A pathway to aligning science, policy and practice
Reversing biodiversity loss and meeting Europe’s 2030 and 2050 targets requires urgent, coordinated action and robust knowledge. Biodiversa+ contributes by building a long-term transnational network that links national and regional biodiversity monitoring schemes, strengthening Europe-wide capacity to track trends.
To deliver this, Biodiversa+ works across six areas:
- Defining shared priorities and indicators
- Harmonising protocols, methods, and data standards
- Promoting innovative technologies and citizen participation
- Supporting governance and networks at various scales
- Improving data use by policymakers and businesses
- Testing common monitoring approaches through pilot projects
High-quality, harmonised data drives integration and impact.
Biodiversa+ guides you in consistent reporting and scalable solutions.
Goals and priorities for biodiversity monitoring
- Discover our 12 biodiversity monitoring priorities across all levels, from genes to ecosystems, to guide research efforts.
- Learn more about major monitoring gaps across taxa and ecosystems.
- Deepen the harmonisation of methods and protocols to ensure comparability of data across Europe.
Cross-scale specifications for harmonised protocols
- Align your monitoring protocols with common requirements to ensure data comparability and robustness.
- Strengthen data interoperability through shared variables and reporting formats.
- Contribute to cross-scale monitoring frameworks linking local, national and European data.
Novel technologies and approaches
- Explore the deployment of five key technologies across Europe.
- Learn how technologies target Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs), from species to ecosystem.
- Identify gaps in monitoring coverage, especially for ecosystem functions and genetic diversity.
Informed decisions start with coordinated monitoring across Europe.
Biodiversa+ provides the framework for clear and connected governance.
Strategic Biodiversity Monitoring Governance
- Establish coordinated multi-level governance to improve data integration and decision-making.
- Adopt common requirements for monitoring to enable data comparability while preserving national flexibility.
- Ensure long-term sustainability through funding and alignment with policy needs, strengthening the usability of data.
Recommendations on the outcomes of the pilots
- Learn from pilot projects, identifying effective approaches to biodiversity monitoring.
- Understand key implementation challenges, from fragmentation to technical and organisational barriers.
- Explore how tested solutions can support the effective implementation of biodiversity policies.
Sustainable transnational biodiversity monitoring
- Build sustainable biodiversity monitoring systems through stable funding and clear governance structures.
- Adopt coordinated transnational monitoring frameworks, with harmonised methods and data sharing.
- Strengthen policy relevance of monitoring systems, ensuring they deliver actionable insights for decision-making.
Companies must assess their impacts and dependencies on biodiversity, disclose them, and act.
Biodiversa+ offers guidance for finding, using, and sharing biodiversity data.
Navigate the landscape
Get an overview of the key policies, actors, and tools shaping the business and biodiversity space.
- Key policies: Review regulations like CSRD, SFDR, and the EU Taxonomy.
- Major actors: Learn about influential initiatives like the TNFD and SBTN.
- Tools overview: Discover tools for measuring impacts, assessing dependencies, and framing action.
Leverage available data
Learn how to find and use publicly available biodiversity data to assess risks, inform strategy, and prepare for reporting.
- ACT-D framework: A clear path to Assess, Commit, Transform, and Disclose.
- Case studies: See how industry leaders use data for risk mapping and reporting.
- Overcoming barriers: Practical solutions for challenges like data gaps and lack of internal expertise.
Contribute to knowledge
Share your company’s biodiversity data safely and effectively, enhancing transparency and contributing to science.
- 7-step process: From defining goals and resolving legal issues to publishing and maintaining data.
- Technical guidance: Understand standards like Darwin Core and platforms like GBIF.
- Real-world examples: Insights from case studies across sectors.
Pilots
Biodiversa+ runs pilot projects to test common protocols, new technologies, and governance models, helping to refine approaches and strengthen transnational monitoring. Some pilots have released drafts of their outputs and key recommendations.
Automated Biodiversity Monitoring Stations
Recommendations for realistic and ambitious sensor-based biodiversity monitoring across Europe.
European rocky reef fish
Recommendations on data and methodological tools for regional and national monitoring programmes.
Grassland and wetland habitats
Recommendations on shared processing standards, validation protocols and training data to support large-scale deployment.
Invasive Alien Species
Recommendations on standardised, scalable monitoring using automated image recognition.
Soil
Recommendations on traditional and molecular approaches for transnational biodiversity monitoring.