Biodiversity monitoring in Europe: user and policy needs

Abstract

To achieve the goals of the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework, the EuropeanBiodiversity Strategy, and the EU Green Deal, biodiversity monitoring is critical.Monitoring efforts in Europe, however, suffer from gaps and biases in taxon-omy, spatial coverage, and temporal resolution, resulting in fragmented anddisconnected data. To assess user and policy needs in biodiversity monitoring,we employed a four-step user-centered stakeholder engagement process withover 300 stakeholders including a public stakeholder workshop, online survey,interviews, and a meeting with experts from 18 EU member states, the EuropeanCommission, and the European Environment Agency. The stakeholders identi-fied policy needs, current challenges, and potential solutions. Based on the policyand stakeholder assessment, we recommend establishing a European Biodiver-sity Observation Coordinating Centre to optimize existing observation efforts,harmonize data, and enhance our ability to predict and respond to key challengesrelated to biodiversity loss in Europe.