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Biodiversity Newsflash 146
April 2025
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1 | PESC-RESPIN event report on biodiversity and climate
The Platform co-organised the 8th Pan-European Stakeholder Consultation (PESC-8) for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), along with (and as part of) the ECA Network, the RESPIN project, and Biodiversa+.
The event took place in Brussels from 10 to 13 March 2025 and welcomed over 100 participants from Europe and Central Asia.
Not only did representatives from the IPBES secretariat, IPBES national focal points, and biodiversity experts take part, but also representatives of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), IPCC national focal points, and climate experts, as well as initiatives such as the CO-OP4CBD project and the IUCN.
The event was highly interactive, inviting participants not only to present their work but also to share best practices, inspire each other, and reflect on innovative ways to work together.
- The opening day centred on discussing the processes and opportunities offered by IPCC and IPBES
- The following day featured thematic sessions on transformative change, nature-based solutions, and awareness-raising
- The event concluded with a final day dedicated to strengthening synergies between biodiversity and climate research
For more insights from this event, read the full report!
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2 | IPBES Transformative Change Assessment Report online
The Transformative Change Assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), approved at the 11th Plenary session in Namibia last year, is now available in full.
This assessment report addresses the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and the determinants of Transformative Change and options for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.
It is the result of three years of work by 101 experts from 42 countries. It synthesises over 7,000 references into a comprehensive scientific assessment of 5 chapters, accompanied by a concise summary document for policymakers.
You can now read the full release of the assessment.
📧 For more information, contact Anna Heck, Science-Policy Officer and IPBES National Focal Point. |
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3 | BiodivClim Final Conference in Brussels
Launched in 2019 under Horizon 2020, the BiodivClim funding scheme has supported 21 projects exploring the crucial link between biodiversity and climate change.
The projects are now coming to an end and their results will be presented during the final conference taking place in Brussels, on 10 and 11 June 2025.
The conference will also mark the closure of the BiodivClim Knowledge Hub, a community of experts focusing on the potential of NbS for mitigating and adapting to climate change.
Fore more details and to register to the conference, visit the conference webpage.
Please note that while in-person attendance by invitation only, key sessions will be accessible online.
📧 For more information, contact Lison Cowez, Science-Policy Officer.
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4 | Feedback from the Biodiversa+ NbS events in Montpellier
At the beginning of April, Biodiversa+ organised a series of events around NbS in Montpellier, France.
On 8 April 2025, a Science Policy Forum took place, bringing together researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from across Europe and beyond. It focused on building capacity to mobilise Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in support of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and explored how to better connect science, policy, and practice to scale up NbS implementation effectively.
➡️ Learn more about the Biodiversa+ Science Policy Forum, and rewatch the event online!
That same day, Biodiversa+ also hosted a workshop to help researchers understand and engage with international policy processes. The focus was on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and other Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs), especially in relation to nature-based solutions (NbS).
➡️ Find out more about the workshop in internal policy engagement and rewatch the event online!
On 9 April, Biodiversa+ launched the kick-off meeting for the projects funded under the joint call on “Nature-based solutions for biodiversity, human well-being and transformative change” (BiodivNBS), addressing themes such as: monitoring, legacy, justice, policy, collaboration, etc.
➡️ Read more about the BiodivNBS Kick-Off meeting, and rewatch the event online!
🗓️ Future Biodiversa+ events not to miss!
5 | Biodiversa+ report on topic priorities
Biodiversa+ has published its updated report on shared goals and priorities for biodiversity monitoring, as it enters its third phase (2025-2028) of the Partnership .
For this period, the 12 already existing priorities and transversal activities highlighted as a special topic (as defined in the previous report) have been refined to enhance clarity and operational guidance.
These priorities specifically target urgent gaps where Biodiversa+ can add significant value.
Read the report and find out more about the selected topics!
6 | Second-year reports from two Biodiversa+ pilot projects
Two Biodiversa+ pilot projects have just released their second-year reports:
1. Monitoring Invasive Alien Species (IAS) using image-based methods (2023-2027)
The report outlines the progress made in testing scalable tools for monitoring invasive plants and insects across Europe using cutting-edge camera technology and artificial intelligence.
Read the full report with the project’s findings and future plans.
2. Soil biodiversity in protected, near-natural forests (2023-2026)
The report focuses on methodological challenges, comparing traditional sampling techniques with molecular methods.
