BIONEXT newsletter – December 2024

Editorial: BIONEXT advances knowledge to aid global biodiversity and climate policymaking

BIONEXT champions biodiversity as the foundation of a sustainable society. Human prosperity depends directly on nature's health, yet understanding this relationship is a complex task – biodiversity interweaves with water, food, energy, transport, climate, and health. BIONEXT’s new insight article reveals how biodiversity loss threatens many aspects of our lives such as food and water security, climate stability, public health, economic stability and social equality, making its preservation crucial for our future.

Taking it a step further, the project aims to extend its impact by informing global policy decisions. October and November 2024 marked a crucial period for international environmental negotiations, featuring two major conferences: the biannual UN Conference on Biodiversity (COP16) in Cali, Colombia, and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan. These gatherings brought together thousands of participants—from scientists and policymakers to business leaders and NGO representatives—to address current challenges and chart future directions. Below this editorial, you'll find a compilation of prequels and insights from the COP16, along with an overview of the EU Nature Restoration Law and its promise to revitalize Europe's natural heritage.

Yet despite global initiatives like the COPs, negotiations continue to fall behind the accelerating pace of biodiversity loss and climate change. Whether due to nations' reluctance to adopt ambitious environmental commitments that might affect economic growth, or the lack of clear financial mechanisms for policy implementation, among other challenges, the global community's response remains insufficient to address the mounting environmental crisis.

Meanwhile, BIONEXT continues advancing our understanding of biodiversity interconnections and their implications for society and nature. Several project researchers, who serve as IPBES experts, will attend the upcoming IPBES 11 Plenary in Namibia. There, they will help bridge science and policy, pursuing solutions that benefit both society and nature through the integration of biodiversity-focused goals and strategies so stay tuned for updates!

Simon Vaňo is a postdoctoral researcher the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Main findings, results and recommendations

This section presents the main findings, results and recommendations from the project over the last six months.

• BIONEXT has explored what could happen between now and 2100. This is done by using the nexus modelling to evaluate different outcomes across enriched shared socio-economic pathways. We are now working to model the transformative pathways to evaluate whether the actions in the pathway achieve the previously created visions.

• BIONEXT has identified diverse modes of intervention that actors in Europe utilise when they seek to fight biodiversity loss as part of their everyday work or voluntary activism. These modes are 1) Destabilising management regimes and production systems e.g. in courts and via publicity creation; 2) reappropriating land and water for protection or for uses that support biodiversity; 3) orchestrating collective action used to mediate intervention and trigger changes in specific localities; 4) commodification of products and services that generate value from nature-based practices; 5) integrating biodiversity with business operations and infrastructure development; 6) making biodiversity matter for local and regional development and wellbeing; and 7) environmental education and awareness-raising.

• BIONEXT is using and developing Artificial Intelligence as a tool to efficiently retrieve key BIONEXT outputs to support transformative change decisions.

• in September, BIONEXT had an inspiring One Health Nexus modelling workshop with nexus modelling experts. The aim was to discuss how a One Health perspective could be taken into account in the BIONEXT models.

• BIONEXT has drafted an MCDA framework for assessing national and international biodiversity targets in terms of possible enablers that are needed to achieve transformative change within the target. The framework will be piloted in practice in relation to a selection of EU level targets submitted to the Convention of Biological Diversity.

Learn more

Insight article | Why biodiversity loss matters and how are we COPing with it?

We are witnessing an alarming decline in global biodiversity. But how does biodiversity loss actually affect our society? Read more about the impacts of biodiversity loss, how the 16th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity is linked to all of this and what is needed to stop this path!

Insight article | An insight into the new EU Nature Restoration Law

The recently adopted European Union (EU) Nature Restoration Regulation represents the first time that legally binding EU-wide restoration targets and objectives have been set. The Regulation explicitly pursues EU objectives for biodiversity, climate change, and food security while recognizing the implications for additional areas such as the human health impacts of zoonotic diseases.

If you are interested in learning more about the law in a nutshell, have a read of our new article.

Blog | Reflecting on COP16: transformative change or more of the same?

For 2 weeks in October, COP16 took over Cali. While it has been hailed as a “historic” “people’s” COP, many have criticised the summit for falling short on agreements on finance and monitoring. But what actually were the key decisions made at COP16?

In the spotlight: energy

In every newsletter, we give a spotlight on one element from the biodiversity nexus. For the fourth newsletter, we introduce energy.

The energy we use to power our development is especially important because whether we use fossil fuels or renewable sources it has far-reaching consequences for life on land and below water, affecting both the present and future generations. The predominant use of fossil fuels globally, along with human activities related to their production and consumption, significantly contributes to the loss of biodiversity due to factors like climate change, environmental pollution, and changes in land and sea use.

On the other hand, transitioning to alternative energy sources isn’t without challenges. For instance, the globally endorsed ambition to ensure access to clean and affordable energy for all leads to the necessity to hold sensitive multilevel policy-relevant discussions among diverse stakeholders concerned about energy and food security and protecting the environment.

News from other projects

Step into the world of BIOTRAILS with the Serious Game!

BIOTRAILS Serious Game combines fun, knowledge, and a broader scientific mission. Engaging players with quizzes and challenges uncovers the real-world impacts of their choices on biodiversity. Through scenarios highlighting consumption's upstream and downstream effects, players understand links between actions and biodiversity impacts, while promoting Citizen Science.

CLEVER Brings Stakeholders Together to Tackle Deforestation and Biodiversity Loss

This year, CLEVER has excelled in fostering multi-stakeholder collaboration. Highlights include the Climate Arena workshop in Bologna, engaging journalists on the biodiversity impacts of EU imports, and workshops in the Congo Basin with public and private sector participants addressing deforestation challenges. At the GLP conference in Oaxaca, the team actively contributed to discussions on sustainable agriculture, trade policies, and land-use modeling.

If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions for our project please contact bionext.project@syke.fi! You can also submit your wishes for the next newsletter by sending us an email.

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