Global Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring

Monte Verità Conference Center, Ascona, Switzerland, 2016
A joint symposium of the Future Earth Clusters ‘Global Biodiversity Assessment and Monitoring, Prediction and Reporting’ and ‘Support for IPBES’

Policy, environmental management, and conservation in an interconnected world of ongoing rapid change rely on adequate biodiversity science, data, and infrastructure to support decisions. Regional and global assessment processes under the auspices of IPBES are now underway. What are the key science, data and infrastructure needs to support a global biodiversity monitoring and assessment into the future? Which are the key data, knowledge and technology gaps? Which questions should we ask now, which methods develop, which new types of information integrate, or which complementary data collection begin, to meet these challenges?

The symposium follows up on the initial meeting on “Global Biodiversity Monitoring” at Yale University in May 2015. The 2016 event will add the scientific needs for IPBES, in particular on indicators, as additional focus. Key goals of the conference are to update participants on recent research outcomes and link the main research groups active in this area, improve data sharing, develop collaborative analyses, realize potential synergies and advance international cooperation. Future Earth is entering the next formative stage and the symposium is a forum to advance the role of biodiversity within Future Earth as well as develop or engage in new research and funding opportunities under its umbrella.

Conference website