On 27 April, 13 experts from institutions including Natagora, ULg-Gembloux Agrobiotech and the Biodiversity Federal Platform, met in Gembloux to undertake the first phase of the evaluation process on biodiversity data management in Wallonia. The stakeholders involved manage more than 90% of Wallonia's biodiversity data.
Following a presentation on the BID-REX project, a round-table took place where the institutions, and the role of biodiversity databases within them, were presented. Two workshops followed.
The first workshop aimed to identify objectives related to the management of biodiversity data. Topics included:
- the technical specificities of the data: interoperability, sampling, encoding…
- the importance of making sense: towards knowledge, usefulness of data, moving from data to information
- the role of data in decision-making: environmental protection...
- the role of data in education: teaching, sustaining knowledge…
- the role of data in research: academic, design office…
- the importance of awareness
The second workshop focused on the current barriers to data management in Wallonia. The main difficulties identified were:
- the risk related to the sustainability of the data: supports, procedures...
- the heaviness of the validation process
- the lack of resources (financial and technical) devoted
- the neglected importance of data pre-treatment
- the vagueness and the lack of answers on the legal aspects: nature of the data, ownership, dissemination ...
- the communication/awareness deficit on the importance of data, their value…
The final discussion led to identifying potential projects to be undertaken by stakeholders and relevant guidelines for the drafting of the project action plan. The idea of setting up an overall structure to deal with data management was appreciated which testifies to the interest generated by the theme.
Prospects are therefore encouraging for the rest of this process. A follow-up workshop will take place in the Autumn with the aim of formulating a more concrete action plan.
