Within the larger CitySoundscapes research project in Munich, which explores the relationships between urban biodiversity, sound, and wellbeing, Shared Soundscapes investigates how artistic and ethnographic practices of listening can create contact zones between researchers, residents, and other species. Through a series of co-hosted HörSalons (Listening Salons), we experiment with forms of attentiveness and hospitality that render the city audible as a multispecies habitat.
Each HörSalon is collaboratively hosted with local partners: neighborhood initiatives, artists, residents with a special connection to local aspects of sound and hearing, and environmental NGOs. Designed as spaces of encounter and co-learning rather than instruction, they invite participants to engage in guided listening exercises, sound walks, and collective reflection. These practices open the city’s acoustic layers—bringing into relation the audible and the barely perceptible, the near and the distant, the human and the nonhuman, and the tools and instrumentarium of bioacoustic research. By attending to sound together, participants experience how listening itself can foster reciprocal awareness and ecological sensitivity.
An example is the Insect Buzz HörSalon, co-hosted with BUND Naturschutz in a conservation area near Munich’s Harlaching Hospital. Here, the buzz of grasshoppers merged with the rhythmic drone of rescue helicopters, making audible the coexistence of emergency and abundance within shared urban space. Participants described a sense of calm and connection emerging from collective listening and the recognition of intertwined habitats.
Through these co-hosted acts of hospitality, Shared Soundscapes develops listening as an ethnographic and artistic method for cultivating multispecies attention. The HörSalons demonstrate how creating hospitable conditions for listening can generate situated, affective knowledge about biodiversity, while inviting citizens to experience urban environments as shared, more-than-human soundscapes. As they are all co-hosted with local city dwellers, initiatives, and NGO's, they also weave a net of relations around the topic of listening that moves far beyond a simple transfer of knowlege from institutions to the "outside world": they create conditions for creating knowledge together.
How to cite: Schmitt, S. and Petroschkat, K.: Co-Hosting Shared Soundscapes: Practices of Listening and Hospitality in the Multispecies City, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-51, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-51, 2026.
Our deteriorating relationship with nature is a fundamental driver of the biodiversity crisis. The disconnection from nature can reduce people’s willingness to care for nature or engage in pro-biodiversity conservation behaviors. If we are to achieve the transformative change required to reverse threats to biodiversity and promote a biodiversity-positive future, we must strengthen people’s connection to and care for biodiversity – especially in cities where a majority of the human population lives and may experience nature and biodiversity. Thus, strengthening nature connection can be achieved by designing cities that support biodiversity and foster frequent as well as meaningful nature experiences. Yet, the ecological transformation of the city requires evidence-based interventions to support biodiversity, as well as coordinated efforts among city actors using transdisciplinary approaches. In our project ‘BioDivHubs – bringing biodiversity into the neighborhood’ in Munich, Germany, we collaborate with urban gardeners, neighborhood residents, urban greening organizations, environmental educators and government agencies to develop, implement and evaluate biodiversity conservation interventions with and for both people and nature. Community gardens and their surroundings are our “living laboratory” to co-create, test and collectively implement conservation strategies with residents. This talk will present on diverse activities including a citizen science balcony greening project, community-led neighborhood greenspace rewilding, a mobile demonstration garden, and an evidence-based seed mixture to implement in different gardening and neighborhood contexts. These various activities represent different interventions for biodiversity conservation that interface ecological research and praxis. These activities also represent different forms of human-nature interactions that incorporate ecology, food, art, and landscape planning. Our aim is that, through peoples’ diverse experiences with biodiversity, people will be further empowered to invest in pro-biodiversity behavior, care for biodiversity, and implement more conservation interventions. We will discuss the opportunities, challenges, and successes in transdisciplinary urban biodiversity conservation. The project BioDivHubs is funded within the Federal Programme for Biological Diversity by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation with resources from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
How to cite: Egerer, M., Schoo, D., Bucher, K., Karlebowski, S., and Sturm, U.: Co-creating evidence-based conservation interventions with and for city neighborhoods, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-92, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-92, 2026.
Urbanization poses significant challenges to bird conservation, including habitat loss, illegal trade, and human-wildlife conflicts. Concurrently, it fosters a burgeoning birdwatching community, presenting a pivotal opportunity to harness public participation for conservation. This study moves beyond documenting isolated projects to propose and demonstrate a strategic, multi-dimensional framework for scaling up conservation impact through citizen science. We illustrate this framework through four interlocking initiatives that collectively address policy evaluation, on-the-ground conflict mitigation, large-scale monitoring, and long-term capacity building.
