Feral Geo-informatics Workshop at Pondicherry

The Foundation for Ecological Research, Advocacy and Learning (FERAL) along with the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) and Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE) organised a 5 day workshop in mid-May to demonstrate the possibilities of Open Source technologies to harness spatially explicit data for conservation planning. It covered concepts of web-GIS, with various open source technologies for rapid mapping, visualisation and analysis, of spatial data. It aimed at promoting the use of open-source geo-spatial tools and technologies in the conservation planning of the Western Ghats.

The presentation by the portal team was directed at researchers who could contribute spatially referenced data. Their ideas for the portal included the design of effective geographical meta-data and provide effective searches to access geographical data. Participants were eager to see the portal evolve into a forum for engaging audiences a wide spectrum of audiences from the non-specialist to the researcher.

Downstream Impacts Workshop: Map 2011

A Downstream Impacts Workshop was conducted by the Save Western Ghats Movement and International Rivers - South Asia in end-April at Jog Falls, a location that is facing the adverse impacts of damming downstream. It was an attempt to bring together civil society groups, movements and experts working in the field, as also farmers and fisher-folk representing the affected communities, to discuss this problem at length. Around 30 people participated, and an interaction with the nearby affected communities, helped to highlight this contemporary issue.

The Portal team’s presentation at the Downstream Impact workshop was to present the potential of the Western Ghats Portal as a platform to aggregate information, encourage large-scale participation and keep abreast of contemporary status of biodiversity and conservation. The possibility of quickly collating and disseminating information, using the Internet as a tool for effective conservation planning and governance structures was focused upon.

Mid-term Participatory Assessment of CEPF Investment in the Western Ghats Hotspot: April 2011

A mid-term assessment of CEPF Projects, coordinated by the RIT at ATREE was conducted in April 2011. The meeting was held at three locations Sirsi in Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka; Kotagiri in Nilgiri District, Tamil Nadu; and Tirunelvelli in Tirunelvelli District in Tamil Nadu. With presentations from 27 organisations and representation from 45 of the CEPF grantees, large and small, and an audience of 120-130 participants in all, a primary level of interaction has been established. The presentations of each of the CEPF Grantees have been posted on the CEPF Collaboration Module of the Portal. Furthermore, discussions via mail to encourage data sharing and create an active community to contribute to the portal are underway.
The Western Ghats Portal Team attended all the three meetings, presented the objectives of the portal and led a discussion on the portal vision among the participants. There was an open willingness to share data on the portal. However there were concerns about sharing sensitive data or data to be used for research publications.

The portal presentation spawned a very meaningful debate about several issues: publication and accreditation policies, the problems of sharing sensitive data on natural resources and the legal structures essential for safeguarding them, public information for legal and political leverage, standardisation of research methodology for better data integration, and many others. However, the highlight was the enthusiasm to share data under the Creative Commons philosophy.

Stakeholders consultative meeting on 28th Jan 2011

The first Stakeholders Meeting was held at Bangalore in 28th Jan 2011. This was attended by over 40 participants representing the Government, NGOs, students, researchers, activist groups, academics and corporate sector. The main objectives of the portal were presented. This was followed by a discussion on the priorities of the portal.

Highlights of the stakeholders meeting

The discussions centered on the six questions that were raised.

• What are the data needs that the portal can serve?
  There are many portals, biodiversity information is a public good and multiplicity was good. The portal should provide a good framework for the information needs of the stakeholders.
• What should be the data policy on the portal?
  Most animated discussion. Open access to data is generally helpful, but biodiversity data can be sensitive and we should have mechanisms to handle such data. We need to have a transparent and clearly articulated data sharing and access policy. Contributors should have the option to define data sharing policy.
• How to encourage participation on the portal?
  The portal needs to be very user friendly and responsive. We need to try different mechanisms to encourage participation. We need to build a cooperative community and generate an attitude of sharing data.Contributors should receive credit for their participation.
• How to validate and aggregate data?
  This is important for crowd sourced data and for the reliability and respectability of the portal. We will need to look at online community mechanisms and rigorous peer review mechanisms for validation.
• What formats must be supported for upload and download of data?
  We should have simple and flexible formats for uploading of data and we should conform to global data standards for data exchange and download.
• How to sustain the portal?
  Sustain the portal by an open and inclusive form of participation and governance. There are many success stories and with our active participation, we can drive the Western Ghats Portal ward success.

The portal team of IFP and Strand were very happy with the level of enthusiasm and participation at the meeting. We sincerely thank all participants and request their continued participation.