiversity Network Japan (BDNJ) is organizing a training workshop on “Building capacity to identify Bhutan’s threatened species” using IUCN Red List criteria and categories from 22nd to 26thof April, 2013 at Hotel Ro-Chog Pel, Babesa, Thimphu.
This workshop is therefore seen as a first step towards building Bhutan’s capacity to undertake its own Red List assessments of species, using the latest, globally accepted and best methodologies.The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species ™ is recognized as the most comprehensive and authoritative information base on the status of species world-wide.
A total of 26 officials from over 11 organisations including the various agencies under Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MoAF), Royal Society for Protection of Nature (RSPN), College of Natural Resources (CNR), (Royal University of Bhutan) and IUCN are participating in the workshop.
Two senior trainers from IUCN’s Global Red List Unit (Cambridge), Mr. Craig Hitlon-Taylor (Head) and Ms Caroline Pollock (Programme Officer) is leading the technical content using the latest, internationally-accepted and best practice methodologies. IUCN’s Asia Regional Office is providing the technical assistance along with the Bhutan’s National Biodiversity Centre, Serbithang. Additional support and guidance is provided by BDNJ, a Japanese NGO, whose main mission is the conservation of biodiversity through scientific research, policy advocacy, training and dissemination of scientific knowledge. The training workshop has been generously funded by a TOYOTA Environmental Activities Grant from TOYOTA MOTOR Corporation.
photo courtesy @ Choidup Zangpo, ICS, MoAF
The GNH Centre Bhutan in collaboration with various Institutes in USA and Germany recently launched “The Global Wellbeing and GNH Lab”, a unique opportunity for leaders across a range of sectors around the world to jointly explore key challenges in the field of “Innovating beyond GDP”, to address these challenges and develop new solutions.
The National Biodiversity Centre (NBC), Serbithang has been selected as one the GNH Inspired sites by the GNH Centre Bhutan. A group comprising of seven delegates from international innovative organizations including The First Lady of Oregon, USA made a brief visit to NBC on 24th April 2013.
The objective of their visit was to develop leadership capacity to generate a set of evolving prototypes or living laboratories and to document change by capturing and disseminating emerging lessons and experience. In line with the objective of their visit NBC presented the historical back ground of NBC, its roles and mandates in biodiversity conservation and the different programs being implemented under NBC. Subsequent to the presentation and discussions they visited the facilities of NBC such as, Crop Gene bank , Animal Genebank , Herbarium, Bioprospecting and Research Laboratory and the Royal Botanical Garden.
Photo courtesy @ Rinchen Dorji, PGR
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the National Biodiversity Center (NBC) and Biodiversity Network Japan (BDNJ) is organizing a training workshop on “Building capacity to identify Bhutan’s threatened species” using IUCN Red List criteria and categories.
Date: 22nd to 26th of April, 2013
Venue : Hotel Ro-Chog Pel, Babesa, Thimphu.