First, a nationwide survey of pet bird markets, coordinated through a network of citizen scientists, evaluated the effectiveness of a major law enforcement campaign. This unique “natural experiment” revealed that while trade of protected species declined significantly, activity shifted to unprotected species, directly informing dynamic updates to national protection lists and highlighting policy blind spots. Second, to address human-bird conflicts in agricultural landscapes, we developed “AvianNetWatch,” a WeChat-based mini-program that crowdsources data on lethal anti-bird netting. This tool generates spatially explicit threat maps, fostering stakeholder dialogue and targeting mitigation efforts. Third, to overcome critical data fragmentation, we launched the China Breeding Bird Survey (CBBS), a standardized, grid-based national monitoring network. By training volunteers in rigorous protocols, the CBBS establishes population baselines essential for early warnings of species declines, as pilot results from Guangzhou and Shenzhen demonstrate. Fourth, the “Little Egret” citizen science program serves as an entry point, cultivating ecological literacy and self-efficacy; over 23% of its participants later engaged in advanced projects like the CBBS, validating its role as a crucial pipeline for sustained engagement.
Our integrated approach demonstrates that strategic citizen science can systematically achieve scalability across three axes: in data (through standardized protocols and hybrid AI-community verification), in participation (via designed pathways from beginner to expert), and in impact (by directly linking data to policy evaluation and proactive conservation planning). This framework positions citizen science not merely as a data source, but as a transformative engine for generating actionable, evidence-based conservation outcomes in complex socio-ecological systems.
How to cite: Liang, Z., Lee, T. M., and Liu, Y.: Scaling up bird conservation through citizen science: policy assessment, conflict mitigation, and nationwide monitoring networks, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-729, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-729, 2026.
The LEPMON project is developing a nationwide, standardized monitoring system for nocturnal insects that integrates automated camera light traps (ARNI), a dedicated data platform (LAUP), and AI-supported species identification. Insects are by far the most species-rich animal group with the highest ecological and economic significance, but many studies worldwide show an alarming decline in populations. In addition, individuals can often only be identified by a few experts, and there is a lack of reliable and quantitative studies on the long-term development of populations. Butterflies (Lepidoptera) are one of the most species-rich insect groups, and most species are very good ecological indicators because of their association with specific host plants.
With this project, we want to be able to make reliable statements about changes in biodiversity both locally and regionally. To this end, we provide an end-to-end workflow that enables large-scale, continuous, and non-invasive monitoring of biodiversity in a variety of habitats, from heavily urbanized areas to remote canopy environments.
During the first field season, LEPMON deployed 42 ARNIs, which generated over 800,000 images in more than 4,600 nightly runs. This demonstrated the system's ability to deliver high-resolution, analyzable data to understand the environmental factors affecting nocturnal insects along urbanization gradients.
Citizen science plays a central role in the project's workflow. Volunteers support data collection by running their own ARNIs, providing taxonomic annotations to images, and confirming or correcting AI-generated results. To strengthen long-term engagement and broaden participation, LEPMON is exploring co-creation strategies and user-centered design to improve accessibility and user experience. As part of these efforts, we are evaluating gamification elements—such as progress indicators, contribution summaries, and optional community challenges—that can provide positive feedback and a sense of achievement without creating competitive pressure or compromising data quality. These components are being developed in collaboration with users to ensure that they promote inclusivity, motivation, and scientific relevance.
With LEPMON, we want to show how citizen scientists, supported by transparent workflows and well-thought-out engagement strategies, can make a meaningful contribution to ecological research.
How to cite: Grobe, P., Brehm, G., Bodesheim, P., van Klink, R., Koch Sheard, J., Böttger, D., Hu, H., Jampou, C., and Bräunig, C.: Co-Created Insect Monitoring: Combining Automated Sensing, AI, and Citizen Participation for Actionable Biodiversity Data, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-893, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-893, 2026.
Amid accelerating biodiversity loss and rising socio-environmental pressures in the Amazon, building effective socio-bioeconomic solutions requires collaborative structures that bridge science, innovation, local knowledge, and community engagement. This paper examines the contributions of nexBio Amazônia, a Brazil–Switzerland bilateral training program (2023–2025) designed for early-stage startups, researchers, innovation practitioners, and other stakeholders dedicated to biodiversity-oriented entrepreneurship. With its second edition now completed, the program offers timely insights into how structured capacity-building can foster inclusive, intersectoral collaboration for sustainable development.
