JRS Biodiversity Foundation is pleased to announce a grant of $29,000 made to the Wildlife Conservation Society to facilitate the planning of an online data portal for lemurs in Madagascar. The project will build partnerships with stakeholders in the lemur conservation community to evaluate the demand for the a data portal, and, if demand is sufficient, develop a consensus vision for design of a portal that will support conservation goals for lemurs and their habitats.

The Wildlife Conservation Society brings substantial technical expertise in data mobilization to this project, having successfully executed a number of similar projects, including the REBIOMA Madagascar Data Portal (2011 and 2013) and the Camera Trap Data Repository. WCS act as a facilitator among lemur conservation partners to identify data needs, users groups, and providers, and to refine a plan for how to connect those dots in an open-access, multi-user, data portal. Participants in the effort will include the Groupe d’Etude et de Recherche sur les Primates de Madagascar (GERP), members of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group, and members of the Lemurs Conservation Network.

This work will equip the team to submit a proposal for portal construction to JRS, and to seek support from additional funders interested in biodiversity conservation.  The potential effort would build upon prior JRS support to the Office National pour l’Environnement for their Online Lemurs Atlas.

Read the details of the project on the grant page.