Diversity

At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, world leaders agreed on a comprehensive strategy for "sustainable development": i.e., meeting our needs while ensuring that we leave a healthy and viable world for future generations. One of the key agreements adopted at Rio was the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This pact among the vast majority of the world's governments sets out commitments for maintaining the world's ecological underpinnings as we go about the business of economic development. The Convention establishes three main goals: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.

In this context, the Diversity project aims at studying, defining, demonstrating and validating a number of geo-information products and services, based on EO-technology, to support the user community involved in the implementation of the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD).

The project is carried out in collaboration with the CBD Secretariat and UNESVO representing the international community. It manly address the information needs of the CCAD (as an intergovernmental organization) and MarViva (an NGO working in the field of environmental management and conservation).

During the project, a number of information services have been developed:

• Global EO-derived biodiversity indicators to support the CBD 2010 Biodiversity Target
• Regional Information service to support the planning and monitoring of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor
• Information service for inventorying, monitoring and assessment of the Mesoamerican Coral Reef System
• Precise habitat mapping: Mangroves
• Information service for surveying wildlife migrations from Galapagos Islands to Isla de Cocos.