Workshop with stakeholders promotes identification of information needs on agrobiodiversity

Workshop com stakeholders sobre Agrobiodiversidade

On the 26th of January, the workshop Increasing the value of Agrobiodiversity and the importance of biodiversity databases for wine production was held in Lisbon, as an activity of the project Agrotraining, which is funded by GBIF CESP 2016 programme. The workshop, which was attended by 24 participants from 23 entities, aimed to identify stakeholders' perceptions and knowledge about the potential of agrobiodiversity in the valorisation of the vineyard and wine sectors and to assess the potential of the use of biodiversity information available on the GBIF portal and/or in other databases, in the activities of the vineyard and wine sector.

The morning part of the workshop was reserved for the work of reflection groups, with participants were organized into three stakeholders groups: production chain, regulators and NGOs, research and development. The groups answered a questionnaire of six questions to explore aspects related to the perception about agrobiodiversity, its components, how they influence or are influenced by the wine production activity, the association with the use of information in databases on agrobiodiversity, and finally,  on the interactions that each group establishes with other stakeholders.

The afternoon was dedicated to the preparation of use cases on agrobiodiversity, in which the groups, with a varied composition of participants, were challenged to identify an issue where the use of biodiversity information would be very relevant to its resolution. From the three groups created, the use cases that were presented by the respective rapporteurs, focused on complementary aspects of agrobiodiversity, such as the distribution of the grape moth (Lobesia botrana Denis & Schifferm), the importance of the genetic variability of the vine on the adaptation to climate change, or reconverting non-exploited areas to promote biodiversity in agri-environmental systems.

The session on use cases was preceded by a presentation by the President of the Institute of Vine and Wine, Frederico Falcão, sobre the performance of the wine sector by Portugal, including in the global market, as well as the Vine and Wine Information System used by the institute, for example, to analyze the evolution of caste adoption in Portugal or the incidence of diseases associated with the vine. Two presentations were also made by members of the Agrotraining project, Maria Romeiras and Vânia Proença, on different use cases of biodiversity information, like that one available through GBIF. The presentations files are available for download on the workshop program page.

The workshop closed with a thank you for the presence of all participants, whose contribution will be very important in identifying the information needs, and how GBIF can best fulfill the data service to support the development of the activity of the vine and wine. The results of the workshop, together with an online questionnaire to be launched soon, will allow for the evaluation of these needs, and will contribute to the design of a training course on the use of biodiversity data in agrobiodiversity activity, which Is one of the main results to be achieved with the Agrotraining project.