Biodiversity monitoring for post 2020

The GEO BON Open Science Conference and All Hands Meeting 2020 will be a milestone event that will bring together all those involved and interested in the development of Biodiversity Observation Networks and Essential Biodiversity Variables, as well as their potential to support global biodiversity monitoring and conservation post 2020

Repeated, long-term observations are crucial to detect and attribute changes in biodiversity and ecosystem services, for identifying policy options and assessing their effectiveness.

For the past ten years, GEO BON and its members have been developing the Biodiversity Observation Networks that underlie the acquisition and mobilization of biodiversity observations, as well as Essential Biodiversity Variables that help assess the status and trends of biodiversity across all levels of its organization, from genes to ecosystems.

We are now at a pivotal time for global biodiversity conservation. A year after the Global Assessment of IPBES, progress towards the achievement of the Aichi biodiversity targets is being evaluated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its Parties. In parallel, discussions are on-going to design the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. All of these activities fundamentally rely and point to the need for strengthened efforts to monitor and observe the Earth’s biodiversity.

With the 2020 GEO BON Open Science Conference and All Hands meeting we invite all members and interested parties to come together and present progress, achievements, and frontiers in BON and EBV development, as well as to plan and shape the future of GEO BON. The conference will also be the occasion to officially launch the outcomes of the “EBV 2020” initiative with the mobilization of EBV data products covering all EBV classes into the GEO BON portal.

The Open Science Conference will be combined with an All Hands meeting similar to the ones organized in Leipzig in 2016 and Beijing in 2018. Working groups and BONs will be invited to meet in parallel sessions with time will be split between presentations and workshops. Each Working Group and regional and thematic BON will review and discuss progress and achievements outlined in the 2017-2020 Implementation Plan as well as define their roadmap for the 2021-2024 time period.