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Biodiversity Newsflash 151
October 2025
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1 · Look back at the Living Data conference
From 21 to 24 October 2025, Belgian biodiversity experts joined colleagues from around the world in Bogotá, Colombia, at Living Data 2025, the global conference on biodiversity data, standards, and infrastructure.
Organised jointly by GBIF, TDWG, GEO BON, and OBIS, the event brought together hundreds of researchers, developers, and policy professionals to advance open biodiversity data under the theme “Unified information driving transformation."
Belgium was represented by delegates from Belgian institutes, universities, and organisations, each advancing open data, standards, and interoperability across biodiversity science domains.
Among those, Stijn Cooleman (BBPf and INBO) illustrated how the Humboldt Extension standard improves the interoperability of biodiversity survey metadata, using Belgian bird monitoring datasets as case studies.
Other Belgian contributors included:
✧ Quentin Groom, Christophe Van Neste, and Lissa Breugelmans from the Meise Botanic Garden
✧ Patricia Mergen from the Meise Botanic Garden and RMCA
✧ Kenzo Milleville from IDLab and Ghent University
✧ Damiano Oldoni, Lien Reyserhove, Peter Desmet, Pieter Huybrechts, Sanne Govaert, and Dimitri Brosens from INBO
✧ Leen Vandepitte from VLIZ
✧ Silas Principe, Ward Appeltans, and Pieter Provoost from OBIS
✧ Jurate De Prins from the Flemish Entomological Society
✧ André Heughebaert, retired GBIF Node Manager
✧ Yi-Ming Gan from RBINS
...
Together, they underscored Belgium’s significant impact on shaping global biodiversity data standards, open science, and conservation tools, from marine systems and invasive species management to molecular forensics and taxonomic innovation.
The Belgian delegation’s strong presence at Living Data 2025 reaffirms the country’s role as a hub for biodiversity informatics and its commitment to global collaboration in protecting the planet’s living data.
📧 For more information, contact Stijn Cooleman, Biodiversity Data Officer. |
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3 · Call open: BiodivConnect funding on ecosystem restoration
Biodiversa+ has launched BiodivConnect, its new transnational call for research proposals on “restoring ecosystem functioning, integrity and connectivity.”
This call will support research that strengthens the knowledge base, tools, and approaches needed to restore nature, with a focus on three overarching questions:
- How can we set clear restoration targets and measure success?
- How can we scale and transfer effective restoration approaches?
- How can we ensure long-term resilience of restored ecosystems?
Key information: ✧ Funding available: ~€40 million ✧ Participating countries: 29 confirmed ✧ Pre-proposal deadline: 7 November 2025 (12:00 CET)
☞ Call documents and eligibility can be found on the BiodivConnect webpage.
Do not miss this opportunity to get funding for your research on ecosystem restoration!
4 · Biodiversa+ biodiversity monitoring webinar
Interested in the latest Biodiversa+ report on biodiversity monitoring harmonisation?
This newly released guidance lays the foundation for a harmonised framework that will complement the future European Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC), by:
✧ mapping over 60 monitoring communities, ✧ proposing common specifications for interoperability, and ✧ introducing Thematic Hubs to link efforts across scales.
☞ To explore the report in more detail, join the webinar on 26 November 2025, from 11:00 to 12:00 CET.
Michelle Silva del Pozo, lead author of the report, will present its main insights and discuss what harmonisation means for future biodiversity monitoring and policy.
5 · Three new Biodiversa+ publications
This month, Biodiversa+ invites you to discover three new publications:
✧ Guidance note on specifications for cross-scale inclusion of harmonised biodiversity monitoring protocols
This guidance note provides practical recommendations for making biodiversity monitoring across Europe more coherent, more comparable, and more policy-relevant, while respecting local diversity and existing expertise. It proposes how harmonisation can be implemented in practice and introduces common minimum requirements for biodiversity monitoring protocols and a new framework based on expert-led Thematic Hubs.
☞ Explore the summary for key insights, or read the full report.
✧ Knowledge synthesis: How is the effectiveness of terrestrial protected areas to conserve biodiversity measured? A systematic map
Protected Areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of biodiversity conservation. But how do we know whether they truly work? This report compiles and analyses 275 articles and 280 studies from around the world, and presents a systematic map of global evidence on how terrestrial PAs are monitored and evaluated for biodiversity outcomes.
☞ Explore the summary for key insights, or read the full report.
✧ Report: Dialogue on National Restoration Plans and knowledge gaps encountered when drafting them
This report builds on the exchanges held during the 4th Biodiversa+ Dialogue on National Restoration Plans held in Paris in May 2025 with representatives from 20 Member States. It was prepared in the context of the BiodivRestore Knowledge Hub launched in 2024 to establish a pan-European knowledge platform supporting the implementation of the Nature Restoration Law (NRL) in Europe.
