ARCOS Network

THE ALBERTINE RIFT CONSERVATION SOCIETY RECEIVES MACARTHUR AWARD FOR CREATIVE AND EFFECTIVE INSTITUTIONS

Kampala, February 16, 2012 – Today the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named the Albertine Rift Conservation Society (ARCOS) as a recipient of the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The award recognizes ARCOS’s work in championing collaborative conservation actions in the Albertine Rift region, one of the world’s most important ecosystems on earth.

The MacArthur Award supports ARCOS’s efforts to creatively address the pressing problem of rapid loss of habitat and genetic diversity and deterioration of community livelihoods by engaging various partners and stakeholders in the Albertine Rift region. ARCOS helps to enhance integrated management of biodiversity & ecosystem services; facilitate mechanisms for assessing and addressing climate change; and empower grass-root structures to participate in environmental governance and threat reduction.

“This award comes at a critical time for ARCOS Network. It will help us implement our new strategy effectively while becoming a more established, stable and prominent organisation,” said Dr. Sam Kanyamibwa, the Executive Secretary of ARCOS.

The award is not only recognition for past leadership and success, but also an investment in ARCOS’s future. ARCOS will use this generous infusion of support to build its Headquarters in Kigali—establishing both a head office and a Regional Information and Training Centre for NGOs and other institutions throughout the Albertine Rift region.

“From Chicago to Kampala, these extraordinary organizations demonstrate exceptional creativity and effectiveness,” said MacArthur President, Robert Gallucci. “They provide new ways to address old problems. They generate provocative ideas and they reframe well-worn debates. And their impact is altogether disproportionate to their size.”

ARCOS is one of only 15 organizations from six countries to be recognized today with the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. The MacArthur Foundation does not seek or accept nominations for these awards. To qualify, organizations must demonstrate exceptional creativity and effectiveness; have reached a critical or strategic point in their development; show strong leadership and stable financial management; have previously received MacArthur support; and engage in work central to one of MacArthur’s core programs.

ARCOS – MACEI Press Release

MacArthur Announcement

ARCOS-PROFILE

19 December 2011: The UN Decade on Biodiversity was launched on 17 December 2011, in Kanazawa, Japan, in a ceremony organized by the UN University (UNU) in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment of Japan, Ishikawa Prefecture and Kanazawa City, and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The international launch of the Decade was preceded by regional launches in Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Ethiopia, India, the Philippines, and the Republic of Korea.

The UN General Assembly (UNGA) has declared the period 2011-2020 as the UN Decade on Biodiversity, to promote the implementation of the CBD Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and its overall vision of living in harmony with nature. With participation from UN agencies, CBD Parties and government representatives of Japan, the three-day event included a workshop on national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAPs). In his message delivered by Kiyotaka Akasaka, Under-Secretary-General, UN Department of Public Information (DPI), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on all Parties to the CBD and the other biodiversity-related conventions, as well as all members of the UN system, the private sector, civil society groups and individual citizens and consumers worldwide, to rally to the call of the UN Decade on Biodiversity.

Click here for CBD Press Release

15 December 2011: The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) has developed a new biodiversity data publishing framework to encourage and facilitate the sharing of biodiversity data. The first and primary recommendation suggests that all data relevant to the understanding of biodiversity and to biodiversity conservation should be made freely, openly and effectively available.

The authors define a data publishing framework as an environment conducive to ensuring free and open access to the world’s primary biodiversity data. The 24 recommendations of the GBIF Data Publishing Framework Task Group are included in a special supplement of BMC Bioinformatics.

Some of the measures proposed by the task group have already been taken up by GBIF and others, including the publication of data papers to bring academic recognition to those publishing metadata to describe datasets. Other measures include services to monitor and publish use of data in a Data Usage Index, and a mechanism to ensure that all those involved in collecting, adding value to and publishing data are acknowledged in a single citation.

The authors of the framework conclude that implementation of the recommendations will “expedite the progress of archiving, curation, discovery and publishing of primary biodiversity data, because scientists and originators of data will realize the value and incentives for such efforts.”

Click here for GBIF Press Release 

As Climate Change Talks enter final stretch in Durban, ARCOS urges the governments meeting in Durban to show strong leadership and political will to reach ambitious outcome for people and the planet.

From Copenhagen to Cancun and now Africa in Durban, ARCOS continues to stress the urgency for actions to tackle the most important threat faced by the earth today. ARCOS is concerned that Durban negotiations are not addressing key issues. Governments need to agree on a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol and on a legally binding global agreement that includes all countries by 2015, and commit financial resources by creating the Green Climate Fund, the financial mechanism which will channel funds to developing countries to tackle climate change.

As in other montain ecosystems, the climate change impact is already happening and threatening community livelihoods and national ecosnomies in Africa, says ARCOS Executive Secretary in a Regional Meeting on Sustainable Development in African Mountain Regions, on the theme “Climate Change Impacts, Adaption and Development in Fragile Ecosystems” organised by the Mountain Partnership in Mbale, Uganda. In the Albertine Rift region, one of the globally important regions for biodiversity and ecosystems  services for human being, all the countries in the Albertine Rift region are experiencing floods, long period of droughts, etc.

