Dicon's participation in a Conference on topic: “Shaping the future European biodiversity monitoring framework”

As a member of EuropaBON, Dicon Group was invited to participate in the European Conference on topic: “Shaping the future European biodiversity monitoring framework”, that took place on November 8, 2022 in Brussels, organized by EuropaBON in cooperation with Biodiversa+.

The purpose of the conference is to provide the stakeholders with the opportunity to actively participate in the process of developing the Terms of Reference for the establishment of a European Biodiversity Monitoring Coordinating Centre (BMCC), in response to a number of challenges that are summarized in special conducted assessments and studies by EuropaBON and Biodiversa+. The main challenges among them are:

1. Insufficient financial resources
2. Lack of long-term policies for monitoring
3. Insufficient spatial coverage
4. Underrepresentation of taxa
5. Lack of human and technical capacities
6. Lack of integration between in situ researches and remote sensing data
7. Monitoring frequency too low to detect trends
8. Lack of data integration at different geographical scales and sectors
9. Lack of (raw) accessible data and metadata
10. Underrepresentation of ecosystem types and their habitats

The solutions identified by EuropaBON to cope with these challenges are:

1. Better coordination and synchronisation of monitoring efforts, possibly adopting a common approach across Europe and a common platform that can integrate data at national and EU levels.
2. Standardization of the biodiversity monitoring schemes in Europe, enhanced data gathering and sharing. This includes filling the identified gaps, improving the level of spatial detail and temporal frequency, establishing new monitoring programs and/or strengthening the existing monitoring schemes.
3. Taking the advantages of digitalization and novel technologies (including multi-scale earth observation data, in-situ digital sensors and genetic diversity) as well as improved statistical methods for the analysis of biodiversity monitoring data.
4. More funding for conducting biodiversity monitoring in Europe, along with better cross-country, cross-institutional, and cross-sectoral coordination of existing funding.
5. Capacity building, increase of human resources, inclusion of the citizen science and stakeholder engagement within the monitoring process.

The establishment of the European Biodiversity Monitoring Coordinating Centre, description of its tasks, management, structure and funding are among the main tasks that EuropaBON and Biodiversa+ have to perform. The conference proovides an opportunity for a dialog about different alternatives for organizational structure of the Centre, about the potential challenges and for shaping an appropriate pragmatic approach on how to move forward.

EuropaBON is an European project, funded by the European Commission and implemented by an international consortium with a high level of complementary expertise in the different fields of the project – from networking and cost-benefit analysis, biodiversity monitoring, modelling and analyses, to engagement of the stakeholders, policy support and dissemination of the results. The EuropaBON network has more than 1000 members, representing 517 organizations from 61 countries.

Biodiversa+ is an European partnership for biodiversity, funded by EC, supporting studies in the filed of biodiversity with impacts on the policy and the community. Biodiversa+ is part of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030.