Better maps and data mean better environmental policy and action

The Bougainville Natural Resource Portal is a one-stop portal where policymakers and technical teams can access environmental maps and datasets to make informed environmental policies and investments in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville .

The Autonomous Region of Bougainville guards a bounty of flora, fauna, minerals and other natural resources. Farmers grow high-value products like cocoa and vanilla on its volcanic soil, while rich deposits of gold and copper sit under swathes of primary and secondary forests. A thriving trade in tuna and bêche-de-mer supports fisheries. The Bougainville Natural Resource (NR) Portal helps map and conserve these resources while sustaining lives and livelihoods here by providing multi-nodal, multi-level environmental data to inform policymakers and technical teams in natural resource management (NRM) decisions.

Local Insights from Global Data

The Bougainville NR Portal is a web portal developed and maintained by UNDP to provide the Autonomous Bougainville Government with a digitalized technical infrastructure, spatial data and analytics for taking sound natural resource management decisions. Local-level insights are teased out of global-level data to help drive sound policies and programming, framed in part by the Sustainable Development Goals and other strategic priorities.

Three ways to use the Bougainville NR Hub

1. A Portal for accessing and visualizing NRM information at different levels from global to local.

2. An interactive resource where specialist organizations, academic institutions, local projects and users of the geonode site can share data and updates. Users will be able to upload, use and develop data.

3. A decision-making tool for policy makers, civil society organisations and others to monitor and analyze NRM data and use it to inform planning, policies and action.

This web portal is based on the GeoNode open-source geospatial infrastructure.The curriculum will be made available for technical focal points to learn how to upload, use, and develop data on this website.

The Challenge

Policymakers need reliable, up-to-date and granular local data to help them develop evidence-based environment policies and action plans for NRM. However, easy access to localized, actionable and targeted analytics remains a persistent problem for many policymakers, technical teams and others working on environmental issues. Another challenge being addressed is the translation of the growing body of global environmental data into locally relevant insights and guidance to strengthen decision-making.

The Opportunity

Digitalization has transformed how we measure, map and understand our environment. Satellite imagery can now track deforestation to the level of individual trees and record coral-bleaching events as they happen. Digitalized environmental datasets are helping pinpoint and analyze problems as they unfold, greatly enhancing the scope of sustainable interventions.

Aggregating high-quality global datasets with locally created data and insights can also democratize knowledge by making it available to everyone and thus increasing the transparency of NRM. Spatial data represents a particularly engaging format for use in decision-making because maps easily transcend language and cultural barriers.

>Many of these environmental datasets are produced by premier research institutions such as the UN Biodiversity Lab, Global Forest Watch and the World Environment Situation Room, and may be accessed at no cost.

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