This press release was originally published on EurekAlert! and AlphaGalileo.

Ahead of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16), the EU project B-Cubed released its first policy brief providing recommendations for improved biodiversity monitoring.

B-Cubed’s first policy brief will be distributed during COP16 at the GEO BON Pavillion (Blue Zone) on 21 October.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) sets out a plan to ensure that the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled by 2050. To support this ambitious plan, the Parties designed and agreed on a detailed Monitoring Framework for the CBD. The Monitoring Framework includes a set of indicators that standardise how Parties track and report their progress towards the GBF goals and targets. However, consistent uptake, use, and reuse of these indicators across Parties are hampered by issues such as limited technical capacity, insufficient resources, and a lack of fully documented workflows.

The policy brief argues that to enhance indicators’ effectiveness, it is important to implement FAIR data principles (Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reusability) across all components involved in indicator calculation—data, workflows, and indicators. Open repositories, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and the EBV Data Portal, offer platforms to store and harmonise data and derived products such as metrics and models. The Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBV) framework, alongside initiatives like BON in a BOX, provides standardised guidelines and workflows for effective indicator use.

Despite the existence of such platforms, broader adoption is needed, facilitated by user-friendly interfaces, capacity-building efforts, peer-to-peer learning, and better infrastructure. Policy recommendations highlight the importance of supporting these initiatives, promoting interconnected data and informatics infrastructures, and ensuring that the standards are consistently applied across all countries. By implementing this FAIR approach, Parties can streamline their monitoring processes, reduce the reporting burden at reusing existing workflows, and improve global biodiversity tracking.

In addition to B-Cubed’s policy brief at COP16, B-Cubed partner – Lina Estupinan will introduce a comprehensive EBV ecosystem which provides interlinked tools designed to streamline and enhance data processes for National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans reporting at GEO BON Pavillion (Blue Zone) on 21 October, 15:00. Find out more here. The EBV ecosystem resolves the harmonisation of multidimensional biodiversity data sets across time and space, increases their findability and usability through the integration of metadata conventions, and provides a user-friendly interface for accessing and downloading data sets in an operative format.

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B3 (Biodiversity Building Blocks for policy) receives funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme (ID No 101059592). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the EU nor the EC can be held responsible for them.