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During the first week of the CBD COP9 meeting held in Bonn (19-30 May), GBIF organized a side event that highlighted the contributions that the GBIF network makes that help countries better address their national obligations to and implementation of the CBD provisions.
Also, GBIF presented and launched the "Data Sharing with Countries of Origin Table" at the meeting of the Advisory Commitee for the CBD Clearing-house Mechanism (CHM). This table clearly demonstrates the efforts that the GBIF network puts in to making data from world available to the world, especially to developing countries.
GBIF also maintained a booth at which country delegates could get a live demonstrations of the GBIF portal and of the Data Sharing with Countries of Origin Table throughout the week. The reaction of the delegates was fantastic--the mobilization of data is seen as a concrete and tangible benefit that GBIF provides to CBD member-countries. Many delegates were truly surprised to see that so much data is already available via the GBIF network.
GBIF made interventions during COP9 negotiations that pertained to the 2010 target and indicators process, the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, and the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI). As a result, specific references to GBIF's work and its contributions are included in COP9 decisions, particularly those that refer to the GTI and the CHM.
GBIF focused on 15 countries (Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, Greece, Italy, Kenya, Malaysia, Romania, Russian Federation, Thailand, Uganda, Venezuela and Vietnam) for outreach efforts during COP9. Specially tailored DVDs with country-specific materials and data were prepared for them, demonstrations were presented to the respective official delegations, and packets of documents and information materials that highlighted the benefits of joining GBIF were presented to them.
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