Freshwater Biodiversity Assessments in the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot
Indo-Burma: Fishes, Molluscs, Odonates, and Aquatic Plants
A two year project funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF)
There is a great concentration of species found in the freshwaters of the Indo-Burma region. This, coupled with the essential ecosystem services that are supplied to humanity by these freshwaters and their biodiversity, and the increasing threats to the ecosystems, indicate the importance and urgency of this project. The aim is to provide resources that are essential for guiding decisions on the conservation and sustainable management of freshwater biodiversity in the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot. It will fill the information gap that currently impairs conservation planning in the area by implementing comprehensive assessments of the freshwater biodiversity and detailed evaluations of their distribution, ecology, and extinction risk.
The Indo-Burma project began with a training workshop in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in November 2009. This helped to equip regional scientists and experts working on the project with the knowledge of how to assess the freshwater species using a standardised methodology making all assessments comparable.
The project, focused on the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot, will assess the status of freshwater biodiversity from rivers including the Salween, Chao Praya, and the Mekong, as well as coastal basins in Thailand and Viet Nam.
The short-term impacts of this project include the provision of a database of information on freshwater fishes, molluscs, dragonflies and damselflies, and selected families of aquatic plants for the Indo-Burma region. The long-term objective is to ensure informed and sustainable management practices for the region. Assimilated data will be made widely and freely available to ensure that they are used by NGOs, governmental organisations, and members of the private sector in their policy and programmatic work.
Project update: February 2010
From 25 to 28 November 2009, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, one of the first two large CEPF grantees in the region organised a Red List training workshop for the project “Freshwater Biodiversity Assessments in the Indo-Burma Biodiversity Hotspot: Fishes, Molluscs, Odonates and Plants” in Phnom Penh.
Thirty scientists and representatives from research institutions, non-governmental organisations and government agencies in eight countries attended the event. Besides project review and work planning, essential training was provided to the experts who will undertake the assessment work on how to compile species data using the Species Information Service (SIS) database, and to assess species conservation status using the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. Mapping training was also provided to allow assessors to produce species distribution maps, which accompany all red List species assessments. A second workshop will be held in mid-2010 to review the assessments and maps produced by the experts, and the project is due for completion by early 2011, when assessments will be submitted to the IUCN Red List, and all data and maps made freely available to inform conservation planning and decision-making within the region.
