Challenges

Ecuador’s varied ecosystems make it one of the most biodiverse places on Earth. Understanding the dynamics of natural resources and devising strategies for their conservation requires an orderly and effective understanding and classification of local species. To this end, the National Biodiversity Institute (INABIO), which was recently created to be a national reference in fostering scientific research and biodiversity management, must be strengthened. Furthermore, INABIO was also established to foster knowledge and experience exchanges with the international community. Ecuador, Brazil and Germany, therefore, agreed through this triangular cooperation to strengthen the institutional strategic capacities of INABIO to adequately assume its functions and competences.

Toward a Solution

The objective of this initiative is to strengthen INABIO’s institutional capacities and thus complement the bioinformatics platform designed to organize, systematize and disseminate relevant information on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, in order to support decision-making.  The project had the active and complementary participation of counterparts from the three countries. Ecuador was responsible for the coordination and assessment of technical requirements, the appointment of technicians from INABIO and from the Ministry of the Environment for project planning and implementation activities and also for the supply of project equipment and basic structure. The Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) coordinated Brazilian contributions. The Ministry of Science, Technology, Innovation and Communications (MCTIC), the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) and the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro (JBRJ), through training and technical visits, offered assistance in the determination of the bioinformatics platform in biodiversity area, technical expertise related to in situ biodiversity monitoring and biodiversity information management systems and knowledge about the management of biological collections, biodiversity information systems, and online publications on biodiversity data. The German contribution consisted mainly of technical advice from experts from GIZ and the Alexander Koenig Museum of Zoological Research in Bonn, through specialized technical advice on biological research, exchanges of expertise with successfully managed organizations, development of protocols and procedures that enable the operation of information systems for knowledge management and capacity building in identified project areas.

 This project has worked on three basic lines of action:

1. Strengthening INABIO’s strategic institutional capacities so that it can adequately assume its functions and competencies;
2. Supporting INABIO’s scientific and technical capacities to promote research in biodiversity and the dissemination of knowledge;
3. Establishing a biodiversity information platform to manage biodiversity-related information using standardization criteria and parameters, and corresponding protocol development.

This successful project was completed by the end of 2019 and has achieved important results. Today, INABIO has a strategic plan and a communication plan in implementation. An agreement was formalized between representatives of the Institutes of Biodiversity of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Costa Rica and also an inter-institutional agreement of strategic management with the Koenig Museum was established. In addition, the capacities of the Ministry of the Environment of Ecuador (MAE) and INABIO in gender equity issues were expanded and the Institute was certified as a violence-free institution against women.

 In addition, the project has achieved the following: 

• 33 professionals from MAE, INABIO and Ecuadorian universities were trained in various topics such as plant collection management protocols, spatial analysis of biodiversity data, obtaining data from infrared spectra, germplasm bank and implementation of sampling station. Thirteen of the participants trained are women, which represents approximately 39% of female participation.
• Two research proposals were prepared with the Koenig Museum in Germany (Germplasma Bank), and with ICMBio and INPA in Brazil (Biodiversity Monitoring).
• Two scientific papers were published on the identification of two new species (Genus Thomasomys- Rodentia and Nobella barbour- Amphibia).
• The Institute currently has a server for data storage and a pilot model for database management to which information from each of its collections has already been added
•  Three technical visits were made to structure a pilot project for the migration of the INABIO collections to a Computerized Biodiversity System, based on the model used in Brazil.
• Protocols for the management and administration of the botanical and zoological collections base and a technical manual of prerequisites for the installation, configuration and parameterization of the SYMBIOTA platform were elaborated and applied.

The contribution of German cooperation to this initiative does not end here. Due to the synergies generated between the different institutions and the success achieved through this modality, Germany together with its partners decided to continue supporting this sector. A new measure was recently approved to support the establishment of the national monitoring system (SINMBIO), which will be implemented under the coordination of INABIO itself. With its initial focus on the Amazon biome, this monitoring platform is considered an indispensable tool for the integration and coordination of the different biodiversity monitoring initiatives, programs and projects currently being conducted throughout Ecuador.