The World Biodiversity Forum 2024, convened by bioDISCOVERY and the URPP Global Change and Biodiversity , brought together more than 800 participants from over 65 countries at Davos. Under the theme of “Science for Action”, motivating workshops, plenaries and presentations on all realms of biodiversity involving practitioners and actors with examples of solutions to inspire the transformational change required for conservation and sustainability.
The workshop “Building the Components of a Global Biodiversity Observation systemo”, co-hosted by bioDISCOVERY, GEO BON and NASA/JPL and funded by the European Space Agency ESA , considered the role of (national) Biodiversity Observation Networks (BONs) as building blocks of a Global Biodiversity Observation System (GBiOS). This workshop was the follow-up to the workshop “Towards a Global Biodiversity Monitoring System”, held at WBF 2022, a total of 30 participants attended the workshop.
In particular, the workshop intended to
- Put BONs into the GBiOS context and clarify the role of BONs as a foundational GBiOS component
- Identify the characteristics that a strong BON must have and the challenges that must be overcome
- Identify what support BONs need from an operational GBiOS.
After an introductory presentation by Andrew Gonzalez, GEO BON, setting out the purpose of the workshop and the current vision for a GBiOS, participants were tasked to identify the key characteristics a BON needs to have to be effective. Group discussions were preceded by presentations introducing already established and experienced BONs at national and regional level. Discussions revealed that, although BONS have the capability to connect governments, stakeholders and researchers on national and regional level, observations are very heterogeneous not necessarily aligned with NBSAP requirements and the EBV framework of GEO BON. Here science can play are substantial role in guiding observations to obtain meaningful monitoring data that allows to track progress towards the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
In the afternoon, participants discussed the capabilities individual BONs need from a global system, and discussed the value such a global system could bring to national biodiversity monitoring and observation.
The workshop was complemented by a number of sessions dedicated to biodiversity monitoring and observation.