Using a mixed-methods approach (participant observation, program evaluation data, alumni and local community and ERI actors interviews), we analyze how the program mobilizes community participation and cross-sector partnerships to strengthen science–innovation–action interfaces. Three findings stand out. First, it embeds co-design practices into its training model, enabling participants to refine problem/questions, evidence needs, and solution concepts together with Indigenous and traditional communities. This shifts community members from end-users or beneficiaries to active partners in shaping priorities and pathways.
Second, nexBio Amazônia supports reciprocal knowledge exchange, integrating scientific evidence with traditional and experiential insights to generate contextually relevant outputs such as productive inclusion, biodiversity-based value chains, and territorial development proposals. Its bilateral structure helps participants navigate common North–South asymmetries, fostering more ethical and balanced collaborations.
Third, the program enhances ecosystem connectivity by linking community actors with universities, incubators, policy institutions, and funding agencies, creating enabling conditions for sustained participation and post-program continuity.
The analysis also identifies key challenges: fragmented funding cycles that undermine long-term community partnerships, regulatory uncertainties affecting biodiversity-based ventures, and limited institutional mechanisms to maintain intersectoral collaboration once training ends. Looking forward, we argue for long-term funding commitments, improved alignment between innovation business strategies and territorial priorities, and dedicated structures to anchor community participation beyond project timelines.
Keywords: Amazon; socio-bioeconomy; biodiversity; intersectoral collaboration; bilateral training; co-design; traditional knowledge; sustainable entrepreneurship; science-innovation-action interface; long-term partnerships; North–South collaboration; innovation.
How to cite: Boanada, V., Neumann, V., and Capra, P.: Building Collaborative Capacity for Amazon Biodiversity: Achievements and Challenges of nexBio Amazônia , World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-861, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-861, 2026.
Ecosystem restoration is vital for achieving socially desirable objectives, such as halting biodiversity loss, mitigating climate change, enhancing ecological resilience, and ensuring the welfare of future generations. Despite these critical benefits, restoration efforts often face significant challenges, including slow progress, limited scalability, high costs, and uncertain outcomes. The EU Horizon A-AAGORA project seeks to address these challenges by developing transformative living labs to demonstrate large-scale coastal ecosystem restoration. These efforts focus on reducing anthropogenic pressures, implementing ecosystem-based management, and employing nature-based restoration measures. Transformative living labs serve as collaborative spaces where citizens, governments, businesses, and researchers co-create solutions, test ideas through real-world experimentation, and engage in iterative learning and feedback processes. This paper presents insights from three transformative living labs, each addressing complex restoration challenges: 1) Coastal kelp ecosystem restoration: Regenerating kelp forest ecosystems and local fish stocks while halting the decline of seabird populations. 2) Community-Led Wetland Restoration: Empowering local communities to restore wetlands and enhance ecological resilience. 3)Ria de Aveiro Lagoon: Restoring seagrass meadows and reducing anthropogenic pressures to enhance biodiversity and climate resilience. These living labs were co-led by universities and end-users to ensure effective knowledge transfer and foster stronger connections between science and practice. The living lab cycle is structured into three key phases: Co-Designing Solutions: Engaging partners to collaboratively identify challenges and develop restoration strategies. Developing and Experimenting: Testing ideas through real-world applications. Co-Evaluating: Assessing the effectiveness of solutions for addressing restoration challenges and exploring opportunities for scaling. A critical component of this process involves understanding socio-ecological systems through participatory mapping, integrating Indigenous and local ecological knowledge, and brainstorming solutions that facilitate regenerations that benefit both people and nature. The project also emphasizes the importance of building trust and local capacity, engaging multiple levels of governance, and collaborating with industry partners to ensure scalability and long-term impact. Finally, the project introduces a digital blueprint designed to facilitate the application of the living lab cycle for ecosystem-based restoration and management. This blueprint serves as a practical guide for replicating and scaling restoration efforts in other places.
How to cite: Hausner, V. H., Lillebø, A., and Verling, E.: Transformative living labs for restoring marine – and coastal ecosystems, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-482, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-482, 2026.
Despite their recognised potential, digital technologies remain underutilised in Nature-based Solutions (NbS) participatory planning due to limited interactivity, usability, and flexibility in supporting meaningful citizen engagement in urban planning. Immersive digital approaches, such as Augmented Reality (AR), have demonstrated potential to strengthen public engagement and enhance human-nature relational values by making ecological topics more tangible and interactive to the public.
This study introduces Urban Nature Together, an interactive web-app designed to engage citizens in learning about and imagining biodiverse green spaces in their cities. The web-app combines two key features: a biodiversity perception survey, which invites citizens to assess and score the biodiversity of nearby public spaces through photo submissions and their perceived biodiversity; and an AR design feature, which allows participants to explore underused spaces in cities and to visualise and digitally add plants into real-world urban settings. Together, these features aim to explore how digital interaction can enhance citizens’ understanding, perception, and awareness of urban biodiversity.
