ECNC

Monitoring the achievement of policy targets

ALTER-Net: a long-term biodiversity, ecosystem and awareness research network
ALTER-Net is a partnership of 24 organizations from 17 European countries that develop durable integration of biodiversity research capacity at a European level.

ECNC is the lead organization of the work package on development of a science–policy interface to improve information exchange related to biodiversity assessment. ECNC and its associated partners also actively contribute to a number of other ALTER-Net work packages.

During 2008 ECNC was actively involved in the activities aimed at the integration of research activities in policy beyond the project. In April 2008 the final Network Advisory Committee (NAC) meeting was held in Copenhagen, Denmark. The discussions centred on ways to create effective mechanisms for science–policy interface involving current members of the Committee and the other stakeholders in a policy think-tank for the ALTER-Net II period. During the ALTER-Net management group meeting, hosted by ECNC (Tilburg, the Netherlands, November 2008), and during the Council meeting (London, UK, October), the ALTER-Net parties confirmed their commitment to continue the network beyond the current funding period. Pledges and in-kind contributions were agreed and key activities for the next few years were formulated.

Funding: Sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.
Partners: Natural Environment Research Council, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (NERC; UK); Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut National des Sciences de l’Université de l’Environnement (France); Hydrobiological Institute, Czech Academy of Sciences (HBI CAS); Norwegian Institute for Nature Research (NINA); Macaulay Land Use Research Institute (UK); Umweltforschungszentrum Leipzig – Halle GmbH (UFZ; Germany); National Environmental Research Institute (Denmark); Alterra (the Netherlands); Forest Ecosystems Research Centre, University of Göttingen (Germany); Corpo Forestale dello Stato, Servizio CONECOFOR (Italy); Department of Systems Ecology, University of Bucharest (Romania); Institute of Landscape Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences (ILE SAS); The Finnish Environment Institute (SYKE); International Centre for Ecology, Polish Academy of Sciences (ICE PAS); Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU); Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (Spain); Institute of Ecology and Botany, Hungarian Academy of Sciences; Institute for Nature Conservation (Belgium); At-Bristol Ltd (UK); Centre National du Machinisme Agricole, du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts (CEMAGREF; France); Umweltbundesamt GmbH (UBA; Austria); National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM; the Netherlands); Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK; Germany).
More details: www.alter-net.info
www.ecnc.org/ongoing-projects_39.html?action=detail&id=67

BioScore: Biodiversity impact assessment using species sensitivity scores
ECNC is coordinator of the BioScore project, which developed a tool for biodiversity impact assessment of policy-related environmental changes. It combines data on species distribution in Europe and their sensitivity to selected environmental variables. These data form the basis, in combination with scenario-based data on changes in environmental variables, for forecasting what share of biodiversity is sensitive – either positively or negatively – to the change concerned.

During 2008 the project team finalized construction of the database and associated tool. An interface and dedicated BioScore website was created (www.bioscore.eu) from which the tool can be freely downloaded. Four case studies were carried out to test the BioScore database for its usefulness: impacts of afforestation on mammals in Italy, air quality and vascular plants in the Netherlands, water quality and macroinvertebrates in Norway, and bioenergy production and biodiversity at the European scale. These case studies demonstrated the value of the tool for rapid assessments. Two scientific papers were submitted to international journals and the project was widely advertised through meetings and news items.

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: www.bioscore.eu
www.ecnc.org/ongoing-projects_39.html?action=detail&id=69

Supporting public involvement in building capacity for Ukrainian biodiversity monitoring
Ukraine does not have a state system for biodiversity monitoring, although there is monitoring of some taxonomic groups of species in the most advanced protected areas. However, most of this is not coordinated, is not widely communicated and does not involve a wide range of stakeholders. The aim of this project is to enhance Ukrainian capacity in developing biodiversity monitoring by increasing public involvement.

In May 2008 an intersectoral workshop organized on behalf of the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection and the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU) took place in Kyiv. As an outcome of the workshop a resolution summarizing the main points of discussion was prepared and disseminated among stakeholders.

During 2008 a pilot study involving the general public was carried out at national level. The study focused on four selected species of fauna and flora. A manual and questionnaire for each species were published; the results of the study are available on the project website (www.biomon.org), together with other relevant information.

Work continued with regard to the publication of several documents: an overview report of existing biodiversity monitoring schemes in Ukraine; a draft national biodiversity monitoring programme; and the results of the pilot study.