ARCOS Position on Climate Change

UNFCCC and Durban Climate Conference

Twenty years on from the Rio 1992 meeting (the first “Earth Summit”), participants coming from all walks of life met in Lucerne on 11 and 12 October 2011 to make a compelling case for mountains in international development discussions.

“At an international level, Rio+20 will provide a great momentum for the world to share common aspirational goals and visions”, explained Mr Lalonde. “Since mountains are transboundary and interdisciplinary, the key entry in Rio+20 could be about cooperation in mountain regions at all scales”, he said.

As shown in a number of regional reports ranging from the Andes to the Hindu-Kush-Himalaya, presented at the Conference, mountains could fuel the debate in all the relevant sectors of Rio+20: water, energy, food security, planet monitoring, social issues (with employment, education and culture), risk preparedness.

Participants in the Lucerne World Mountain Conference have produced a Call for Action to bring a conjunct strong message to Rio+20 in June 2012. Strong in number, diversity and complexity; still vulnerable owing to high poverty rates, mountains must stand tall on the development agenda. A source of fresh water for half of the earth’s population, mountains open the way for concrete ways of reducing poverty, overcoming food insecurity and enhancing international (often transboundary) cooperation with benefits for all – mountain communities above and downstream cities below.

The Albertine Rift and the mountains of East Africa are one of the critical ecosystems for biodiversity, national economies and people livelihoods. ARCOS is member of the Mountain Partnership,

The Mountain Partnership is an international, voluntary alliance of partners dedicated to improving the lives of mountain people and protecting their environment around the world. An official UN partnership, it was launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002. The Mountain Partnership has over 170 members, comprising governments, civil society, intergovernmental organizations and the private sector. It is supported by a Secretariat, whose structure consists of a Central Hub, hosted at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – FAO – and working at the global level as well as ensuring overall coordination; and of three Decentralized Hubs; hosted at the University of Central Asia – UCA – in Kyrgyzstan (Central Asia Hub), the Consortium for the Sustainable Development of the Andean Ecoregion – CONDESAN – in Peru (Latin America Hub), the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development – ICIMOD – in Nepal (Asia Pacific Hub); and the Environmental Reference Centre – ERC – of the United Nations Environment Programme in Vienna, responsible.

Read the Call for Action here.

 The Governing Board of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) has approved the appointment of Donald Hobern as its new Executive Secretary.

Currently the director of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), Hobern will take up the post at the end of January 2012. He will arrive at the Copenhagen-based Secretariat as GBIF starts to implement its new strategic plan for 2012-16, aimed at advancing the data content, informatics and engagement of its worldwide network. Donald Hobern previously worked in the GBIF Secretariat between 2002-7, most recently as Deputy Director for Informatics.

In recommending the appointment, the GBIF Executive Committee considered that Hobern combined the experience and knowledge to lead the technical part of GBIF’s biodiversity informatics mission, with the diplomatic skills required to reach out and engage partners and Participants in a highly complex environment.

Announcing the appointment, the GBIF Chair Joanne Daly said, “I am delighted that Donald has decided to come back to GBIF at this critical and exciting time.  “He pulled off a remarkable achievement in building the Atlas of Living Australia in a very short time, showing leadership in bringing together disparate parties to construct an amazing portal for Australian biodiversity data. That achievement was only possible because it was built on the backbone provided by GBIF, towhich Donald himself had contributed so much. “Donald is the right person for GBIF at the right time, and this appointment confirms that it has a great future.”

Approval of the appointment was given at the start of the 18^th meeting of the Governing Board (GB18), taking place in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 4 and 6October. Donald Hobern is attending the event to give a presentation on theAtlas of Living Australia at the annual GBIF Science Symposium, whose themethis year is Celebrating Ten Years of GBIF.

Commenting on confirmation of his appointment, Donald Hobern said: “I am really excited to be returning to work with GBIF. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility has a unique and important role to play in supporting national and international activities to manage biodiversity data. “I look forward to learning more about how GBIF can meet the needs of each of its Participants.  There are so many exciting projects going on in different regions, and global collaboration can help to maximize the benefits from all this work.”

 Hobern replaces the current GBIF Executive Secretary Nicholas King, who leaves his post at the end of December after four and a half years in the job.  “GBIF is poised to really deliver on its ten years of investment to date, as we wrap up this phase. Donald is the right person totake GBIF forward for its next exciting phase,” said King.

Joanne Daly paid tribute to Nicholas King’s contribution during his time as Executive Secretary. “Nick has workedtirelessly and with great skill, ensuring that GBIF has fulfilled the mission of its current phase, to move into full operation as a global facility for the benefit of science and society.”  

 Donald Hobern has a background in software development and web architecture, and he worked 16years for IBM before joining GBIF in 2002. He has a lifelong passion for natural history, and in recent years paid particular attention to the Australian Pterophoridae (plume moths), assisting with some curation of these species in the Australian National Insect Collection. He was formerly Chair of TDWG Biodiversity Information Standards.

