GBIF regional nodes meetings in Taipei

The fourth meeting of the Asian nodes was organized in Taipei by TaiBIF (GBIF Chinese Taipei), from 28 to 30 June. It involved 11 participants from five country nodes (India, Japan, Korea, Pakistan and Philippines) and three other Associate Participants (ACB, Chinese Taipei and ICIMOD). Highlights included:

• Agreement on the major components of a regional action plan for Asia, recognizing the limited amount of openly accessible biodiversity data in the region. The plan foresees two collaborative scientific initiatives, a content and data mobilization strategy for the region, and strengthening biodiversity information and engagement. The two collaborative projects will be on national species checklists, including invasive, Red List, endemic species and migratory birds for comparative study; and on updating databases to assess the risk of fish biodiversity loss in Asia.