The CSM-BGBD Project

The urgent need to slow down soil biodiversity losses and to better access the potential uses of soil biodiversity in ecosystem management, agricultural productivity, and bioprospecting provided the main driving forces behind the establishment of the project on conservation and sustainable management of below-ground biodiversity (CSM-BGBD).

The CSM-BGBD Project is being implemented in seven tropical countries, namely: Brazil, Côte d'Ivoire, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, and Uganda. In each country, Benchmark sites have been selected to represent a wide range of globally significant ecosystems, ranging from Amazonian lowlands in Brazil to Himalayan highlands in India, thus covering as broad a spectrum of tropical ecological variabilities globally.

The Project is coordinated by the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Institute of CIAT (TSBF-CIAT) and is co-financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), which contributes more than US$9 million of the Project's budget of US$16.5 million. The Project also receives support in implementation from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the participating countries.

A Project executed by TSBF-CIAT with co-financing from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and implementation support from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

© CSM-BGBD Project of the TSBF Institute of CIAT 2004