Project Summary: This multi-stakeholder collaborative project brings together experts from conservation biology and business sustainability management to explore biodiversity data user needs across sectors and identify the reasons behind blockages to information flow and access. The project runs from November 2021 until October 2023 with the aim of identifying solutions to enhance the availability of biodiversity data to key data users, from governments to businesses to civil society.
Core project partners and staff leads:
Project donor: Swiss Network for International Studies (https://snis.ch/)
This page shares project updates and outputs.
For more information, please contact the project coordinator, Dr PJ Stephenson (StephensonPJ[at]gmail.com), or see the project page on the donor's website HERE.
Core project partners and staff leads:
- Laboratory for Conservation Biology, Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland (lead) - Dr PJ Stephenson & Dr Luca Fumagalli
- Institute for Economy & the Environment, University of St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland - Prof. Judith Walls & Dr Kerrigan Unter
- Centre for Biodiversity Conservation Research, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana - Prof Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu & Dr Louisa Sawyerr
- Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute, Bogota, Colombia - Dr Maria Cecilia Londoño Murcia & Dr Jorge Armando Amador Moncada
- IUCN SSC Species Monitoring Specialist Group - Dr PJ Stephenson
- Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network—GEOBON - Dr Maria Cecilia Londoño Murcia
Project donor: Swiss Network for International Studies (https://snis.ch/)
This page shares project updates and outputs.
For more information, please contact the project coordinator, Dr PJ Stephenson (StephensonPJ[at]gmail.com), or see the project page on the donor's website HERE.
Project Document
| project_document_with_plan_20210901.pdf |
Project Updates
- The project started November 2023.
- PJ announced the new project during his presentation to the Global Landscapes Forum Climate conference in Glasgow, 5 November 2021, and also during the specialist group's symposium at the 30th International Congress for Conservation Biology, Kigali, 15 December 2021.
- The first year focused on literature reviews and on recruiting post-doctoral researchers in each partner institution.
- The team then conducted in-depth analyses of data user needs and challenges in the three target countries through online surveys and stakeholder interviews.
- The project team is hosting a workshop in Lausanne in September 2023 to bring together a diversity of data users and enablers to discuss preliminary results and help identify solutions to identified data blockages. A global webinar sharing project results will be organised later in the year.
- The project has so far generated 7 published papers and two updates to the Database of Global Data Sources for Biodiversity Conservation Monitoring.
Publications
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Mansourian, S. & Stephenson, P.J. 2023. Exploring challenges and lessons for monitoring Forest Landscape Restoration. Current Landscape Ecology Reports. DOI: 10.1007/s40823-023-00092-z
Moreno, I., Gippet, J., Fumagalli, L. & Stephenson, P.J. 2023. The biodiversity data conservationists most need in East Africa are the most difficult to access. Biodiversity and Conservation, 32: 249–273. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-022-02497-4 See, L., Lyet, A., Salvatori, M., Rovero, F., Pérez-Granados, C., Wich, S. & Stephenson, P.J. in press. Monitoring rangeland wildlife with the aid of remote sensing and other technologies: a review of the options. In O.P. Dube & J.I. Molefe (eds.), Remote Sensing of Rangelands - Monitoring the Anthropocene. CSIRO Publishing, Clayton, Australia. Stephenson, P.J. & Damerell, A. 2022. Bioeconomy and circular economy models need to enhance the focus on biodiversity to achieve sustainability. Sustainability, 14(17): 10643. DOI: 10.3390/su141710643 Stephenson, P.J., Londoño-Murcia, M.C., Borges, P.A.V., Claassens, L., Frisch-Nwakanma, H., Ling, N., McMullan-Fisher, S., Meeuwig, J.J., Unter, K.M.M., Walls, J.L., Burfield, I.J., Correa, D.C.V., Geller, G.N., Montenegro Paredes, I., Mubalama, L.K., Ntiamoa-Baidu, Y., Roesler, I., Rovero, F., Sharma, Y.P., Wisesa Wiwardhana, N., Yang, J. & Fumagalli, L. 2022. Measuring the impact of conservation: the growing importance of monitoring fauna, flora and funga. Diversity, 14(10): 824. DOI: 10.3390/d14100824 Stephenson, P.J., & Ruiz de Paz, A. 2022. New database enhances the accessibility of global biodiversity information for conservation monitoring. Oryx, 56(3): 329-330. DOI: 10.1017/S0030605322000205 Stephenson, P.J. & Walls, J. 2022. A new biodiversity paradigm for business. Amplify, 35(5): 6-14. https://www.cutter.com/article/new-biodiversity-paradigm-business |
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Presentations at Meetings and Conferences
Project team members have seized several opportunities to present either the project goals or the early project research results at a range of diverse meetings, conferences and fora. These have included:
- Monitoring biodiversity for business: learning from the conservation community (by PJS), webinar for the WBCSD members group, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Geneva, Switzerland, 12 October 2022.
- Symposium on Mammal Population Monitoring for Conservation organised by PJS at the 95th Annual Meeting of the German Society for Mammalian Biology, Hamburg, Germany, 20 September 2022. PJS also presented a keynote talk, Mammal monitoring for conservation: an overview of challenges & opportunities.
- Species monitoring for conservation II – using and sharing data and what we need for future monitoring of biodiversity (by PJS), lecture for the UNIL Summer School on Transdisciplinary Nature Conservation, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, 16 September 2022.
- Keynote: Sustainability, Why We Need New Leaders (by JW), Hansgrohe Water Symposium, Schiltach, Germany, 16 September, 2022.
- The need for science and data in conservation (by PJS), lecture for the UNIL Summer School on Transdisciplinary Nature Conservation, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, 12 September 2022.
- Keynote: Biodiversity as a Business Strategy (by JW), Spirit of Bern, Bern, Switzerland, 23 August, 2022.
- Power of Nature: Understanding the firm's dependence on nature. (hybrid; online). Professional Development Workshop organized by JW and others, Academy of Management, Seattle, USA, 6 August, 2022.
- An overview of biodiversity monitoring tools: challenges and opportunities (by PJS), symposium on Scaling Up Terrestrial Biodiversity Monitoring - Needs, Challenges and Opportunities, World Biodiversity Forum, Davos, Switzerland. 30 June 2022.
- Keynote and panel discussion: Business and Biodiversity (by JW), Festival der Natur, St. Gallen, Switzerland, 20 May 2022.
- Symposium on Innovations in Biodiversity Monitoring for Conservation (online), jointly organised by PJS and YN-B at the International Congress for Conservation Biology, Kigali, Rwanda, 15 December 2021. PJS also presented An overview of modern biodiversity monitoring tools: challenges and opportunities.
- The role of agricultural ecosystems in biodiversity conservation (by PJS), Landscapes for Forests and Food plenary (online), 2021 Global Landscapes Forum Climate: Forest, Food and Finance - Frontiers of Change conference, Glasgow, Scotland, 5 November 2021.
