ECNC

 

The ECNC-led BioScore project ended in January 2009. It produced a user-friendly tool to query a unique database of species sensitivities to policy-induced environmental change.

A database of European species and their sensitivities to changes in environmental variables (pressures) was developed by a consortium of nine expert institutions. The result is an exceptional tool linking changes in environmental variables such as water and soil eutrophication, habitat fragmentation and changes in land use, to species sensitivities. The database contains environmental sensitivity scores for a selection of over 1,000 European species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, vascular plants, freshwater fish, benthic macroinvertebrates, butterflies and dragonflies.

The tool allows policymakers to run simple scenarios and view the results in terms of potential changes in biodiversity. It should raise awareness among policymakers about the impacts of their policies on Europe’s biodiversity and allow them to adapt their policies so as to minimize the negative effects of proposed changes on Europe’s biodiversity.

The BioScore tool, as well as the project report, is available for download from http://www.bioscore.eu.

Funding: Sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP6) with co-funding by project partners. ECNC co-funding provided by Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. 
Partners: Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL, the Netherlands); Research Institute for Nature and Forest/Butterfly Conservation Europe (INBO/BCEurope, Belgium); Wetlands International, the Netherlands; Alterra - Green World Research (the Netherlands); Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA, Norway); Università di Roma – La Sapienza, Department of Animal and Human Biology (Italy); European Forest Institute (EFI, Finland); Greek Biotope/Wetland Centre (EKBY, Greece).
More details: http://www.ecnc.org/programmes/state-of-european-biodiversity-completed-projects?action=detail&id=69
http://www.bioscore.eu

 

This project, which was finalized in January 2009, resulted in enhanced Ukrainian capacity to develop biodiversity monitoring by increasing public involvement.

The main project results in 2009 were:

• the creation of a website devoted to biodiversity monitoring in Ukraine (http//biomon.org);
• the elaboration of an interactive database of research institutes, universities, state agencies and other organizations involved in biodiversity monitoring;
• the creation of a database and publication of an overview of biodiversity monitoring programmes in Ukraine;
• the organization of a national seminar on ‘Biodiversity monitoring in Ukraine: current status and perspectives’, attended by more than 90 experts;
• the execution of a pilot study focused on four target species and publication of the results;
• the organization of an intersectoral workshop on behalf of the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection;
• the elaboration and publication of a strategy for developing biodiversity monitoring in Ukraine.

The target groups benefiting from this project were the Ukrainian authorities, research institutes and universities, Ukrainian citizen groups as well as the interested public.

The project was implemented with strong involvement of the Institute of Zoology and Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and in close collaboration with the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection.

Funding: Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BBI-Matra).
Partner: National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU).
More details: http://www.ecnc.org/programmes/state-of-european-biodiversity-completed-projects?action=detail&id=68
www.biomon.org

 

ECNC is a partner in the KYOTO project, whose goal is to develop a system that provides search and information access to large quantities of data and information for both experts and the general public in relation to biodiversity and other environmental subject material. When completed, the system will result in a sophisticated search engine that has the capacity to learn from the user.

KYOTO will be applied to the environmental domain and span global information across European and non-European languages and the IT tool developed will allow cross-language and context-related querying of biodiversity knowledge from dispersed sources.

ECNC brings in expertise and knowledge from the perspective of a potential future user of a fully-operational system. In 2009 ECNC:

• created several scenarios in the environmental domain;
• presented its scenario on the Humber Estuary, on England's north-east coastline, at the project team meeting in September. KYOTO can provide a wide range of information that can be used to determine the impact of port and harbour development on the Estuary’s biodiversity;
• tested a system called ‘Wikyplanet’, which allows users to add and edit information related to the scenarios and biodiversity in general.

Funding: Seventh EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.
Partners: Faculteit der Letteren, VU University Amsterdam (the Netherlands; coordinator); Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Italy); Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Germany); Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (Spain); Academia Sinica (Taiwan); National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (Japan); Irion Technologies B.V. (the Netherlands); Synthema (Italy); World Wildlife Foundation (the Netherlands); Masaryk University (Czech Republic).
More details: http://www.ecnc.org/programmes/state-of-european-biodiversity-ongoing-projects?action=detail&id=70

 

ECNC has been a consortium partner of the ETC/BD since 1994. In this role it carries out part of the Topic Centre's annual work plans. In 2009 ECNC continued to play a lead role in the work of the European Topic Centre. This included: participation in the Coordination Team of the Streamlining European 2010 Biodiversity Indicators project (SEBI 2010); and taking the lead on communication planning for SEBI and providing coordination of the SEBI Communications Group.

As part of its involvement in the SEBI2010 process, in 2009 ECNC gave a presentation on the results of a ‘Survey of existing scientific or policy targets relevant for each SEBI indicator among global, European and national initiatives’. The study will serve as a basis for further discussions on the definition of baselines and targets related to individual indicators in the SEBI set. Global assessment methodologies used by other initiatives and specific methodologies related to individual indicators were explained. An overview was given of baselines and targets proposed at country and regional level and by other relevant initiatives on environment and biodiversity monitoring.

ECNC was also involved in the European Environment Agency (EEA) led EURECA project (European Ecosystem Assessment). In 2009 ECNC elaborated background documents on the Arctic and coastal systems and commenced preparation of a report on the socio-economic benefits of protected areas.

At the end of October 2009 the core team of the ETC/BD, which includes ECNC, met to discuss the key elements of the work programme proposed for 2010 and beyond. Discussion focused on a set of 10 messages that are being prepared in support of a number of biodiversity related activities planned by the EEA. These messages give an overview of the key trends and issues in relation to ecosystem health and the services that ecosystems provide across Europe, together with a set of ‘Spotmeters’, which will focus on the status of ecosystem services within a set of defined ecosystems and issues (e.g. mountains, marine, coastal, agriculture, etc.). ECNC prepared the basic information for four of the messages: coastal, marine, mountain and Europe's natural heritage. ECNC staff also carried out a review of European ecosystem classifications, to link major ecosystem types to those identified within the messages; the major ecosystem types were also linked to the habitats listed within Annex 1 of the European Habitats Directive. This will facilitate reporting on the overall status of protected areas and, in due course, species associated with the major ecosystems in Europe. The messages will be disseminated widely by the EEA in 2010.

In addition, in 2009 ECNC concluded its role as chair of the ETC/BD Management Committee but continued to maintain an active role in the group.

Funding: European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity.
Partners: National Museum of Natural History (MNHN, France; lead partner); Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic (AOPK); Environmental Protection Agency for Protected Areas (EPASA, Turkey); Institute of Landscape Biology of Slovak Academy of Sciences (ILE-SAS); Higher Institute for Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA, Italy); Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC, UK); Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); Austrian Environmental Protection Agency (UBA).
More details: http://www.ecnc.org/programmes/state-of-european-biodiversity-ongoing-projects?action=detail&id=66
http://biodiversity.eionet.eu.int
Photo: Saxifraga: Dirk Hilbers.

 

The monitoring report of the EU sustainable development strategy contains a number of environmental indicators of which a smaller subset is specifically focused on biodiversity. Based on its long experience of developing policy-relevant indictors for biodiversity, ECNC reviewed the indicators and the interpretations provided for each of them. This input was taken into account in the publication of the final report, which is now available from Eurostat.

Funding: Eurostat.
Partner: RIMAS (Austria).
More details: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/product_details/publication?p_product_code=KS-78-09-865
DOI 10.2785/2901