Notification 2019-112

Dear Madam/Sir, I have the pleasure to announce the official launch of the Bioland Tool for National Clearing House Mechanism (CHM) websites. The tool has been developed as a turnkey solution to enable Parties with limited technical expertise and financial resources to setup, run and maintain a basic national CHM website. Among other features, the tool provides templates to enable countries to collate and present national biodiversity information in a coherent manner. It also supports navigation and content presentation in multiple languages, and enables publishing workflows for contributors, content managers and site managers. A summary of these features is presented in Annex attached. As per paragraph 2 of decision 14/25, Parties and other Governments that currently have no operational national CHM website and wish to setup one, or those that wish to redesign their existing websites using the tool, are invited to contact the CHM Helpdesk at the Secretariat via email at: chm@cbd.int. A public demonstration of a national CHM website using the Bioland tool is available at: https://demo.chm-cbd.net/. A private access version can be made available to interested Parties and other Governments upon request. The process to adopt the Bioland tool is also available at: https://demo.chm-cbd.net/about/bioland-tool and is fully supported by the CHM Helpdesk via email or Skype. Please accept, Madam/Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration. Annex Bioland Tool Features • National CHM within the CHM network – Each national CHM website established with the Bioland tool has a URL within the CHM network domain (https://XY.chm-cbd.net, where XY is a 2-letter ISO country code). Alternatively, a Party may provide a custom domain. • Freely centrally hosted –A Party using the Bioland tool does not need to pay any web hosting cost for its national CHM website. • Secure – All national CHM websites established with the Bioland tool are secured through a web certificate (supporting the use of the HTTPS protocol). • Maintained by the CBD Secretariat – The CBD Secretariat will provide the technical support to maintain the Bioland tool. • Interconnected to the central CHM – Official national content available on the central CHM platform (e.g. National targets, NBSAPs, National Reports, etc.) is automatically transferred to a national CHM website established with the Bioland tool. Parties do not have to enter the same information twice. • National content managed by Party, including publishing workflows – Each national CHM website established with the Bioland tool will have at least one National Content Manager designated by the CHM National Focal Point. The National Content Manager is responsible for deciding what can be published on the national CHM. They can be assisted by one or more National Content Contributors who are limited to drafting content. • CHM-Focused Content Types and workflows - Bioland tool supports customized data collection and presentation for Events, News, Projects, Documents, Ecosystems, Related Websites and other information types. • Web statistics – Each national CHM website established with the Bioland tool will have statistical information about how its content is used. • Multilingual – A Party can decide in which language(s) its national CHM website should be established. • Customizable – A Party can customize some aspects of its national CHM website, for example – its menus, content, and visual appearance. However, advanced customization requests may require a feasibility study and additional resources. • Interoperable – The content of a national CHM website built with the Bioland tool can be made interoperable through a public application programming interface (API). This API can then be used by external web application to extract content from the national CHM website. • Open Source – The Bioland tool is built using available open-source technologies and software.

Acting Executive Secretary

To: CBD, ABS and CPB National Focal Points