The Biodiversity Assessment Tools Project

Papilio machaon, a swallowtail butterfly found in most European countries. Photo: U. Wasem (WSL)

• WSL is a partner in the BioAssess project co-funded by the European Union.

The Biodiversity Assessment Tools Project will develop and test various indicators of biodiversity, ranging from biological to remote sensing, as tools to help conserve biodiversity, in relation to changing land use patterns. It will concentrate on the drivers recently identified, namely Agriculture, Forestry, Regional Policies, Transport and Energy, and Tourism, to test their impacts on biodiversity in Grassland, Woodland and Arable ecosystems. The overall project objective is to develop a tool box for assessing the impacts of policies on biodiversity in Europe. In addition the project is measuring the impact of land-use change on biodiversity across Europe’s biogeographic regions.

The main objectives of the project are

• To establish a policy framework for developing biodiversity assessment tools
  
• To select potential indicators to assess changes in biodiversity within Europe, taking into account
  
• To produce sets of biodiversity assessment tools to assess changes in biodiversity within Europe
  
• To disseminate information on biodiversity assessment tools for assessment (and monitoring) of biodiversity change at the local, national and European level

Contact

• Christoph Scheidegger
  

• Silvia Stofer
  

• Ariel Bergamini