On the 26-28th May 2021, EuropaBON´s first stakeholder workshop had close to 350 registrants from 48 countries, and was attended by almost 250 participants from various fields including policy, academia and non-profit organisations.
The workshop’s first day featured a high-level policy event with speakers from the European Commission’s directorate level, including John Bell (Director, DG RTD.C – Healthy Planet), Humberto Delgado Rosa (Director, DG ENV.D – Natural Capital) and Giovanni De Santi (Director, JRC.D – Sustainable Resources), as well as two roundtable discussions on 1) linking to the Green Deal and 2) policy challenges, opportunities and needs and targets at national levels. Days 2 and 3 of the workshop consisted of more targeted and interactive sessions in small break-out groups. The key aim was to allow stakeholders to engage more actively in designing the Europa Biodiversity Observation Network by capturing their ideas and views.
The workshop’s full agenda, presentations and respective recordings can be found at https://europabon.org/workshop/1st-stakeholder/index.html
EuropaBON’s expert meeting and survey
Following on EuropaBON’s first expert meeting, on the 29th of September 2021, we will be hosting a further expert meeting. This invite-only event will include representatives of relevant EU agencies (DG ENV, EEA, Eurostat, DG Agri, DG Climate, EBKC, REAS, European Biodiversity Partnership), as well experts involved in national/regional biodiversity monitoring from all European member states (including the Eionet National Focal Points). The meeting aims to address biodiversity monitoring data needs in Europe, including current policy roadblocks and potential solutions to them. The meeting will be focused on the preliminary results of a survey on biodiversity data uses and policy needs that has been distributed to the workshop invitees at the beginning of August. To complement the answers provided through the survey, semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders will be conducted in preparation for the expert workshop. Based on the information gathered through these surveys, interviews and the two stakeholder meetings, EuropaBON is currently drafting a User & Policy Needs Assessment that will be circulated to institutional stakeholders for input and comments prior to being submitted to the European Commission at the end of November 2021.
