Preprints of the Metadiversity Conference Proceedings

  Session 1: The Nation’s Call to Action

The Clearing-House Mechanism of the Convention on Biological Diversity: Biodiversity Metadata and Information

BEATRIZ TORRES, Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity,
393 St. Jacques St. Suite 300, Montreal H2Y 1N9, Canada.
Phone: (514) 287 7018, Fax: (514) 288 6588,
beatriz.torres@biodiv.org, http://www.biodiv.org/chm

One of the successful outcomes of the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio, Brazil in 1992, was the adoption of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).  The Convention entered into force in December 1993, and to date it has been ratified by 175 Contracting Parties (countries).

To date the CBD constitutes one of the most powerful and important international treaties regarding biodiversity and the environment.  Because of its legally binding nature, it has opened a new set of concrete opportunities for the conservation and sustainable use of species, habitats and ecosystems in our planet. In addition, the Convention provides for a financial mechanism —the Global Environment Facility (GEF)–to support the compliance and implementation processes of country-driven initiatives in developing countries and countries with economies in transition.

In order to achieve the 3 objectives of the Convention, namely,

• the conservation of biological diversity
   

• the sustainable use of biological resources, and
   

• the equitable sharing of benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources

the CBD Parties need to fulfill several obligations, including the preparation of national inventories, strategies, and action plans.  They must also integrate the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity into relevant sectoral and cross-sectoral plans, programs, and policies.  In this context, the exchange and dissemination of information is seen as a key tool for the implementation of the Convention.  Such exchange of information shall include the exchange of results of technical, scientific, and socio-economic research, as well as information on training and surveying programs, specialized knowledge, indigenous and traditional knowledge, and technologies including biotechnology.  It shall also, where feasible, include repatriation of information.

Purpose of the Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM)

The Clearing-House Mechanism (CHM) promotes and facilitates technical and scientific cooperation at all levels among Parties to the Convention (Art. 18(3) of the Convention).

Through the CHM, global access to and exchange of information on biodiversity and its sustainable use will be facilitated.  COP  (The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention on Biological Diversity) identified the CHM as a key tool, which contributes to and actively assists in fulfilling the three objectives of the convention.

The CHM constitutes a new and innovative shift away from the central data-source concept.  It is an innovative process in that it is transparent, interactive, open and accessible.  In addition, it calls for a decentralized system with shared responsibilities under a globally owned mechanism.  In fact, the CHM is different than the already existing information systems, since it is much more than a pure information retrieval system.  It is, rather, a tool to facilitate and enhance scientific and technical cooperation and development.  It relies on the interaction of participating partners and users involved.

A crucial component of the Clearing-House Mechanism's operational framework is that it is needs driven and service-oriented.  The CHM is geared towards linking its meta-information to respond to queries on topics relevant to the implementation of the Convention, pointing the users to the location of relevant information.

CHM Characteristics and Attributes

Among others, COP assigned the following characteristics to the CHM:

The CHM should develop in a neutral, transparent, cost-effective, efficient and accessible manner.

It should be compatible with national capacities, needs driven and decentralized in nature.  It also has to provide access to metadata, support the decision-making process, and should to the extent possible involve the private sector.

The CHM should include information exchange modalities additional to the Internet to ensure the participation of Parties without Internet access and must integrate and link global and regional information structures.

The CHM will enhance networking between existing national, regional, sub-regional and international centers of relevant expertise, as well as with governmental and non-governmental institutions and the private sector.

The CHM must work in close cooperation with relevant international organizations and entities as partners, in order to maximize the existing experience and expertise.

The Clearing-House Mechanism needs to be clearly focused on the implementation of the Convention.

The decisions made by the COP have broadened the scope of the CHM.  In-situ conservation, taxonomy, access to genetic resources, technology transfer, biosafety, indigenous knowledge, incentive measures and capacity building in general, were identified as fields in which the CHM has an important role to play.

Information about Biodiversity through the CHM

Information about biodiversity is gathered and maintained by a large number of public, private, governmental, inter-governmental and non-governmental institutions and agencies.

Scientists, managers of both public and private agencies, decision-makers and the public in general should be able to have easy access to this information, and to the tools that help us to locate, analyze and combine such information.  The overall aim is to improve the levels of informed decision-making processes and ultimately the quality of life on our planet.