Funding: Netherlands Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BBI-Matra).
Partners: National Ecological Centre of Ukraine (NECU); Institute of Zoology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine; Institute of Botany of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
More details: www.ecnc.org/ongoing-projects_39.html?action=detail&id=68
www.biomon.org

The European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity (ETC/BD)
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 2008 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); taking the lead on communication planning for SEBI and providing coordination of the SEBI Communications Group; and contribution to the development of two of the 26 SEBI indicators – Community Participation, and Financing for Biodiversity.

As part of its work for the Topic Centre, ECNC was also heavily involved in the European Environment Agency (EEA) led EURECA project (European Ecosystem Assessment). ECNC staff acted as moderator and lead facilitators at the EURECA kick-off meeting (with over 40 international experts) in February 2008 and for two workshops in October and November. ECNC also provided a review of 14 Scenario projects as background context and input to the EURECA workshops.
ECNC's work in 2008 also involved carrying out activities in relation to Article 17 reporting (under the EU Habitats regulations), expert input in the field of climate change and biodiversity (CC and BD), including a review report of 28 CC and BD indicators and the production of a 'think piece' on biofuel production and biodiversity for internal planning in the EEA. In addition, ECNC continued its role as chair of the ETC/BD Management Committee.

Funding: European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity.
Partners: Agency for Nature Conservation and Landscape Protection of the Czech Republic (AOPK); European Forest Institute (Finland); Istituto Centrale per la Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica Applicata al Mare (Italy); Joint Nature Conservation Committee (UK); Estonian Environmental Information Centre; Institute of Landscape Biology of Slovak Academy of Sciences; Wetlands International (the Netherlands).
More details: http://biodiversity.eionet.eu.int

Impacts of climate change on biodiversity in South-East Europe
The aim of the project was to assist and increase the capacity of five countries in South-East Europe (SEE) in taking the necessary measures to maintain the quality of their biodiversity and to avoid, where possible, further damage to ecosystem services on which local communities depend. The countries are: Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.

During the first months of 2008 a background document Climate change and biodiversity in South-East Europe – impacts and action was elaborated by ECNC and project partner the Regional Environmental Center (REC) in collaboration with REC’s regional offices and experts from the five target countries.

This document formed the basis for the Interregional Conference ‘Changing climate, changing biodiversity in South-East Europe’, which took place on 18 and 19 June 2008 in Belgrade, Serbia. The conference was attended by 60 participants from South-East European countries, experts from Western Europe, representatives of international organizations, local authorities and scientists. The conclusions and recommendations drawn from the discussions and presentations were published and distributed among main stakeholders and interested groups.

The proceedings of the conference and a summary report, Climate change and biodiversity in South-East Europe: a concise summary of the scientific and policy context, issues and recommended actions, were published in English and six local languages.

The project ran from September 2007 to December 2008.

Funding: AECID – Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (Spanish International Cooperation Agency for Development).
Partner: Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC).
More details: www.ecnc.org/completed-projects_40.html?action=detail&id=74

KYOTO: Knowledge Yielding Ontologies for Transitional Organizations
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.

The globalization of problems and their solutions requires that information and communication be supported across a wide range of languages and cultures. We need a system that is able to collect and represent distributed information, structured and expressed differently across languages, in a uniform way, and which allows both experts and laymen to access this information in their own language, without recourse to cultural background knowledge. Natural Language is the most ubiquitous and flexible interface between users – especially non-expert users – and information systems.

In this project the languages English, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Basque, Chinese and Japanese are targeted. This powerful system crucially rests on an ontology linked to wordnets - lexical semantic databases - in a variety of languages. Concept extraction and data mining are applied through a chain of semantic processors that re-use the knowledge for different languages and for particular domains. The shared ontology guarantees a uniform interpretation for diverse types of information from different sources and languages. The system can be maintained by field specialists using a Wiki platform. KYOTO is a generic system offering knowledge transition for any domain of knowledge and information, across different target groups in society and across linguistic, cultural and geographic borders.

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. Its involvement so far has therefore been to: generate key words and questions that could be used to interrogate KYOTO for the retrieval of information and data; to test an early version of the system and to provide feedback on its utility and functioning.

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: www.ecnc.org/ongoing-projects_39.html?action=detail&id=70