For further information, contact: Tim Hirsch, GBIF Senior Programme Officer for Engagement: thirsch@gbif.org

 Notes to editors: The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) was established by governments in 2001 to encourage free and open access to biodiversity data, via the Internet. Through a global network of 57 countries and 47 organizations, GBIF promotes and facilitates the mobilization, access, discovery and use of information about the occurrence of organisms over time and across the planet. ARCOS joined officially GBIF Global Network on 20th January 2010. Tanzania (TanBIF) and Uganda (UgaBIF) are the only Node countries of GBIF in the Albertine Rift.  As part of the Albertine Rift Biodiversity Monitoring and Information System (ARBMIS) ARCOS collaborates with National Data Centres in different countries of the Albertine Rift to encourage all countries of the region to join GBIF.

Relevant links: Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF): www.gbif.org

Capacity building for local NGOs is one of the priorities identified in the ‘Regional strategic framework for conservation of the Albertine Rift’ (ARCOS, 2004). With support from the MacArthur Foundation, ARCOS has played a leading role in the implementation of the Albertine Rift Regional Strategic Framework:

• ARCOS has established and supported a network of NGOs and CBOs in the region and a regional NGO strategy has been developed during a regional NGO meeting in 2006;
• Over 200 local NGO leaders have been involved in ARCOS activities, including 30 NGOs having benefited direct training in areas of institutional development, fundraising and business planning and networking as well as in technical areas of biodiversity assessment, landscape management, environmental impact assessment, lobbying and advocacy.

Recently and in recognition of ARCOS achievements, the MacArthur Foundation provided a follow up funding to ARCOS for “Building Civil Society Leadership in the Albertine Rift region”, with the main objective to enhance NGO institutional capacity, networking mechanisms and collaborative actions in the Albertine Rift region.

In this context, ARCOS will organize an important Albertine Rift Regional NGO Network Workshop involving NGO Leaders from the region with three objectives:

• To provide training and strategic directions to the Heads of NGOs in organization development, fundraising, business planning as well as policy and advocacy targeting emerging issues in the region such as oil and gas, ecosystem services, EIAs and climate change.
• Conduct review and update the Regional NGO Strategy 2006 and draw lessons from training activities, NGO Small Grant Scheme, and individual NGO Strategic Plan development
• Develop regional initiatives to enhance the NGO strategy in terms of Joint NGOs advocacy work in the region; establishment of a Regional Alumni of Conservation Leaders; and Development of Regional NGO Sustainable Funding Strategy.

 This Regional workshop is scheduled for 4th to 7th October 2011 in Musanze, Rwanda involving the Heads or Deputy Heads of 25 NGOs from Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, DRC, and Tanzania . Participants are expected to arrive on 3rd October, and will return on 8th October 2011 (including a field visit on Thursday 6^th October). In order to encourage experience exchange and cross-learning, each participating NGO is also requested to come with a “Poster” describing NGO activities. Finally, a special photograph competition will take place, focusing on 4 themes: 1) Biodiversity; 2) People, Nature and Livelihoods, and 3) Conservation Threats and challenges in the Albertine Rift.

ARCOS is happy to share with you the latest issue of Backbone. 

Download the new Backbone here

With support from the MacArthur Foundation, ARCOS started a new project on “Building Civil Society Leadership and Enhancing Ecosystem Services Resilience and Sustainable Benefits for Local Communities in the Albertine Rift region. The second component of this regional project which will deal with “Enhancing Ecosystem Services Resilience and Sustainable Benefits to Local Communities in the Albertine Rift region”  and called in short “ESLOC” has recently taken off with a series of inception workshops in three priority landscapes. Each of them is of high value both for biodiversity and as water catchments: Echuya Forest landscape in South-western Uganda, Mukura Forest in Western Rwanda and Kibira-Rusizi catchment area in North-western Burundi. With financial support of the MacArthur Foundation, ARCOS seeks to promote the conservation of the landscapes and innovative management practices in these three regions. (more…)

In a cabinet meeting and under the presence of his Excellency Paul Kagame, the Rwandan government yesterday, 06 July 2011, confirmed its commitment to join the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA).

“The Agreement on the Conservation of African-Eurasian Migratory Waterbirds (AEWA) is the largest of its kind developed so far under CMS. It was concluded on 16 June 1995 in the Hague, the Netherlands and entered into force on 1 November 1999 after the required number of at least fourteen Range States, comprising seven from Africa and seven from Eurasia had ratified. Since then the Agreement is an independent international treaty.” more…

ARCOS congratulates Rwanda to this important step, following Tanzania and Uganda in the Albertine Rift, and encourages DRC and Burundi countries to follow Rwanda’s positive example. “This is an important development for Rwanda and all the countries of the Albertine Rift, used by several migratory species during their seasonal migrations”, say Dr Sam Kanyamibwa, ARCOS Executive Secretary.