Read the full report on the challenges and lessons learnt.
📧 For more information, contact Phong Hoang, Communication Officer at Biodiversa+.
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7 | GBIF workshop for CEBioS trainees Three of our Data experts (André Heughebaert, Tobias Musschoot, Maxime Coupremanne) were invited by our friendly colleagues from CEBioS to lead a workshop on GBIF!
The workshop was delivered to trainees from developing countries, as part of CEBioS’ mission to strengthen capacity and support the sustainable use and management of biodiversity in these developing countries.
It offered hands-on guidance on how to explore, visualise, and download biodiversity data through GBIF.org.
Participants were also introduced to additional tools and resources, including the Integrated Publishing Toolkit (IPT), Darwin Core, EML metadata, QGIS, OpenRefine, SQL, and the Catalogue of Life (CoL).
8 | New BID Grant Opportunities for 2025
The 2025 Biodiversity Information for Development ( BID) programme, funded by the EU and led by GBIF, has opened its calls for proposals.
The objective of this multi-year programme is to enhance individual and institutional capacity in their use of open data on biodiversity in research and policy. It specifically targets Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific Islands.
This time, two types of grants are available under the Pacific call and the LAC call:
1. Institutional-level biodiversity data mobilisation grants
2. Multi-institutional biodiversity data mobilisation grants
Proposals have to be submitted in English through the GBIF Grants Portal by 27 May 2025.
9 | GBIF leaves X for alternative platforms
Following a recent trend seen in many organisations and individuals*, GBIF has decided to leave X (formerly Twitter) for Bluesky, stating they would rather “align with platforms with stronger shared values in open access, transparency and data sovereignty.”
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10 | The Belgian Biodiversity Alliance grows its network
The Belgian Biodiversity Alliance (BBA), an independent coalition of private and public partners in which the Belgian Biodiversity Platform is actively involved, has further expanded its community of action-driven partners committed to halting biodiversity loss across the country.
Since the launch of the Alliance in 2022, the Belgian Biodiversity Platform has played a central role in its development by recruiting new initiatives and supporting communication around its objectives and progress.
Recently, ten new projects have been added to the corpus, illustrating the diversity of actions taken in Belgium:
- an organic goat farm and cheese factory in De Haan
- a circular economy project giving a second life to food products unfit for supermarket sale
- a habitat restoration project of a vital ecological corridor in Genk
- ... and many others!
Details about these initiatives, including their measurable contributions to one or more of the objectives of the Alliance, are described on the BBA website, under the “Projects” section.
For updates and ongoing developments, you can follow the BBA LinkedIn page.
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 🌿 Biodiversity around the world! Each month we present interesting news items from around the globe.
‼️ Cutting the future: how austerity threatens Belgian scienceA guest editorial was published in Le Soir a few weeks ago, signed by researchers from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) and the French- and Dutch-speaking branches of the Free University of Brussels (ULB & VUB), along with several hundred co-signatories.
In the context of budget austerity threatening scientific research, the article highlights how essential science is to society, not only for advancing knowledge. It uses the example of early warning systems during climate events, which help save lives and prevent damage worth billions of euros.
It also stresses the importance of keeping a significant portion of research independent from private funding to ensure impartial conclusions and the autonomy of scientific services.
However, scientific policy in Belgium is severely undermined by past and future budget cuts, reflecting the gradual erosion of federal support for scientific research.
The previous federal government had already imposed annuals cuts of 2% on federal scientific institutions. Now, the budget plans of the new “Arizona” government announce average annual cuts of 12% to federal research funding, adding to all the other cuts, leading to job losses and reduced public services.
The full list of signatories is available online.
Source: Le Soir, 27 March 2025 (in French)
Quite literally not from our globe....
A research team from the University of Cambridge has uncovered what they describe as the strongest evidence so far of potential life on a distant exoplanet, K2-18b, located 124 light-years from Earth.
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, they have detected signs of molecules that, on Earth, are produced solely by simple life forms such as marine phytoplankton.
While the discovery is still tentative and further observations are needed, the lead researcher Professor Nikku Madhusudhan is confident they will be able to confirm their findings within one to two years.
"This could be the tipping point" says Prof. Madhusudhan, because if confirmed, it may mean life is very common across the galaxy.
Source: BBC, 17 April 2025
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