Local "Assessment" of Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity in the Bonn Area

In and around Bonn, there is a unique concentration of local, regional, national and international actors in the field of biodiversity research and conservation. They include various institutions such as international organizations, relevant university institutes and facilities, several federal ministries and subordinate authorities, in addition to numerous other important actors of different stripes. With almost 60 member institutions from the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg region, BION bundles extensive knowledge and know-how in the field of biodiversity.

The aim of the pilot project is to investigate, with the expertise of the BION partners, the data situation on the key qualitative and quantitative indicators for biodiversity and ecosystem services in order to derive statements on the status and trends in this area for the Bonn region. In this context, it must also be clarified to what extent the available data are sufficient for a realistic assessment.

The work packages include the identification of sources and assessment-relevant data on ecosystem services and biodiversity in the Bonn/Rhein-Sieg region, the corresponding cataloguing and mapping with the establishment of a database, the identification of significant data gaps and deficits of the available data as well as a discussion of the results in the context of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Decade of Biodiversity 2011-2020, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as the work program of the World Biodiversity Council IPBES.

The project is managed by the Nees Institute for Plants at the University of Bonn together with the International Center for Sustainable Development (IZNE) at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences.