Proposal for an EU Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC)

Observations are key to understanding the state of nature, the drivers of biodiversity loss and the impacts on ecosystem services and ultimately on people. Many EU policies and initiatives call for unbiased, integrated and regularly updated data on biodiversity and ecosystem services. However, biodiversity monitoring efforts are spatially and temporally fragmented, taxonomically biased and not integrated across Europe. EuropaBON has addressed this gap by developing an EU-wide framework for biodiversity monitoring. With this deliverable, EuropaBON proposes the terms of reference for an EU Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC), a permanent infrastructure that could coordinate and foster the generation and use of high quality data to underpin the biodiversity knowledge-base used across EU policies, providing guidance and trainings when necessary. Such a centre represents one of the key solutions to overcome the critical challenges of biodiversity monitoring in Europe. Having this integrated and continuous monitoring capacity would allow more timely and efficient interventions that would optimise our capacity to revert biodiversity loss and prevent environmental degradation. It would also increase the value-added to the data flows, reaching high-value outputs with some existing low-value inputs. This deliverable offers a critical analysis of the existing monitoring landscape in Europe, extracting key messages about the main challenges, lessons learned and possible solutions. Based on a comprehensive analysis of needs and, most importantly, on an inclusive consultation process, the deliverable designs an EBOCC that tackles the key biodiversity monitoring challenges. The proposal specifies the mission, the tasks, the most urgent topics, the main policies and the key stakeholders that the EBOCC should serve and focus on during the first stage of its implementation. It also includes detailed analyses about governance models and potential costs. With this proposal, EuropaBON fosters the setting up and testing an operational EBOCC that could address the urgent need for coordination, integration, harmonisation and strengthening of biodiversity data collection and analysis, in order to inform policy-making at local, national, European and international level.