The reliance upon those who collect or maintain information about biological diversity as stewards of those information resources is fundamental.  These individuals and institutions know best the biological resources, as well as the nature, quality and conditions of the resulting information, and are thus most likely to maintain the data appropriately.

Furthermore, the Clearing House operates in a transactional rather than in a custodial manner.  It facilitates transactions through the provision of means to cover both the demand and the offer needs.  A Clearing House implements operational procedures that ensure effectiveness and transparency.  Finally, it has been established that the ownership of all information made available through the Clearing-House Mechanism shall remain with the provider of the information.

Effective sharing of information is greatly enhanced by a common understanding of terms, nomenclature and operating standards.  Achieving some level of consistency with respect to common terminology and operating approaches will greatly increase the degree to which these systems can communicate with each other, users can find the information they need, and data can be combined and aggregated where appropriate.  Issues include technical standards by which information is described, formatted and transmitted, as well as issues involving pricing, protection, and use of data.

The contribution of each partner will be included in the information system of the Clearing-House Mechanism and will be made available to all users.  In this way, updating the information in the system will not be the responsibility of any one institution, or of a program officer in the Secretariat.  Rather, it will be a decentralized activity, to be undertaken by the CHM partners.

The concept of the CBD’s Clearing House is straightforward.  The CHM central node is not a centralized database, which may duplicate the efforts of its national nodes and thematic centers.  The CHM makes available only that information that is common to all members and Partners and is a reference center and switchboard to the information providers and seekers.  In order to achieve this, the system has to know where the specific information is hosted in order to open a channel from the information seeker to the information holder.

Levels of Operation

The CHM functions at both national and international levels.  At the national level, the CHM is envisaged to serve the information needs of those national organizations involved in implementing the provisions of the Convention.  The nature of their needs is often complex and multi-faceted.  Numerous sources of relevant information are likely to be identified in local and national government agencies, universities, research centers, UN organizations, agencies, indigenous and local communities, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and the private sector.  In fact, the potential volume of information is such that the National Focal Points of the CHM could invest significant amounts of time conducting searches through a massive wealth of information.  Moreover, such searches would most likely reveal the need to distinguish relevant information amidst the overall wealth of information held by institutions, while ensuring its availability in an appropriate format.

The CHM framework provides the means by which access to, and the interactive nature of an information exchange system could be maximized during the present period.  Such an approach takes into consideration the complexity of the many Convention-related topics and is especially relevant when considering the demands for inputting and updating the different types of information to be submitted by a growing number of partners and participants.

Focal Point Concept

The contributors to the Clearing-House system are broad and diverse.  Supported by the Secretariat of the Convention, the National Focal Points are the load-bearing columns of this process.  They provide and use the information contents, as well as, actively furnish national experiences.  The underlying understanding is that the 175 Contracting Parties to the Convention are both the target group and the main actors at implementing the Convention and its Clearing-House Mechanism.

In addition to the National Focal Points, Thematic Focal Points (TFPs) have been envisaged.  TFPs are visualized as resources or centers that posses solid and specialized experience in a given field of biological diversity.

Regional approaches or supra-regional initiatives are also important contributors to the system.  In that regard, for the Americas, the Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN) and the North American Biodiversity Information Network (NABIN) are substantial and far-reaching initiatives.  Furthermore, supra-regional initiatives such as the Biodiversity Information Network (BIN 21), the OECD Megascience Subgroup on Bioinformatics and the G-8 ENRM Subgroup on Biodiversity Data, constitute key and important associates to the system.  Since many other initiatives are under way, it appears necessary to the Secretariat that at least some levels of harmonization of efforts are needed to avoid duplication of work and resources.

Role of the Secretariat

The Secretariat focal point should encourage the development of a network of active partners for the CHM.  Moreover, it should also support the partners in developing specific training for the effective participation of users in the clearing-house network.

