European Biodiversity Research Strategy

European Biodiversity Research Strategy

/ European Platform for Biodiversity Research Strategy (EPBRS)
– Promoting Knowledge for Sustainability

Proposal by EPBRS on aEuropean Biodiversity Research Strategy 2010-2020

--- Invitation for consultation ----

With the year 2010, the world and Europe will have to readjust their targets for safeguarding biodiversity- the 2010 targets of slowing down and even halting the biodiversity loss will not be met. The research community will have to strengthen its involvement in the next decade to approach the potential new targets. This involvement needs a strategic approach towards the main challenges and knowledge needs. The EPBRS proposal on a research strategy 2010 to 2020 for Europe tries to take up these challenges. When finished, the strategy will be communicated widely to policy makers, funding organisations and research institutions in the European Union and its member states.

In order to discuss these challenges as widely as possible, the EPBRS invites all interested experts and institutions to send their comments on this consultation paper which has been developed by a Working Group within EPBRS over the last 12 months and has been adopted for further consultation by the participants of the EPBRS meeting in Visby, Sweden, September 2009.

When commenting, please take into account the following points:

  • The overall approach of the document is to be short and concise, giving the overall frame for a future biodiversity research agenda. This holds especially for Part 2 (The objectives…), which is not meant to highlight specific research topics. This should be an issue for detailed discussions in the future, adding detailed action plans to the strategy.
  • Please use the attached form for commenting on the draft. Please referyour comments as directly as possible to the text, You are invited to make direct suggestion for improving the text. Please give some reasoning for your proposed changes.
  • If possible, please try to pool the comments from your institution or network, for example your national biodiversity platform in one document.
  • Please provide your email contact details when commenting so that the working group on the strategy may be able to get back to you with questions

A working group of EPBRS will review the comments, revise the document accordingly and generally document the points brought up in the consultation. The final draft of the strategy will then be reviewed by EPBRS for adoption at its next meeting in March in Spain and circulated widely.

Deadline for sending in comments: 30th of November, 2009

Please send comments to: Carsten Neßhöver () and Estelle Balian ()

Proposal by EPBRS on a

European Biodiversity Research Strategy

2010-2020

Adopted by EPBRS at its meeting in Visby, Sweden, 29.9.09 for further consultation and discussion

This strategy is intended to

Generate and share the knowledge necessary to bring human societies into a sustainable and mutually beneficial relationship with the living world.

1 Background - The Biodiversity Research Challenge

Biodiversity is the diversity of genes, species, populations, communities and ecosystems, and interactions between them. Biodiversity is essential for generating services that are crucial for humans and other elements of the living world. These ecosystem services include provision of food, regulating water flows and cultural values. Without the ecosystem services, there would be no economies, no societies - and no human life.

Human societies everywhere have benefited from using and exploiting biodiversity and converting and often simplifying ecosystems, so that they provide services highly adapted for human uses[1]. Humans are part of biodiversity, but our activities, imperfect knowledge and unsustainable uses of natural resources are, directly or indirectly, the main causes of the loss of diversity and ecosystem degradation in the living world around us. The loss of diversity often goes hand in hand with theloss of ecosystem functions and services, leading to major difficulties for societies in achieving or maintaining human well-being. It is therefore vital for human societies to establish sustainable relationships with the biodiversity that supports them. This is a ‘Grand Challenge’ on a par with climate change, food security, energy security, health and others[2], as it its reflected in major policy documents like the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and European policies[3].

Meeting the Grand Challenge of biodiversity loss – one of the biggest humans have ever faced – requires a major research effort as a basis for effective action and societal change.Governments, society and enterprise need to have access to the knowledge and innovation necessary to find sustainable relationships with the living world, in which benefits from ecosystem services are secured and the intrinsic value of biodiversity is respected.

Research on biodiversity and ecosystem services stands at the crossroads of social and ecological issues and requires innovative trans-disciplinary approaches. Appropriate consideration of biodiversity and ecosystem services must be included in other related areas of research such as climate change and food security. The understanding, conservation, and sustainable use of biodiversity are, however, fundamental issues, which cannot only be considered as incidental to other challenges.

Over the last decades, research has delivered essential information and knowledge for tackling this challenge. It has already created significant benefits ranging from an understanding and reduction of large-scale environmental risks for biodiversity posed by climate change, biological invasions, pollinator loss, landconversion and fragmentation, overexploitation,environmental chemicals, and socio-economic pressure to improved knowledge of the structures, functions, and dynamics of marine (from deep-ocean to coastal environments), terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems in Europe.

Major conceptual and technological breakthroughs have occurred in biodiversity and ecosystem services research over the past decade and brought about new approaches and provided new tools and options, e.g.:

  • The “ecosystem service” concept has significantly contributed to understandingimportant components of sustainable development and to improving the integration of social and natural sciences.
  • New methods and tools in taxonomic, genetic and molecular research, new modelling approaches, data collection and integration infrastructure relying on innovative e-technology have boosted the ability of basic research to contribute in this area.

These new concepts and methods provide the basis for rapid growth and innovation in this research field to contribute further to the Grand Challenges and objectives outlined below.

2 The Objectives for European research on biodiversity and ecosystem services

In order to achieve the strategy’s intention, research should focus on creating the knowledge necessary to:

  1. Ensure the long-term survival of species, their genetic diversity, andthe ecological integrity and functionality ofhabitats and ecosystems:

Research will cover assessments of status, trends and functional relationships, the understanding of drivers and mechanisms of change, and the development and evaluation of effective management and conservation.

