IIASA contributed to a new European roadmap for biodiversity monitoring through its involvement in the Horizon 2020 project, EuropaBON. The study, proposes a comprehensive roadmap to build a modern, integrated Biodiversity Observation Network (BON) for Europe that could become a global model for biodiversity monitoring in the 21st century.
Biodiversity is changing across the planet, yet governments still lack the robust, consistent data needed to track these changes and guide effective conservation. The study, published in the journal Nature Reviews Biodiversity and led by the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), and the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), charts how digital technologies, DNA, and coordinated governance can transform biodiversity observation across Europe and support global conservation goals.
“Our proposal provides a plan for Europe to fix its messy and disconnected monitoring systems,” says lead author Daniel Kissling, Associate Professor at the UvA. “We want to create one coordinated, continent-wide network that can track changes in species and ecosystems – from the DNA of plants and animals to entire forests, rivers, and oceans.”
IIASA’s role in stakeholder engagement and co-design
A core element of the roadmap’s development was broad engagement with Europe’s biodiversity community. Within EuropaBON, IIASA co-led the stakeholder engagement process that underpinned both the roadmap and the proposal for a European Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC).
This work was led by Ian McCallum, who heads the Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability (NODES) Research Group in the IIASA Advancing Systems Analysis (ASA) Program. Over the course of the three-year project, IIASA helped build and coordinate a network of more than 1,500 members from across Europe’s biodiversity community. Through workshops, conferences, and surveys, researchers gathered input from scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and citizen scientists. Their feedback was instrumental in co-designing the EBOCC and ensuring that it responds to both scientific priorities and policy needs. IIASA researchers Juliette Martin and Ivelina Georgieva also contributed throughout the project’s lifetime.
“People remain central to biodiversity monitoring in Europe, with citizen scientists playing a valuable and increasing role,” says McCallum. “Novel technologies in the form of various low-cost sensors, environmental DNA (eDNA), and AI in the hands of engaged citizens are further enhancing this significant contribution.”
A unified monitoring system for Europe’s biodiverse heritage
The roadmap identifies 84 Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) that form the backbone of a harmonised monitoring system. These EBVs – from bird abundance and insect phenology to seagrass extent, genetic diversity, and ecosystem productivity – provide Europe with a consistent, standardised checklist for measuring the state and change of its biodiversity.
“Europe has hundreds of monitoring programmes, but the data are often siloed, incompatible, or incomplete,” says senior author Henrique Pereira, research group head at iDiv and the MLU. “Our roadmap provides the architecture for a truly integrated, transnational system – one that brings all observations together into a coherent whole.”
To enable this transition, the authors propose establishing a European Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC). This new EU-level body would coordinate workflows, harmonise methods, ensure transparent data governance, align monitoring with EU policy needs, and act as the central hub for national and European data infrastructures.
High-tech biodiversity monitoring with people
A key message of the roadmap is that Europe must harness the combined strengths of technological innovation and human expertise, including the potential of new digital technologies, including:
- Automated digital sensors such as acoustic bird recorders, wildlife and insect cameras, and biological and weather radars
- AI for species recognition and automated data processing
- eDNA and metabarcoding for detecting species and communities from water, soil, or air
- State-of-the-art remote sensing from satellites (including Copernicus), aircraft, and drones to observe habitats, vegetation structure, and ecosystem change
Bridging data gaps through unified workflows
Europe’s current biodiversity data are extensive but scattered. The roadmap proposes to build data pipelines that can integrate information from many different sources like professional field notes, reports from the public, electronic sensors, DNA samples, and satellite images, and merge them into scalable EBV datasets.
These new pipelines should enable Europe to create clear reports for decision-makers, spot trends quickly, and give early warnings of ecological change.
Step forward for international biodiversity policy
EuropaBON, involving 15 research organizations across Europe, has already prompted a strong policy response. The European Parliament has approved a preparatory action for the EBOCC to begin implementing parts of the roadmap. The proposal aligns with the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, the Nature Restoration Regulation (NRR), and other major EU environmental legislation, including the Birds Directive, Habitats Directive, Water Framework Directive, and Marine Strategy Framework Directive. By delivering harmonized biodiversity data, an EBOCC would significantly improve reporting and support implementation across Member States.
Globally, the system would help track progress toward the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), support assessments of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) and contribute to the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON).
About IIASA:
The International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) is an international scientific institute that conducts research into the critical issues of global environmental, economic, technological, and social change that we face in the twenty-first century. Our findings provide valuable options to policymakers to shape the future of our changing world. IIASA is independent and funded by prestigious research funding agencies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
