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GEO BON refines its governance
By Anne Larigauderie, DIVERSITAS and Woody Turner, NASA
The interim steering committee of the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network met in Washington DC from 22 to 23 January to respond to the GEO-V request to refine the GEO BON governance structure.
The meeting recognized the importance of the GEO values of transparency, flexibility, simplicity and best-efforts volunteerism. It decided to establish a steering committee that would include the current group of organizations and independent experts who have demonstrated that they are willing and able to invest their time in drafting documents, identifying gaps, expanding the network, and so forth.
It also identified several absent international organizations that are leaders in biodiversity observation and is in the process of inviting them to join. The current list of steering committee members is posted here.
The committee will annually review and update its membership, chairs and functions based on consultations with the GEO BON community. It will meet once or twice a year and otherwise rely on email and telephone. General information will be distributed to GEO Members and Participating Organizations via the GEO Secretariat, while more detailed reports and documents will be sent to the GEO BON distribution list.
The committee’s early priorities will include drafting the components of a GEO BON implementation plan. This will be done through a number of working groups assembled around topics of importance to GEO BON. The plan will develop the priorities identified in the GEO BON concept document in time for GEO-VI in November 2009. In addition, the committee will soon establish a more comprehensive web presence for GEO BON.
While establishing this steering committee is important for helping GEO BON to advance, it must be recognized that the most critical and substantive work – the coordination, strengthening and dissemination of biodiversity information and projections – will be carried out by the 100-plus contributors to the Biodiversity Observation Network. To this end, the steering committee has recommended the establishment of the GEO BON Community of Practice (CoP). All GEO Member governments and Participating Organizations are encouraged to consider joining this Community of Practice and to participate in the creation of a strong biodiversity arm for GEOSS. Further information on the CoP will be provided soon.
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