Type of partnering offered

Release date	28/02/2006

Partnership opportunities

• Hosting of national Clearing-House Mechanism
• Development and hosting of national Clearing-House Mechanism
• Training of national focal point CHM in web publishing and hosting of site
• Technical and scientific cooperation.

Hosting of national Clearing-House Mechanism

The B CHM offers to developing countries, whose  national focal point doesn't have a web server available, to host their CHM on its server. The developing country needs to develop and maintain its own site. This is possible for countries where the national focal point CHM has already some experience in web-publishing and maintenance of a CHM site, but doesn't have the infrastructure to maintain a server at their or other Ministries or doesn't have a reliable, up to speed server in the country.

Mirror site

It is also possible to have a mirror site at the B CHM or SINGER server to redirect traffic. This is especially useful for countries that have a small bandwidth at their national servers.

Technical advice

The Belgian national focal point gives advice on the content and technical development of the web site

Development and hosting of national Clearing-House Mechanism

The B CHM offers this possibility to developing countries that haven't got their own national focal point CHM yet. Information relevant to it's national biodiversity and it's contribution to the Convention are provided by the country's NFP to the CBD to the B CHM. The B CHM will develop a a standardized website and add relevant links on the countries biodiversity, available on the web, to the site. For more information on this type of web see: Democratic Republic of Congo

Training of a national focal point CHM in web publishing and hosting of a site

The Belgian national focal point, with the support of  the Belgian Secretary for development cooperation, organises two times a year a training course for webmasters of the national CHM. During the course the participants learn how; to build an internet based CHM, to present the most relevant biodiversity related information, and other ways to promote technical and scientific cooperation within their countries. At the end of the training the internet based national CHM is the proof of the skills acquired. The site is hosted at the Belgian CHM server but updated by the national focal point.
More information on former and future training courses

Technical and Scientific Cooperation.

In the spirit of the Global Taxonomy Initiative (GTI) the Belgian national focal point is developing project proposals to start a training programme for taxonomists at relevant Belgian institutes and Universities. Currently there are already grant possibilities, through European funds, for European partners to study the collections of Belgian institutes related to the scope of their research.