GEO BON
institutionIntelligence & Surveillance
A global network for watching nature was built to serve a set of political targets, not just to do science.
Who they are
GEO BON, the Global Earth Observation Biodiversity Observation Network, working inside GEOSS, the Group on Earth Observations System of Systems.
What they do
The record calls it global surveillance for the sake of the environment.
How it works
It is presented as a backbone for other systems. In practice, the CBD Aichi targets dictate 100 indicators, and those indicators are used for the CBD program, meaning the Ecosystem Approach. GEO BON is a community of practice within GEOSS and the main implementation platform of the Biodiversity Societal Benefit Area. It also contributes the Pilot myVariable, and runs Soil BON, which states that humans depend on living soil resources for nutrition, recreation, and health.
Why it matters
It shows how a scientific observation network is directed by the indicator demands of a political convention, so the measuring is shaped by the targets rather than the other way around.
The engine's record — word for word
The corpus records: "And GEO BON is global surveillance for sakes of the environment , and the CBD Aichi targets dictate 100 indicators, which are used for the purpose of the CBD program, ie the Ecosystem Approach ." It is presented publicly as: "The intent for this system was for it to be used as a backbone for other systems, and hence we saw the birth of GEO BON - ie, the ‘ Global Earth Observation Biodiversity Observation Network ’." Documents named in the corpus: Convention on Biological Diversity; Aichi targets; Global Biodiversity Framework; GBIOS; GEOSS; EO4HEALTH. Cross-sourced to geobon.org — documents cited by the corpus and retrieved independently of it.
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