REBIOMA, Réseau de la Biodiversité de Madagascar/ Wildlife Conservation Society
Madagascar, with Commission SAPM (Madagascar Protected Areas System Committee)
rebioma@rebioma.net
REBIOMA a project of WCS Madagascar with technical support from the University of
California, Berkeley (UCB), has worked to promote the use of biodiversity data and tools
in systematic conservation planning since 2002. We have strengthened cross-institutional
collaboration with several national and international institutions, and support to the
government branch in charge of Environment through the “Madagascar Biodiversity and
Protected Areas Directorate”.
Since 2001, REBIOMA has improved biodiversity conservation planning in Madagascar,
by:
- Providing easy access to update and validated data on the biodiversity of Madagascar,
- Providing an opportunity for institutions and scientists to share and publish their
occurrence data for conservation use,
- Making data available for quantitative conservation planning,
- Strengthening and promoting networks of knowledge associated with biodiversity
conservation in Madagascar,
- Supporting the process of the Durban Vision for expanding the marine and terrestrial
protected area network, serving the SAPM (Madagascar Protected Areas System)
First of all, the Madagascar Protected Areas System generally consolidates the protected
areas in Madagascar, classified by their categories, their periods of development and their
management. They include existing protected areas; the extension of protected areas;
protected areas with temporary status; the new protected areas; the important sites for
conservation (priority sites for future protected areas); and the potential sites for
conservation (sites with high probability for future protected areas)
To date, REBIOMA’s work has directly supported the selection of four million hectares
of new terrestrial protected areas and, in 2011-2012, we anticipate our work will help to
identify at least one million hectares of new marine protected areas.
Markedly, REBIOMA staff assisted National Geographic Society (NGS) mapmakers
with a two-page map that appeared in the September 2010 issue
(http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/09/madagascar/madagascar-map). To depict
biodiversity conservation "hotspots", NGS chose the results of the 2008 SAPM analysis
conducted by REBIOMA and partners (shown in red hatch on the map). REBIOMA staff
also helped with the selection of species shown along the right side of the map ("Among
the unique and imperiled"). This is not only a terrific showcase of REBIOMA’s
contribution to Madagascar biodiversity conservation, but also, sadly, highlights the
extent to which the illegal logging crisis has come to dominate mainstream press
coverage of Madagascar over the last two years.
Besides, we have initiated a project to build a digital atlas of the Malagasy Protected
Areas System and the Sustainable Forest Management System (KoloAla).
It describes the situation and regional distribution of the different areas mentioned in the
Inter-ministerial decree No. 18633/2008/MEFT/MEM 17 October 2008 on temporary
protection overall development of the sites covered by this order and lifting the
suspension of the granting of permits for mining and forestry sites. These information are
available on http://atlas.rebioma.net/. This Atlas presents, for each site: a general
description, its importance for biodiversity, and other useful information. The atlas is
published on CD-ROM interactive, enabling all stakeholders in each region, to know
these sites via a dynamic mapping application, combined with analytical results on
species distributions made by the “Durban Vision Prioritization Group”. The tool is
intended for the uninitiated to computer technology, its use is simple and intuitive.
Moreover, we have the “REBIOMA Web Portal”, a portal dynamic reference for
researchers around the world interested in the biodiversity of Madagascar, available and
attached on: http://www.rebioma.net/. The main objective is to improve conservation
planning in Madagascar. With this portal, we can find: data of observations; the patterns
of species distributions; documents; news and others. For instance, Madagascar’s
conservation community now has tools in place to publish and share high-quality
biodiversity data and validated species distribution models (http://data.rebioma.net).
Unlike similar biodiversity networks, data uploaded to REBIOMA data portal passes
through automated and expert-assisted data review before contributing to species
distribution models. Utilizing these tools to their full potential will significantly increase
the amount of high-quality biodiversity data available for current and future conservation
work in Madagascar. The fundamental goal of the REBIOMA data portal is to publish
biodiversity data for Madagascar, and this will continue to be the primary means of data
sharing.
Dealing with the map that we send for this International Conservation Mapping
Competition, it illustrates the result of national efforts and initiative to enhance
biodiversity conservation in Madagascar in 2009. Made by REBIOMA with ArcGIS
software, it is a poster in A0 format which officially shown and distributed during the
World Environment Day in 2009 under supervision of the Ministry in charge of
Environment. The widespread of this map trough Madagascar remains an important
event, not only for the biodiversity conservation, but it also helps, informs and sensitizes
Malagasy population about both national policy of conservation and protected areas
implementation. For instance, this map has used as a basis tool for decision making
during the international symposium for the conservation of Malagasy Cichlids in Andapa
Madagascar in October 2010.
In fact, our objective is to significantly increase the amount of high-quality biodiversity
data available for current and future conservation work in Madagascar by extending the
scope and reach of the REBIOMA data portal, with special focus on improving data
quality through marine and terrestrial Taxonomic Review Boards, and the
implementation of a marine database and marine distribution models to support marine
conservation planning; strengthen cross-institutional collaboration with several
institutions such as Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG), Office National pour
L’Environnement (ONE), Global Biodiversity Informatics Facility (GBIF) and GBIF
Madagascar Node (MadBIF); and building in-country technical capacity and foster
conservation leadership for long term sustainability.
To sum up, by the name of REBIOMA team, it’s an honor for us to apply for this
International Conservation Mapping Competition. We are delighted to have the
opportunity to work with ESRI, and to participate to this competition. REBIOMA aims to
map and protect biodiversity and ecosystems in Madagascar in order to better inform
national conservation policies around terrestrial and marine environments. Launched as a
joint project of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and UC Berkeley (UCB) with a
grant from the MacArthur Foundation, REBIOMA has managed to build and populate an
online biodiversity mapping system that has been used and supported by policy-makers.