1. International Conventions that are concerned with the conservation or utilisation of renewable natural resources do form a potential user group for GTOS. Seven of the eight Convention Secretariats visited are interested in working with GTOS. This suggests that other global and regional Conventions may also be interested in an association with GTOS.
2. The Conventions require habitat and other site-related data to show the responses of their sites to changing environmental, ecological and management pressures. This will allow the development of practical, soundly based management plans to ensure that sites are adequately conserved or are managed on a sustainable basis. Detailed data needs of the individual Conventions, as far as can be ascertained, are given in the description of each Convention.
3. GTOS observational activities should allow the effectiveness of management actions at Convention field sites to be assessed, particularly actions for preventing or mitigating the effects of seemingly adverse changes.
4. The Conventions need relevant data from the sites of interest as well as from a large zone surrounding the site (e.g. if the site is a marsh, data are also needed for the whole catchment area on which the marsh is dependent).
5. In putting work proposals before a Convention GTOS must follow the procedure of that Convention for the approval of its work programme. For each Convention this will normally entail working through the Secretariat to obtain for each major GTOS proposal the formal approval of, first, the Scientific and Technical Committee and, second, the Conference of the Parties. GTOS should thus work very closely with the Secretariats of the Conventions in drawing up relevant GTOS project proposals as this will ensure that appropriate procedures are followed.
6. To facilitate this procedure GTOS should seek observer status on the Scientific and Technical Committees of appropriate Conventions, particularly the Convention to Combat Desertification and the Convention on Biological Diversity which are still developing their work programmes.
7. Technical representatives of the Conventions, particularly those on Biological Diversity and to Combat Desertification, should be asked to participate in some GTOS programme planning sessions.
8. Services provided through GTOS (and co-operating agencies) should include advice to developing country Parties on how to utilise data from their observational systems for national resource management and policy making, including needed national infrastructure, staffing, and training. Services to be provided should also include advice on setting up and operating data management systems; assistance in analysis and interpretation of data, especially for communicating or reporting any national data required under the Conventions; and provision of spatially referenced largely satellite-based maps at appropriate scales, for land-cover categories, land-use information, weather data, and other specified variables.
9. GTOS should develop a common observational data management system for use by all the Convention Secretariats and which they could recommend to their Parties. This would be useful even if the system is not adopted by all GTOS users since it would enable the Conventions to exchange data and information readily, and co-operate more efficiently in joint activities.
10. The Conventions need reliable, believable data so GTOS should adopt adequate data quality assurance arrangements, quality control procedures, and harmonisation for its data gathering and data management activities. GTOS should gather data according to GTOS harmonised methods and protocols that result in data of agreed predetermined levels of accuracy and precision. This helps to ensure that the same types of data gathered for different Conventions are both comparable and compatible. GTOS should also be able to demonstrate to potential users the relevance of data from GTOS stations distant from Convention sites.
11. At an early stage GTOS should begin to develop an agreed data release policy for primary and secondary data gathered or developed under the auspices of GTOS. This is important when working with the Conventions where data gathered under them are often considered sensitive by the Parties.
12. GTOS should compile a catalogue of available data relevant to its programme so that GTOS users are aware of the information and data that already exist. An on-going GTOS metadatabase should be developed that contains for all data sets and runs (both pre-existing and GTOS) full historical details including the purposes behind the original work, the methods used, quality assurance procedures, and resultant publications. Participants in GTOS should be encouraged to provide this information on new data routinely for inclusion in the GTOS metadatabase.
13. GTOS should develop or adopt standard definitions for describing or classifying many variables such as soil types, vegetation classes and taxa. Relevant classifications already in use by the Conventions (e.g. wetlands) should be considered in relation to the terms and classes of GTOS categories.
14. For reasons of cost and practicality GTOS should begin its operations modestly, starting simply, and building as much as possible on national, regional and global facilities and systems that are already in place. Great care should be exercised in the choice of variables to be observed so that the system does not become overloaded.
15. GTOS should carefully review the data needs of each Convention with a view to reducing the number of variables to be measured to the minimum necessary for obtaining a proper understanding of what is happening at each series of Convention sites. GTOS should also develop a core minimum set of sensitive variables to be measured at each field site. The same minimum set of variables would thus be measured at each field site of each Convention; this would facilitate comparison between sites and between times.
16. Several Conventions are moving away from more traditional conservation oriented approaches towards practical management issues, including the need to predict changes in ecosystems. Consequently, there is now an interest in environmental, ecological and management modelling. Thus fundamental bio-physical data for process modelling will be increasingly required from GTOS.
