About the CHM :: CHM in Bulgaria

Bulgariahas signed the Convention on the Biological Diversity on June 12^th 1992 and has ratified it on April 17^th 1996. The Convention was enacted in Bulgaria on July 16^th 1996. The institution responsible for the implementation of the obligations of the country under the Convention is the Ministry of Environment and Water (MOEW).

 

Article 18 of the Convention requires the establishment of a clearing-house mechanism (CHM) with the aim to facilitate the scientific and technical cooperation on issues connected with the biodiversity. At the end of the year 2000, the MOEW has delegated Mr. Ivaylo Zafirov – senior expert with the National Nature Protection Service (NNPS) to be the National CHM Focal Point.

 

The work for the establishment of the national clearing-house mechanism for the biological diversity has been supported by a joint project of the MOEW and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) – Needs Assessment and Development of a Clearing-House Mechanism for the Biological Diversity in Bulgaria, funded by the Global Environmental Facility (GEF). The project started in February 2001 upon a request of Bulgaria.

The National Coordination Group is an inter-sectoral group, including all the stakeholders. The functions of the group are as follows:

-         Adopting action plans and annual reports of the Bulgarian CHM;

-         Preparing proposals for strategic decisions regarding CHM;

-         Coordinating the institutions and organizations aiming at CHM effective operating;

-         Taking care of the Bulgarian CHM sustainability;

-         Providing strategic and information support to the National CHM Focal Point;

Bulgarian CHM is organized in a number of Information nodes based at the institutions and organizations providing the information. The information nodes use a variety of technologies and approaches for digitizing, organizing and publishing the information.

Information Architecture of the Bulgarian CHM (graphic).

The use of a content management system is a key idea of the Bulgarian CHM. This system allows for adding, editing or erasing of information (management of the contents) placed in the portal CHM web-site or the accompanying sites.  This is performed through Internet by a person with no specific technical background, respectively the one responsible for the site. This system allows for easy updating of the information, which is an important element of the Concept of the clearing-house mechanism.

 

As a sufficient part of the portal web-site an application was developed, which generates metadata about the published information. The most contemporary technologies, guaranteeing the compatibility of the data at the global level were used. Contacts were established with the Secretariat of the Convention in  Canada and a scheme for indexing and exchange of the meta-information from the portal web-site was developed. In this way the activities for implementing the two main tasks of the clearing-house mechanisms were initiated, namely these tasks are: cooperation at the national and global levels and exchange of information.

 

Technological bases of the Bulgarian CHM

The workflow on the establishment of the Bulgarian CHM follows the three main objectives of the Clearing House Mechanism, namely 1/collaboration, promotion and facilitation of technical and scientific cooperation; 2/information exchange and 3/network development.