The ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard

Data visualisation and reporting present an opportunity to shorten the gap between data and decision making and to increase access, for scientists, policy-makers and the public, to the most up-to-date and relevant data on biodiversity status and trends.  Rapid and accelerating pressures on biodiversity in Southeast Asia demand new ways to deliver current and credible data and predictive trends to policy-makers to allow them to anticipate and effectively respond to emerging biodiversity conservation issues.

The ASEAN Biodiversity Dashboard is a fit for purpose, user/policy-friendly interactive platform that harnesses current datasets to streamline regional target tracking and reporting (e.g. for tracking progress towards CBD, SDG, targets, including those planned for Post 2020), and apply the latest advances in data visualisation using state-of-the-art indicators. This is developed to determine if the ASEAN region is moving towards or away from key Aichi, and SDG targets, using both existing data housed and/or accessible via the ASEAN CHM, and the indicators developed at the global scale that can be visualised at ASEAN regional and national scales (on condition of approval of use by the global indicator providers). It also serves as an online early warning system alerting policy-makers to emerging issues and trends in biodiversity, based on when a particular indicator nears a threshold defined by ACB and AMS.

The platform is also designed to:
•   Streamline national and regional reporting and assessment processes;
•   Enable more powerful and near-real-time national and regional biodiversity target tracking;
•   Facilitate more effective and ongoing evaluations of the success of conservation investments;
•   Identify critical emerging issues facing biodiversity in the ASEAN region;
•   Reveal key gaps in our understanding of biodiversity and the pressures they face; 
•   Inform more effective protected area management; and,
•   Strengthen transboundary conservation actions such as for the establishment of more contiguous and representative protected areas in the region.