International Day for Biological Diversity and the role of open data
Discover how open data can support researchers and policymakers in addressing biodiversity loss
Today, we celebrate International Day for Biological Diversity, raising awareness for a thriving planet where all creatures can flourish. This year’s theme ‘From Agreement to Action: Build Back Biodiversity’ follows the new Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GFB), which emerged from the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
Biological diversity includes all ecosystems and the interactions among their members. It creates food chains and plays an important role in healthcare, for example through the production of traditional plant-based medicines. To tackle biodiversity loss, the GFB framework aims to safeguard and sustainably use biodiversity by setting global targets for 2030. Examples of these targets include conserving 30% of land and sea by 2030, restoring 30% of degraded ecosystems, halving the introduction of invasive species and reducing harmful subsidies by $500 billion per year.
With the adoption of the GFB, it is now time for action. Open data can support policymakers to achieve the goals by 2030. For example, HELCOM Metadata catalogue, offers a map and data service that provides environmental information on the Baltic Sea, including information on biodiversity. Their biodiversity database aims to bring together all available species observation data collected by HELCOM, while the integrated biodiversity status assessment showcases the biodiversity status of different species groups.
Biodiversity is a global asset and data can support both research and policymakers. Explore the data.europa portal for datasets on biological diversity.
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