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Com­mis­sion launches know­ledge centre to reverse biod­iversity loss and pro­tect Europe’s ecosystems

21.10.2020
The Know­ledge Centre will make the latest know­ledge about biod­iversity avail­able to strengthen the impact of EU policies. It will also help to mon­it­or the imple­ment­a­tion of the EU Biod­iversity Strategy for 2030, which aims to put Europe’s biod­iversity on a path to recov­ery by the end of the dec­ade. Launched dur­ing EU Green Week, the Know­ledge Centre will dir­ectly address chal­lenges uncovered by the first ever EU-wide eco­sys­tem assess­ment, pro­duced by the JRC. The assess­ment shows that Europe’s nat­ur­al areas — from its forests, rivers and lakes to its farm­land, urb­an green spaces and soils — are under increas­ing pres­sure. The authors find a wealth of biod­iversity data exists that could help in tak­ing the right action to alle­vi­ate these pres­sures, but that much of it remains unused. Com­mis­sion­er for the Envir­on­ment, Oceans and Fish­er­ies, Vir­ginijus Sinkeviči­us said: ​“Only what gets meas­ured gets done. If we want to deliv­er on the EU Biod­iversity Strategy, we need to bet­ter con­nect all the dots, and for this we need sound data. Be it on the status of pol­lin­at­ors, envir­on­ment­al impact of pesti­cides, the value of nature for busi­ness or the eco­nom­ic rationale of nature-based solu­tions. We also need to make full use of the digit­al trans­form­a­tion, Earth obser­va­tion and cit­izen sci­ence. The new know­ledge centre will bring all this togeth­er, improv­ing the way we gen­er­ate and man­age biod­iversity know­ledge.” Com­mis­sion­er for Innov­a­tion, Research, Cul­ture, Edu­ca­tion and Youth, respons­ible for the Joint Research Centre, Mar­iya Gab­ri­el said: ​“Sci­ence has a cru­cial role to play in con­serving our biod­iversity. Led by our own sci­ent­ists at the Joint Research Centre, the new Know­ledge Centre for Biod­iversity will help the European and glob­al research com­munity and poli­cy­makers to har­vest and make sense of the vast array of inform­a­tion avail­able, stream­lin­ing it into effect­ive policies that pro­tect Europe’s eco­sys­tems and the ser­vices they provide for European cit­izens”. The Know­ledge Centre for Biod­iversity will provide:
  • A one-stop shop for key inform­a­tion about biod­iversity and the impact of related policies;
  • A plat­form where pro­gress of the EU Biod­iversity Strategy for 2030 can be monitored;
  • An inter­face for sci­ent­ists to net­work, share research res­ults and chan­nel them more effect­ively to sup­port EU policies.

Pro­tect­ing biod­iversity: now is the time

Released on the same day, an EU-wide eco­sys­tem assess­ment high­lights the urgency to tackle biod­iversity loss – which is key to our health, well­being, our eco­nom­ies, and the resi­li­ence of our soci­et­ies. The assess­ment finds that we are becom­ing more and more depend­ent on our eco­sys­tems, which them­selves are under increas­ing pres­sure from cli­mate change and its related impacts. There are some pos­it­ive signs, such as the 13 mil­lion hec­tare increase in Europe’s forests between 1990 and 2015 and the growth of organ­ic farms, which now make up 7% of Europe’s agri­cul­tur­al land. How­ever, the out­look for biod­iversity is a cause for con­cern. Right now, 76% of the EU’s ter­restri­al eco­sys­tems cur­rently have no leg­al des­ig­na­tion: forests, agroe­cosys­tems, urb­an green spaces and soils are largely unpro­tec­ted. Pol­lin­at­or spe­cies are under pres­sure: the index meas­ur­ing the abund­ance of grass­land but­ter­fly pop­u­la­tions in Europe has fallen by 39% since 1990. Europe’s rivers and lakes see less pol­lu­tion and water abstrac­tion than they did in 2000, but the speed of improve­ment has slowed down. Only 39% of fresh­wa­ter bod­ies cur­rently have good eco­lo­gic­al status. Sev­er­al oth­er trends are cur­rently dif­fi­cult to meas­ure and assess, which hampers effect­ive policy action. Europe’s seas are pro­tec­ted by a com­pre­hens­ive policy frame­work, but data gaps lim­it the ana­lys­is of trends in the inputs of nutri­ents, con­tam­in­ants, and lit­ter. In con­trast, Europe’s fresh­wa­ter eco­sys­tems are con­stantly mon­itored through a net­work of tens of thou­sands of mon­it­or­ing sta­tions in rivers and lakes. How­ever, of the 132 unique indic­at­ors used in this mon­it­or­ing, only two report biod­iversity in a con­sist­ent and har­mon­ised way. This makes it impossible to assess spe­cies diversity trends at the European scale. The urgency of the cur­rent situ­ation and the inher­ently com­plex and multi-dimen­sion­al aspects of biod­iversity con­ser­va­tion require new ways of work­ing. In this con­text, enhanced sci­entif­ic sup­port to all poli­cy­makers has a cru­cial role to play. This is where the Know­ledge Centre for Biod­iversity comes in.

Sup­port­ing the EU Biod­iversity Strategy for 2030

By bring­ing togeth­er and fos­ter­ing inter­dis­cip­lin­ary exchange, the Know­ledge Centre for Biod­iversity will deliv­er up-to-date, robust, high-qual­ity sci­entif­ic facts and evid­ence to sup­port the EU Biod­iversity strategy for 2030 in: 
  • extend­ing and con­nect­ing pro­tec­ted areas;
  • achiev­ing the EU nature res­tor­a­tion tar­gets and plan, which include, among oth­ers: con­ser­va­tion of pol­lin­at­ors and their hab­it­ats, reduc­tion of pesti­cides and nutri­ent pol­lu­tion from agri­cul­ture, res­tor­a­tion and decon­tam­in­a­tion of soils, and pro­tec­tion of forests;
  • rein­for­cing enforce­ment, com­pli­ance and imple­ment­a­tion of EU law;
  • involving busi­nesses, bet­ter fin­an­cing, and integ­ra­tion of nat­ur­al cap­it­al account­ing systems;
  • sup­port­ing the glob­al biod­iversity agenda, through work on glob­al biod­iversity con­ser­va­tion, pro­tec­ted areas, defor­est­a­tion, biod­iversity footprints.
As the European Com­mis­sion’s in house sci­ence ser­vice, the JRC has exper­i­ence of man­aging sev­er­al Know­ledge Centres and is well placed to host and chair the Know­ledge Centre for Biod­iversity. Developed in close col­lab­or­a­tion with the Commission’s Dir­ect­or­ate-Gen­er­al for Envir­on­ment and the European Envir­on­ment Agency, the Know­ledge Centre will pull togeth­er a broad range of expert­ise in many areas related to biod­iversity and eco­sys­tem ser­vices. The Know­ledge Centre for Biod­iversity is the eighth European Com­mis­sion Know­ledge Centre and the sev­enth to be launched under the lead­er­ship of the JRC. It adds to those on Bioeconomy, Glob­al Food and Nutri­tion Secur­ity, Ter­rit­ori­al Policies, Migra­tion and Demo­graphy, Dis­aster Risk Man­age­ment, Food Fraud and Qual­ity, and Inter­pret­a­tion (led by the Dir­ect­or­ate-Gen­er­al for Inter­pret­a­tion). Source: EC, News, 21.10.2020
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