☞ Explore the summary for key insights, or read the full report.
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6 · Now open: external review of the IPBES monitoring assessment
As mentioned in our previous Newsflash, we are pleased to announce that the IPBES Monitoring Assessment (the Methodological assessment on monitoring biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people) is open for external review from 5 November 2025 until 7 January 2026.
The undertaking of this assessment, following a fast-track approach and involving a single regular external review, was approved in 2023 by the Plenary.
To ensure the highest scientific quality and policy relevance of the assessment, governments and qualified experts from all relevant disciplines and backgrounds are invited to take part in the review.
☞ For more details, see notification EM/2025/57.
Are you interested in contributing to this review? Get in touch with Anna Heck, Belgian IPBES Focal Point.
7 · Cyprus and Malta officially join IPBES
IPBES is glad to announce that the Governments of the Republic of Cyprus and of the Republic of Malta have formally joined IPBES, as its 151st and 152nd members.
☞ For more details, see notification EM/2025/53 and EM/2025/54.
📧 For more information, contact Anna Heck, Science-Policy Officer and IPBES National Focal Point.
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8 · Save the Date for the Annual EOHA Meeting
The European One Health Association will organise its Annual Scientific Meeting (EOHA-ASM 2026) from 18 to 20 May 2026 in Madrid, Spain.
Hosted by CSIC on behalf of the European One Health Association (EOHA), the meeting will focus on four major themes
✧ Theme 1 - Joining Environmental Sciences and Ecology with Human/Animal Health
✧ Theme 2 - Research Topics at the Frontiers of One Health
✧ Theme 3 - Innovative Solutions for One Health Challenges and their Implementation
✧ Theme 4 - Science for Policy and Society
Registration and call for abstracts will be open from mid-November 2025.
☞ Visit the EOHA-ASM 2026 website to stay up to date with all meeting details.
☞ For general information on the European One Health Association, visit the EOHA website.
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 🌿 Biodiversity around the world! Each month we share a selection of exciting news and events from across the globe.
Surveys: Mapping Belgian Citizen Science Projects
Scivil, the Knowledge Centre for Citizen Science, is mapping the Belgian Citizen Science landscape for the second time.
This edition is conducted in collaboration with UCLouvain which, through a master’s thesis, is studying Citizen Science in the French-speaking part of Belgium. Together, they aim to provide a mapping of Citizen Science projects across the country.
They invite anyone involved in Citizen Science to complete the survey about their project(s). It takes 5 minutes and is available in Dutch, French, and English.
Want to see the results from the previous edition? You can read more on the Scivil website.
For Dutch-speaking projects: Scivil is also collecting information about the citizen scientists themselves. Do not hesitate to forward the citizen scientist survey to the participants of your project(s). More information about the citizen scientists survey.
Article: Global sampling decline erodes science potential of natural history collections
In the article, the researchers examine the world’s natural history collections, which hold over two billion specimens representing spatial and taxonomic biodiversity records on Earth over time.
They discuss how digitisation, enhanced connectivity, and new genotyping and digital trait extraction have increased the accessibility and value of collections, expanding their relevance beyond taxonomy and evolutionary biology to fields like environmental monitoring, agriculture, biosecurity, and public health.
Using over 150 million records from GBIF spanning more than two centuries, they show that the rate of specimen collection has declined substantially in recent decades, with variation across taxonomic groups and geographic regions.
These findings suggest that the value of natural history collections as global research infrastructure is eroding, just as applications for these data and advances in data analytics, AI and genomics have never been more important.
Source: Nature Communications, 20 October 2025
Article: Identifying opportunities for terrestrial area-based conservation within an urban global biodiversity hotspot
In this article, the researchers explore how global area-based conservation targets can be achieved through whole-of-government and whole-of-society approaches, with a focus on biodiverse regions of the Global South.
They present a practitioner-led examination of opportunities to expand Durban, South Africa’s conservation network using local government mechanisms. By analysing local spatial biodiversity and land-use planning data, they identify conservation opportunities across different tenure types and assess feasibility, effectiveness, policy requirements, and climate resilience co-benefits.
The study finds that traditional authority areas and private landholdings contain most biodiversity outside existing conservation areas, while complementary land-use zones and unrealised conservation servitudes provide short-term interventions to expand protected areas. Aligning critical biodiversity with biophysical constraints offers significant potential for both conservation and sustainable development co-benefits.
It highlights priorities such as developing mechanisms for area-based conservation in traditional authority areas and rezoning threatened vegetation, providing actionable strategies to bridge the planning–implementation gap, with lessons applicable to other cities in the Global South.
Source: njp Urban Sustainability, 27 October 2025
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