The role of the Secretariat should be that of a facilitator, ensuring:

• the dissemination of experience and knowledge amongst all partners
   

• that the system as a whole is learning from shared experience; and
   

• that different solutions to similar problems are being recorded and exchanged

This leads to a conceptual network model where we find the Secretariat node to the CHM acting as a coordinating switching-center with facilitating linkages to the associated nodes. Regional and National Focal Points, Thematic Focal Points or other partners might take over a specific theme or issue of the Convention in order to structure the information and provide a single pointer on the CHM.  This could avoid duplication of effort, promote synergy within the CBD process, maximize effectiveness, help to structure information in a decentralized manner and make the international CHM a globally distributed information source with clearly shared responsibilities.

CHM Partners

The development of the CHM has to be supported by a large number of different partners enabling the mechanism to fulfill its tasks and the expectations of its users. This is only possible when all the contracting Parties and focal points and other users and providers conceive the development of the CHM as a joint responsibility from which they can gain profit while ensuring the national implementation of the Convention.  Consequently, adding value to biodiversity through information is one of the utmost tasks of the CHM.  There is a wealth of human and institutional resources around the world.  The providers of these resources should be natural partners to the CHM process and our challenge is to duly incorporate them.

Cooperation with Other Processes and Organizations

Synergies and close cooperation are needed and sought with other conventions, agreements and processes.  The Secretariat has to identify those activities and organizations that could support the Clearing-House Mechanism.  They could also provide timely and appropriate advice to the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA).  Concrete efforts with the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Convention to Combat Desertification, CITES, Ramsar, World Heritage, and Convention on Migratory Species on the harmonization of information management are currently under way.

Informal Advisory Committee

The Clearing-House Mechanism is assisted in its functioning by an Informal Advisory Committee (IAC), as stipulated by the Parties to the Convention.  The advisory committee guides and integrates the development of the CHM pilot phase (The Pilot Phase of the Clearing-House Mechanism lasts until the end of 1998) activities and endeavors to ensure that all Parties can participate in the Clearing-House Mechanism.

Call to Action:  CHM 21

As agreed by the Conference of the Parties, the CHM during the period 1996-98, is developing its pilot phase, encouraging and developing methods of cooperation for the development and use of technologies, including indigenous and traditional technologies in pursuance of the objectives of the convention.

In order to achieve the goal of promoting and facilitating technical and scientific cooperation, the CHM must also promote the access to and transfer of environmental technology in the field of biodiversity.

The CHM node at the CBD Secretariat is currently developing a strategy to further develop the area of technology transfer.  In order to be an incentive for other national focal points and networks to start working on technology transfer issues the facilitation and promotion of the transfer of environmental technology in biodiversity needs to promptly be addressed by the CHM.  In the field of technology transfer the CHM is focusing on country driven efforts to promote the access to and transfer of technology.

At the end of its three-year pilot phase in which the CHM has successfully implemented the information infrastructure, it is now engaging in its overriding priority, namely, to facilitate and promote scientific and technical cooperation.

The results of the pilot phase achieved thus far can be used as a platform to launch the challenging approach of the Clearing-House Mechanism.  The CHM has to be developed into something more than a referral system.  As a first approximation, this referral system is important and necessary to explore the scientific and technical realm of biodiversity in its inter-linked complexity in a cross-sectoral manner.  However, interactive and cross-sectoral components have to be added to meet the needs of future generations.

Some tools may be flagged to indicate the nature of such a system:

• development of national reports into central information sources
   

• visualization of metadata for the evaluation and monitoring of trends as well as the development of indicators to measure changes in biological diversity
   

• integration and linkage of global and regional information structures through the utilization of a few key words (attribute lists) which in turn can open new information spaces
   

• development of a "CHM-tool kit" to support the CHM partners in the establishment, integration, and exchange of their existing data sources within commonly agreed information structures of the CHM
   

• and development of novel and user friendly search mechanisms to help explore the biodiversity information space in step-by-step manner

The Clearing-House 21 becomes a globally managed information source under common and shared responsibilities to contribute to sustainable development, conservation of biodiversity and the equitable sharing of benefits.

It is apparent that big and important challenges are in front of us.  In addition to the effective promotion and facilitation of technical and scientific cooperation, the biggest challenge by far is the one related to matters of national implementation, where capacity-building issues are of paramount importance, in particular for developing countries.  The ultimate success of the CHM will be tested on the ground and at the national level.

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