As part of its work programme, Biodiversa+ aims to support interoperability and harmonisation of biodiversity monitoring protocols. In this context, a workshop on strategies to harmonise biodiversity monitoring protocols was held in Paris on 2 March 2023. This workshop gathered 26 actors involved in biodiversity monitoring, representing European and (sub-)national initiatives and institutions, researchers, Biodiversa+ partners and representatives from EuropaBON, our key collaborator.
The workshop was divided into two parts, the first one dedicated to Essential Biodiversity Variables.
- It provided an introduction to the concept, as well as an overview of different strategies used by transnational biodiversity monitoring programmes regarding the protocols and data flows, presented by Petteri Vihervaara, Guillaume Body and Michelle Silva del Pozo from Biodiversa+.
- Lluis Brotons from EuropaBON presented their work on the identification of current monitoring workflows and bottlenecks in Europe.
- Jessika Giraldi from the EC DG ENV set the scene on the policy needs at the EU level for biodiversity monitoring protocols harmonisation.
- Three monitoring programmes, which use different harmonisation strategies, were presented by the projects’ coordinators: PECBMS by Alena Klvaňová, LUCAS soil by Alberto Orgiazzi, and SPRING by David Roy.
During the second part of the workshop, the participants were divided into three sub-group to identify strengths and weaknesses of the presented strategies, and to think of possible opportunities of each approach to tackle the harmonisation challenges.
To conclude the workshop, Guillaume Body (Biodiversa+) proposed a vision on how a harmonised network of biodiversity monitoring can be thought of, in terms of governance, interconnecting (sub-)national nodes, thematic nodes and a central European node. This opened a discussion among the participants and was an opportunity for them to share their thoughts on how Biodiversa+ could provide support to tackle these issues.
As a next step, Biodiversa+ will draft a guidance for best practices on how to harmonise protocols across countries.
