National Biodiversity Centre

Category: Biodiversity News

  • Bhutan celebrates the International Biodiversity Day: 22nd May 2013

    Bhutan celebrates the International Biodiversity Day: 22nd May 2013

    IBD celebrations underway

    22nd May 2013: The International Day for Biological Diversity with the theme ‘Water and Biodiversity” was celebrated at Babesa Middle Secondary School, Serbithang, Thimphu. The half-day event included a quiz, speech and art competitions between the different house groups and different classes. The participatory event saw many students express themselves through an impressive array of art on ‘water and biodiversity’. The event concluded with cash prizes awarded to the winners. A series of other activities carried out to celebrate the day included, essay writing and art competitions on the current theme by students from across the country and the composition of song on agrobiodiversity. The winners of the essay and art competitions were also declared and the results will be made available shortly on National Biodiversity Center (NBC) and Ministry of Agriculture and Forests (MOAF) websites.

    Arts on the theme “Water and Biodiversity” by the students

    This was the first time that the International Day of Biological Diversity was celebrated with a school in order to nurture the seed of conservation in the hearts and minds of our young children so that they will love, respect and conserve nature for the benefit of the country and the future generations. The positive and pro-active response from the school and the students in the celebration of International Biodiversity Day signaled the importance of working with young minds and fostering more interactive programs on biodiversity as part of the initiative to raise awareness on biodiversity in the country.

    The event was coordinated by National Biodiversity Centre, MoAF in collaboration with Babesa Middle Secondary School with funding support from South East Asia Regional Initiative for Community Empowerment (SEARICE), Bioversity International and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA).

  • National Training Workshop on “Building capacity to Identify Bhutan’s Threatened Species” using IUCN Red List criteria and categories

    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.

    Participants of Training Workshop on “Building capacity to Identify Bhutan’s Threatened Species

    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

  • International Innovative Leaders led by The First Lady of Oregon, USA, visits NBC

    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.

    Delegates visit NBC facilities

    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

  • Stakeholder Consultation workshop to develop a National Biodiversity Portal.

    Availability and easy access to comprehensive biodiversity data and information are fundamental for decision-making, policy advice and monitoring conservation of biodiversity and the effectiveness of conservation measures. In an effort to take this idea of making biodiversity information easily accessible forward, through a web-based portal, the National Biodiversity Centre, Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, Serbithang organized consultation workshop with key biodiversity data generators and managers of the country.

    Hon’ble Secretary, MoAF with the biodiversity portal workshop participants

    The workshop held on 19th and 21stof March in Thimphu was inaugurated by Hon’ble Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests and attended by more than forty participants from the following agencies, both within and outside the Ministry of Agriculture and Forests:Wildlife Conservation Division, Forests Resource Management Division, Watershed Management Division, Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park, Ugyen Wangchuck Institute for Conservation and Environment, RDC-Yusipang from the Department of Forests and Park Service.

     

     

    • RDC- Bajo, National Plant Protection Center, National Soil Service Center and National Mushroom Centre from the Department of Agriculture.
    • National Dairy Development Centre, Department of Livestock
    • Council of RNR-Research of Bhutan
    • Policy Planning Division
    • Information Communication Services
    • National Environment Commission
    • College of Natural Resource, Lobeysa and Royal Thimphu College, RUB.
    • Natural Resource Development Corporation Ltd.
    • Royal Society for Protection of Nature
    • SAARC Forestry Centre
    • Menjong Sorij Pharmaceutical, Ministry of Health
    • Department of Information, Technology and Telecom, MoIC
    • Private IT Firm

    A team of experts from the partner organizations of the consortium involved in the development and management of India Biodiversity Portal, an initiative similar to the one Bhutan envisages developing, also participated in the workshop to share their experience in developing the India Biodiversity Portal and to provide technical inputs for the workshop.

    The agenda for the two day workshop encompassed sharing concept on Bhutan Biodiversity portal, current initiatives of different agencies in managing biodiversity data and information, discussions on issues of open access and licensing, data ownership and citation, data standards, common sharing platform and technology options, participation through citizen science module, and formation of consortium of key biodiversity data generators to develop and manage the National Biodiversity portal.

    The workshop concluded with general agreement from the entire stakeholders on the need to developing a common web-based national biodiversity portal, managed through a consortium, rather than by a single agency. Based on the availability of expertise and data, the following agencies were proposed to be the core consortium partners:

    • UWICE, WCD, RNR-RDC from DoFPS
    • CNR from RUB
    • NBC as member secretariat to the consortium.
    • ICS (ICT technical partner)

    It was agreed that other agencies with biodiversity data and technical expertise would be consulted and engaged as additional partners of the consortium once the basic portal is built and deployed. The workshop also endorsed India Biodiversity Portal as the technical partner of the Bhutan Biodiversity Portal. The workshop outputs will be presented to the higher authorities for final endorsement and subsequent implementation.