17. Socio-economic data are important to the work of the Conventions. It is important that right from the start GTOS give adequate attention to the acquisition of relevant categories of this type of data.
18. Some Convention Secretariats asked that GTOS consider recording crustal stress and tectonic earth movements and their consequences as these could have disastrous effects on many Convention sites. This is a serious problem in many areas and GTOS should give consideration as to how best to obtain the required data.
19. In view of the interest shown by some Convention Secretariats in carrying out inventories of the status of biological diversity in selected Convention sites and their surrounding zones, GTOS should look into the feasibility and practicality of carrying out such inventories under the auspices of the GTOS programme.
20. Several Conventions are extending their activities to coastal areas focusing on mangrove swamps, sea grass communities and coral reefs. GTOS should consider what part it can play in these activities. This is an area where the interests of GOOS, GCOS and GTOS overlap. A joint pilot activity in one or two areas between the three Global Observing Systems, in co-operation with the relevant Convention Secretariats, should be considered.
21. The Basel Convention has some data needs that are more specialised than those of the other Conventions that were consulted. Essentially there is a need to monitor the various toxic substances and chemicals that might find their way into the atmosphere, ground water, and food production systems from hazardous waste disposal sites. GTOS should consider the possibility of a special subprogramme specifically for the Basel Convention.
22. GTOS data would be of importance to the global assessments (e.g. wetlands, desertification, biological diversity of some taxa and habitats) to be carried out under the auspices of some Conventions. GTOS should explore the data needs of these assessments to ensure that the right data are collected, bearing in mind the need for adequate quality assurance, quality control, and data delivery mechanisms.
23. Several of the Convention Secretariats indicated an interest in developing a marine component of their Convention. Assessing the status, trends, and movements of marine animals, including Cetaceans and fish stocks, and the habitat and environmental factors that affect them, will be important aspects of this work. GTOS should consider whether it is feasible and practical to include these aspects in the future work programme of GTOS. These should be considered as possible fields in which the three Global Observing Systems could collaborate.
24. At the moment GTOS is not well known, has no physical entity, and lacks assured funding. The Convention Secretariats consequently find it difficult to believe in a potential partner that as yet has no material existence. The Sponsors should, therefore, as soon as possible establish and support an Interim Secretariat for GTOS. For the first two years this Interim Secretariat could be housed with one of the Sponsors while a more permanent home is sought.
25. To make GTOS better known, each of the sponsors should introduce GTOS to its Governing Body through a short information paper to be presented at the first possible session of that body. This might result in supportive decisions which could, for example, favourably influence the attitudes of Convention Parties towards GTOS.
26. At an early stage GTOS should develop a publication programme so that its actions and findings become well known. This must be done in such a way that full credit is always given to co-operating countries and partner organisations. This is particularly important for programmes with the Conventions several of which already have their own publication programmes. Joint series publications is one approach that should be explored.
27. Financing GTOS Convention-related activities remains a problem. Some funds may be available through the financial mechanisms of the Conventions. Most funds will have to be sought from additional sources such as bilateral and multilateral donors and aid programmes, or from foundations. Consequently, funds for familiarisation and contact visits to potential funding sources should be made available to the GTOS Interim Secretariat through the Sponsors.
28. Familiarisation and contact visits to the major donors must be an early priority on-going activity of GTOS and its Sponsors. These can, if necessary, be arranged through the GTOS Sponsors. Potential donors should include CIDA, DANIDA, EU, FINNIDA, GTZ, IBRD, IDRC, NORAD, SIDA, UK-ODA, UNDP, USAID, and to some of the larger foundations such as Carnegie, Leverhume, Mellon, Rockefeller and Sasakawa. Familiarisation visits to other possible supporting countries such as Australia, Belgium, France, Italy, New Zealand, Switzerland and Russia should also be considered at a later time.
29. The GTOS Sponsors should at the earliest opportunity try to interest leading newly industrialised developing countries in supporting GTOS. Visits should be made to some to discuss their potential role in GTOS (e.g. Brazil, China, Indonesia, South Africa, and South Korea), with a view to soliciting their practical support.
30. GTOS project documents to go to donors, especially those to go through the Conventions, should have all costs properly and fully shown. Information, data and other practical benefits to national partners in the project should be clearly spelled out.
31. GTOS should plan its operations under the Conventions as a series of programme packages Each of which can be put separately to relevant donors. Each package before submission to a donor must have the prior agreement of the Convention Secretariat, the Scientific and Technical Committee of the Convention, the Conference of the Parties of the Convention, and the Governments of the countries where the work will take place.
