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EU Biodiversity Strategy and Landscape

The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and its Path to a Thriving Planet

In the face of mounting environmental challenges, the European Union (EU) has embarked on a visionary journey to safeguard our planet’s rich tapestry of life.

The EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 stands as a clarion call, urging us to unite in protecting, restoring, and celebrating the wonders of nature. This holistic strategy encompasses four pillars, each weaving together a unique thread that holds the promise of a more sustainable and harmonious future. Let us embark on an expedition through the pillars of this strategy, discovering the steps that will guide us towards a world where nature thrives.biodiversity pillars

The first pillar of the strategy emphasises the expansion of protected areas, aiming to encompass 30% of the EU’s land and sea. This commitment involves preserving these areas from harm and ensuring the conservation of their delicate ecosystems for generations to come. Additionally, a third of these protected areas will receive the highest level of defense, enabling nature to flourish undisturbed within their boundaries. This demonstrates a deep understanding of the inherent value of biodiversity and the importance of safeguarding our planet’s most vulnerable spaces.

Acknowledging the interconnectedness of all ecosystems, the EU’s second pillar focuses on restoring nature and promoting sustainable practices across various sectors. This multifaceted approach aims to heal the damage inflicted on our natural landscapes, ranging from expansive forests to fragile wetlands. It recognises that the well-being of our planet is intricately linked to our own, and sustainable land and resource management are pivotal in preserving both.

The third pillar of the strategy goes all out to strengthen the EU’s biodiversity governance, knowledge, research, financing, and investments. This commitment ensures that we have everything we need to bring about meaningful change. It’s a rallying cry for governments, institutions, and individuals to fully embrace their roles as guardians of biodiversity and actively drive the kind of impactful transformation our planet needs.

Recognising that biodiversity knows no borders, the EU extends its reach beyond its own territories.

The fourth pillar of the strategy focuses on leveraging EU external actions to raise global ambitions for biodiversity. Through partnerships with nations worldwide, the EU aims to minimize the impact of trade on biodiversity and provide support for conservation efforts beyond European borders. This collective endeavor reflects a commitment to shared responsibility and the understanding that protecting biodiversity is a global mission that transcends geographical boundaries.green deal

As we traverse the four pillars of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, we witness a collective commitment to nurturing our planet’s ecological harmony. This unique strategy envisions a world where protected areas thrive, nature is restored, transformative change is embraced, and global partnerships are forged. It is a testament to the EU’s determination to safeguard the symphony of life that resounds in every corner of our planet.

To find out more about the Biodiversity strategy for 2030 visit: https://environment.ec.europa.eu/strategy/biodiversity-strategy-2030_en

Data and maps https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/abundance-and-distribution-of-selected-species-9

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The Landscape Award

landscape convention logoThe Landscape Award of the Council of Europe is intended to raise civil society’s awareness of the value of landscapes, of their role and of changes to them. The Award is conferred every two years. Its objective is to acknowledge exemplary practical initiatives aimed at successful landscape quality objectives on the territories of the Parties to the Landscape Convention.

The Landscape Convention, established by the Council of Europe, is the first international treaty devoted exclusively to all dimensions of the landscape. It addresses the major challenges in the field of human rights, democracy and the rule of law, with a view to sustainable development.

Mosel river imageSustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Sustainable development is an organising principle that aims to meet human development goals while also enabling natural systems to provide necessary natural resources and ecosystem services to humans.

There are 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations, which are an urgent call for action by all countries.

The Resolution on the Rules governing the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe, adopted by the Committee of Ministers, recalls that the European Landscape Convention institutes the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe and that it is in keeping with the work carried out by the Council of Europe concerning human rights, democracy and sustainable development. It promotes effectively the territorial dimension of human rights and democracy by acknowledging the importance of measures taken to improve the landscape for people’s living conditions.

Find out more about the Landscape Convention and Landscape Award

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Partner meeting tests GEOLAND app

geoland meeting During two days of October 2022, the GEOLAND Transnational Partner Meeting was held in Zaragoza, Spain. All the participants spent one whole day meeting, discussing the latest progress of the project with special attention on the mapping app developed by University of Ghent.

This app permits data gathering in the field and its aim is to allow the landscape to be evaluated in situ by students or even by the public. The use is very simple, everyone just has to open the app, save the GPS location, respond to a short survey and make a photo, which completes the collected information.

Next day, a field visit and app beta testing was scheduled. Five places with important landscape value were visited.

The app developed for the landscape evaluation was shown to present great functionality and very relevant results, so in following months it will be used with students and the general public.

Explore the Storymap to find out more.