This research is fundamental to delivering the other objectives of this strategy.

  1. Ensure the long-term provision of Ecosystem Services

Research to define, measure and value ecosystem services and their use by human societies

Understand relationships between the functioning of complex systems and our capacity to extract services without degrading themas well as to restoreservices which have been degraded

Sustainable management and use of ecosystems, land- and seascapes and component biodiversity

  1. Adapt to Global Change (including Climate Change)

Understand, mitigate and adapt to effects on the living world of human induced drivers such as climate change, land-use change, pollution, over-exploitation, and invasions of non-native species

Understand and forecast tipping points and resilience of ecosystems under the interaction of these drivers of change in order to avoid non-reversible changes of ecosystems.

  1. Contribute to meeting other Grand Challenges (Water, Food, and Energy Security, Population Growth, Human Health)

Research to provide knowledge on the living world to support policies for a sustainable future. For example, human health policy could benefit from the understanding of the link between ecosystem integrity and emergent diseases. Climate change must consider the role of ecosystems in carbon budgets.

  1. Foster technological and product innovation

Developing capacity and research to support innovative technology and products derived from living systems and learning from nature.

3 Integrated research

To generate the knowledge necessary to bring human societies intoa sustainable and mutually beneficial relationshipwith the living world we need a constructive mix of natural and social science expertise. Depending on the particular research challenge, this may include disciplines like taxonomy, ecology, genetics, economics, political sciences and sociology and others to jointly approach research on the objectives mentioned above. These broadly fall within three areas (Figure Y).Research is needed:

  • to assess the status and trends of, in particular, biodiversity, ecosystems, and associated services, the exploitation of these services and the benefits accruing from them, as well as of human perceptions and attitudes towards biodiversity and ecosystems (Figure 1-A).
  • on the indirect and direct drivers of biodiversity change and their influence on the functioning of ecosystems and the services they provide (Figure 1-B).
  • on implementing policy, governance, and specific measures for the conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services as well as the sustainable use of natural resources (Figure 1-C).

Figure 1: Biodiversity Research Areas

These three areas are strongly inter-linked and for this reasonmany research approaches within them may require active participation from different disciplines. Improved understanding in one field is often required before work can progress in another one. All three areas are equally important: Research projects will be needed to investigate what is happening, why it is happening, and what to do about it in an integrated way, addressing thus ecological, societal and the economic aspects.

4 Developing the research environment

In the last decades, integrated research on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and services has contributed to shaping the European Research Area (ERA). The Networks of Excellence and Integrated Projects in biodiversity have already contributed to essential components of the ERA: in particular to enhancing effective knowledge sharing, fostering development of world-class research infrastructures, and coordinating programmes and priorities across institutions and countries[4].

To ensure that the research programmes and projects carried out under this strategy provide results and policy inputs that can contribute effectively to the objectives outlined above and to the ERA on biodiversity:

  • there should be close collaboration and cooperation with appropriate stakeholders;
  • significant resources should be devoted to appropriate communication of research results and their applications;
  • modern infrastructure is indispensable, including infrastructure for monitoring and assessment, open access databases, and virtual institutes for data exchange and analyses.

These objectives set the foundation for driving forth action to address as basis, the following requirements and needs:

1) Continuous identification and review of research priorities: A set of detailed research priorities needs to be developed for the European Research Action Plan for Biodiversity. EC and MemberStates should apply an approach to integrated research that involves the different public and private actors in the programming, funding, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of biodiversity research.The link to other relevant research fields should be made explicit.

2) Support for common infrastructures and platforms – on the European as well as the international scale: Europe has already made major contributions to global efforts in this field. For maximum effect, the research should comply with and further contribute to global efforts to develop a coherent biodiversity monitoring system (e.g, via GeoBon, ILTER)and data information platforms (e.g. GBIF). At the same time, such programmes will need direct financial support to get fully operational. Resource mobilisation and networking are pivotal.

3) Building the links between science and biodiversity and environmental policy: Europe needs to be actively engaged in the development of the currently discussed Intergovernmental science-policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) since European scientists are a major source of knowledge in this field and should engage into global efforts in this area, including capacity building. To foster this process, Europe should install its own “Mechanism on Biodiversity Expertise” as proposed in COM (2006)216, based on a concept of a “network of knowledge” developed by the EPBRS[5].

4) Evaluating biodiversity research inEurope and monitoring its use: It is recognised that the evaluation of biodiversity research at individual, programme and project levels should be improved in order to better balance “scientific excellence” and “research relevance”. Thus, funding bodies and programme managers are requested to evaluate and report systematically on the use of the results of scientific research in policy, in nature management and in society, and to use the results of these evaluations for the coordinated programming of new research.

FORM for comments:

Page / Lines / Comment/ proposal for text change / Reasons
Commentsprovided by (Name, institution, email contact):

Deadline for sending in comments: 30th of November, 2009

Please send comments to: Carsten Neßhöver () and Estelle Balian ()

Consultation Paper, Visby 29.9.091 / 8

[1] Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005,

[2] As described in the Lund Declaration,
file/lund_declaration_final_version_9_july.pdf

[3] As outlined by COM (2006)216final and in the Birds, Habitats and Water Framework directive, among others

[4] Green Paper “The European Research Area: New perspectives”, see

[5]See