TaiBON annual report (2022)
Editorial Office Report
Biodiversity research and surveys in Taiwan have been conducted for many years. However, in terms of biodiversity information at the ecosystem level, the quality and quantity of relevant research or survey results are relatively weak, and there is no strong integration system.
Most of the government-commissioned survey projects or departmental data are still fragmented, making it difficult to communicate, disclose, and share with users. This makes it difficult to achieve the strategic objective of the Aichi Target of the Convention on Biological Diversity that states "By 2020, knowledge, the science base and technologies relating to biodiversity, its values, functioning, status and trends, and the consequences of its loss, are improved, widely shared and transferred, and applied." and to show the long-term trend of biodiversity change in the country.
In order to improve the integration and openness of domestic biodiversity monitoring information, it is necessary to develop an integration mechanism for national biodiversity observation and survey results to formulate important and representative indicators to grasp the current status and changing trends of biodiversity. In addition, Taiwan has also actively participated in building biodiversity databases and related organizations in recent years, by looking at international organizations such as: Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), Barcode of Life (BOL), Biodiversity Observation Network (BONs), etc. Although some international organizations have not been able to formally sign contracts or participate in cooperation due to political issues, if Taiwan can have its own national biodiversity monitoring system and specific indicators to reflect its biodiversity status, it could be integrated in the international biodiversity observation network, such as: GEO BON, AP BON. Therefore, the Taiwan Biodiversity Observation Network (TaiBON) construction plan came into being.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has formulated the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) as a guideline for the development and strategy of biodiversity issues for the decade 2020-2030. As a guideline for promotion, the Framework not only takes up the unfulfilled targets of the Aichi Targets for the previous decade, but also makes new adjustments for future trends. The new indicator concepts include a region-wide integrated planning approach to habitat conservation and use (Target 1), planning and measuring the effectiveness of habitat conservation through the establishment of protected areas and OECMs (Target 3), To adopt Nature Based Solutions to combat carbon emissions and other impacts of global environmental change (Target 8), to adopt sustainable use of wildlife resources (Target 9), to integrate biodiversity issues and concepts into public and private sector strategic concepts and business approaches (Target 14), and fully applying traditional and technological knowledge in policy areas such as national governance and public outreach (Target 20). The TaiBON’s team is also actively updating its indicators whenever changes are made in the international community. Originally, there were eight issues in the TaiBON system, totaling 62 biodiversity indicators. This annual report will also provide an update on TaiBON's latest development from the perspective of how to respond to the international trend with 4 new trend indicators and 2 supporting work. In order to provide the most accurate and faithful information to reflect the trend, the quality of the data is checked by the PARCC process to facilitate readers' interpretation and tracking of the trend. Through the calculation results of various indicators, the public can understand the current status and trend of biodiversity in the country, enhance their awareness and knowledge of biodiversity protection, and help promote biodiversity conservation and related monitoring information management, so as to effectively implement the strategy of sustainable development of biodiversity.
In the future, TaiBON hopes to strengthen the cooperation between the government and the private sector to enrich the existing sources of biodiversity indicators, review the issues of indicators, evaluate the quality of data, and improve the accuracy of the indicators to reflect the biodiversity status in Taiwan, so as to adjust the policy plan and make the biodiversity development more in line with the international trend. At the same time, TaiBON strives to improve the system interface and visual communication of charts and graphs, hoping this way that the public will be able to read and interpret the information more easily, so as to promote the concept of biodiversity and its application, and eventually achieve the goal of mainstreaming biodiversity in the future.
（For the full version of the annual report please refer to the attached file.）
[1]OECM: Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures.
[2]PARCC: The five indicators of the data quality measurement tool: Precision, Accuracy, Representative, Completeness, and Comparability.