 

 

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GIS education for schools – focus on Bulgaria

GIS has undertaken a long road of development and its importance has been recognised in many areas, especially in education. Nowadays GIS tools are both accessible and affordable. So, if you are a teacher, mentor or trainer interested in teaching GIS in your school or university and to your students, there is some really cool news here to share with you.

ESRI Europe has launched a program called “GIS in School”, which provides a free GIS software for schools, which is designed for teachers who want to provide interactive tools to support the teaching and learning processes therein. As part of the program, teachers will get access to the ArcGIS Online platform, which offers its own secure environment with a free personalized account with a username and password for each teacher and for each student. In addition, you could also get access to Story Maps and other cool tools such as ArcGIS Online where a wide variety of tools and templates can be utilized to visualize data, create maps, perform analyses, and answer complex geographic questions with students.Bulgarian GIS in schools image

The program also offers support in developing, preparing and conducting GIS lessons, including “first steps” resources for beginners. Having said that, schools can get additional help via “GeoMentor”- a volunteer program in which professionals in the field of geospatial systems and technologies help teachers in Bulgarian schools to use the full potential of GIS technology in the classroom.

The “GIS in Schools” program is open on an all-year-round basis for all Bulgarian schools. Every Bulgarian school (state, municipal or private) included in the register of institutions in the secondary education system of the Ministry of Education and Science has the right to participate in the program. Any teacher, principal or administrative assistant from the respective school can apply for free participation in the program. Currently, there are 343 schools, 1100 teachers and 10 000+ students involved in the program in Bulgaria. Find out more

Hooked already? Well, why not go ahead and learn more about the “GIS in School” program and take advantage of this wonderful opportunity for your own school.

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Promoting the GEOLAND Project

During the first six months of its implementations, the GEOLAND project was presented and discussed in a number of relevant conferences and events.

In an effort to raise awareness of participants from various business and scientificgeoland dissemination picture disciplines, Atlantis Engineering SA promoted the GEOLAND project in Technology Forum.
This annual event takes place in Thessaloniki (Greece) in order to share knowledge and build collaborations between Industries, Research Centres and Academia

The main topic of the event was the development of innovative products and services, such as ICT applications in education, to be achieved through the combination of knowledge and new technological tools.
More info on the Forum

In September 2021, the GEOLAND project was presented at TIF Helexpo 85th Thessaloniki International Fair, the greatest exhibition event in Greece.

Institute for Mediterranean Studies – FORTH and Dr. Dimitris Alexakis had the chance to present the aims and the goals of the project to numerous visitors of the exhibition from Greece and abroad.
More info on the conference

In March, the new project was introduced at the Annual Conference and meeting of the European Association of Geographers. The event was held online due to pandemic situation . EUROGEO 2021 had the theme “Sustainable Development Goals for all”.  More than 100 presentations were given by participants from 47 countries.
More details about this conference

In June 2021, the GEOLAND project partner Atlantis Engineering SA took part in the EU Science & Innovation days event where the project was mentioned as part of an interesting interaction with policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and citizens . Collaboration, Research and Innovation were at the forefront in order to explore ways to recover from the pandemic.
More info on the Science and Innovation days

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Remote sensing and forest landscapes

Landscape surface change can provide important information to land management organisations and conservationists, relating to environmental impacts of various types of land uses and landscape patterns, including forest landscapes.

In general, in landscape research and planning, the most commonly used remote sensing datasets are aerial and satellite images. High resolution Remote Sensing has the potential to Improve landscape monitoring and research.

Remote sensing capabilities have dramatically improved in recent years, in terms of their spatial, spectral, and temporal resolutions. Airborne imaging has also improved offering very high spatial resolutions and hyper-spectral capabilities. It has thus become a very important tool to help map, and monitor the earth surface land uses.Sentinel image Italy

Data has been made increasingly available through rom state-of-the-art European initiatives like the Copernicus Open Access initiative and the processing capabilities such as Sentinel Hub..In parallel there have been signifiant breakthroughs in Cloud Computing, machine learning, data processing and software engineering which have made Earth observation data applicable to landscape monitoring as they offer powerful capabilities to assess landscape changes at different scales and investigate environmental relationships.

Forest monitoring is one such area that has benefited from improving Earth observation systems. Understanding ecological processes at these scales is key to many critical issues in forest planning, conservation and environmental design. Rigorous and innovative strategies are being applied for analysing remote sensing data and linking with other ground-based and non-spatial information.

European Union agencies and member states need to have access to the best-possible data, from multiple (public and private) data sources to enable the state of Europe’s forests to be assessed and its overall biodiversity researched. With the implementation of the EU 2030 Biodiversity Strategy and the EU Forest Strategy, it can be argued that landscape monitoring education as devised by the GEOLAND Project has never been so important.

Find out more