A group of researchers from several European countries, including Portugal, says that the governments of the region still lack data that are “robust and consistent” to help make the most informed and effective decisions about biodiversity conservation.
In a paper published recently in the journal Nature Reviews Biodiversity, the scientists propose the creation of a European Biodiversity Observation Network, which would allow unifying the monitoring of species and ecosystems across Europe, from the genetic code to the health of forests and oceans.
From Portugal, the team behind this study includes members of the Centre for Biodiversity and Genetic Resources (CIBIO) at the University of Porto, the Institute of Geography and Territorial Planning at the University of Lisbon, and the TERRA Associated Laboratory.
In what they describe as a “new roadmap for biodiversity monitoring in Europe,” the scientists highlight the importance of digital technologies, DNA analysis, and integrated governance in the study and monitoring of wildlife.
More concretely, this roadmap identifies 84 Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) that form the basis of this harmonized system. These variables function as a standardized checklist that allows measuring, in a coherent way, the abundance of birds, the phenology of insects, the extent of seagrass meadows, and the genetic diversity across the European territory.
Daniel Kissling, from the University of Amsterdam and the first author of the article, explains that “our proposal offers a plan for Europe to correct its fragmented and disconnected monitoring systems.”
For his part, Pedro Beja, of CIBIO, states, in a press release, that “biodiversity monitoring is essential to measure trends rigorously and to compare results between regions and countries, especially at a time of accelerated biodiversity loss and degradation of ecosystems and the services they provide to people.”
The Portuguese researcher notes that “This work is important because it helps create a common, consistent, and useful approach to support decisions and public policies.”
In addition to creating the network, the scientists also propose the creation of the European Centre for Biodiversity Observation Coordination, which would function, the proponents explain, as a central hub to harmonize data collection methods across countries, ensure transparency in data governance, and align monitoring with the policy needs of the European Union.
This new European strategy rests on the combination of cutting-edge technologies with human capability. Among the four main technological pillars on which the roadmap rests are, for example, Automated Digital Sensors, such as acoustic recorders for birds and wildlife cameras.
The authors of this article also suggest using Artificial Intelligence for the “automatic recognition of species and the processing of mass data”; Environmental DNA (or eDNA) for “detection of biological communities from water, soil or air samples”; and Remote Sensing, through the “use of satellites (such as the Copernicus program), drones and airplanes to observe habitats at a continental scale.”
Despite this large technological component, the team emphasizes that citizen scientists and taxonomy specialists remain the pillar of the system, providing essential observations that technology merely complements and makes more scalable.
