Focus
The network has existed in name since 1996 and in its early years, several critical Council meetings were held (in Brasília, Brazil, and in Miami, USA) which defined the general structure and proposed functions of IABIN. In the initial years however, no Secretariat existed and the network benefited only from a number of small ad hoc investments, primarily from the United States, the World Bank, and the OAS.
In 2004, a major six-year investment began financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) (see below). Under this project, the network has developed its current foci of activities. These are the adoption of ecoinformatics standards and protocols, development of a catalogue and search tools (being done in coordination with NBII), creation of partnerships, creation and maintenance of the Secretariat, data creation grants, the operation of the “Thematic Networks”, and the creation of information tools for decision-makers.
The Thematic Networks, or TNs, are intended to lead the development of theme-specific standards and protocols and in the maintenance of hemisphere-wide networks of specialists and specialized institutions. In each case a Coordinating Institution has signed a memorandum of understanding with the IEC to lead the work of the TN. They are also tasked with development of search tools and linking of data in their thematic area with data of the other TNs. The TNs, with the coordinating institution in parentheses, are: Species and Specimens (INBio, Costa Rica), Ecosystems (NatureServe, USA), Protected Areas (UNEP-WCMC, UK), Invasive Species I3N Network (United States Geological Survey, USA), and Pollinators (CoEvolution Institute, USA).
Read more about this topic: Inter-American Biodiversity Information Network
Famous quotes containing the word focus:
“When Western people train the mind, the focus is generally on the left hemisphere of the cortex, which is the portion of the brain that is concerned with words and numbers. We enhance the logical, bounded, linear functions of the mind. In the East, exercises of this sort are for the purpose of getting in tune with the unconscious—to get rid of boundaries, not to create them.”
—Edward T. Hall (b. 1914)
“I don’t have any doubts that there will be a place for progressive white people in this country in the future. I think the paranoia common among white people is very unfounded. I have always organized my life so that I could focus on political work. That’s all I want to do, and that’s all that makes me happy.”
—Hettie V., South African white anti-apartheid activist and feminist. As quoted in Lives of Courage, ch. 21, by Diana E. H. Russell (1989)
“If we focus exclusively on teaching our children to read, write, spell, and count in their first years of life, we turn our homes into extensions of school and turn bringing up a child into an exercise in curriculum development. We should be parents first and teachers of academic skills second.”
—Neil Kurshan (20th century)