Workshops were conducted in selected neighbourhoods in Heidelberg, Germany and Dublin, Ireland, to test the tool’s effectiveness in promoting nature education and awareness of biodiverse green spaces. Preliminary findings indicate that participants found the AR visualisation intuitive and inspiring, helping them imagine biodiverse green spaces and learning about their biodiversity value in cities. The biodiversity perception survey helped them be more aware of local ecological value, changed their understanding of surrounding biodiversity, and motivated them to contribute to greening initiatives. Our findings provide evidence that immersive, user-friendly digital tools can raise public awareness of nature and support for NbS implementation through active participation.
However, several limitations are present in AR technological applications, including limited precision in location detection and element placement, which may demotivate participants from using the digital tools. Moreover, it is challenging to involve senior citizens in digital-tool-driven participatory planning, indicating the need for future studies to investigate potential solutions, such as providing technical guidance and assistance for senior participants during on-site workshop engagement.
How to cite: Qiu, Y. and Istrate, A.: Urban Nature Together Web-App for Nature Education: An Augmented-Reality-Based Approach to Enhancing Public Awareness and Imagination of Urban Biodiverse Green Spaces , World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-147, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-147, 2026.
In 2017 a public/private collaboration known as “Wild SpotterTM” was established to expand the operational capacity to address the loss of biodiversity and slow the ecosystem degradation from the harmful effects of aquatic and terrestrial invasive alien species (IAS). In part, the Wild Spotter program includes a citizen science component coupled with technology for identifying and locating/reporting invasions with high-accuracy, and related biodiversity impacts. It is structured to advance and strengthen community engagement, expand partnerships, broaden environmental education and awareness, and build capacity for local action. It is highly scalable and initially focused on protected natural areas, special designation areas (such as wilderness or wild & scenic rivers), and research natural areas to address IAS impacts to the environment and economies. But by 2019 the use of the Wild Spotter program expanded globally, requiring several technical design changes and broadening all program components and functionality. Wild Spotter participants and partners also highlighted the need for a community organizer training component. In response, the “Wild Spotter Ambassadors Training” was added in 2023. Prospective Ambassadors are selected through a formal application process. The first class of Ambassadors hailed from the United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Canada, New Zealand, and three Indigenous Nations in North America. Since then, dozens of people across four continents have become certified Ambassadors. The curriculum doesn’t focus on IAS control or management techniques, but rather trainees gain advanced skills for expanding non-traditional partnerships and promoting co-design decision-making, sourcing project funding and material support, bettering volunteer recruitment and oversight, improving relationships between public and private sectors, and boosting communication and marketing networks for environmental action. Each year, the program complements and promotes the goals of “Invasives Free” initiatives around the world; emphasizing grass-roots action, monitoring, co-design and community engagement to protect and restore the health and functionality of native ecosystems and related biodiversity in any area. Wild Spotter continues to help advance community involvement against IAS threats and improve collaborative stewardship of public and private lands with the help of trained Ambassadors, increasing the number of community partnerships supporting biodiversity and a ‘one-health’ approach to conservation.
How to cite: Ielmini, M. and Wallin, G.: WILD SPOTTERTM – Empowering People in Communities Against Invasive Alien Species to Protect Native Biodiversity in Wild Places., World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-304, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-304, 2026.
Successful implementation of biodiversity measures, and thus, effective biodiversity protection, hinges upon coordination between researchers and conservation practitioners. However, because of a disconnect between these two groups, reaching conservation targets often falls short. Although researchers and practitioners share similar goals, they hold diverse perspectives, values, and experiences. Knowledge synthesis and research-practice co-creation is therefore a useful approach for bridging the so-called “evidence-implementation gap”. This approach brings researchers and practitioners into direct dialogue for knowledge exchange at all project stages, including problem framing, content development, and dissemination of synthesis products.
We present a case example of a co-creative process between biodiversity researchers and conservation practitioners in Switzerland, with the goal of developing synthesis products on the topic of improving habitat connectivity. Habitat fragmentation is a major threat to biodiversity in Switzerland, and the scientific literature is rich with studies describing its consequences. However, direct, actionable implementation advice is often not included in these studies or is at best only implied. Additionally, the topic is of particular importance to Swiss conservation practitioners because of its relevance to government-mandated Ecological Infrastructure planning. In a working group comprised of practitioners and researchers, we synthesized the scientific literature with the goal of summarizing best practices and advice for implementation of solutions to habitat connectivity barriers. In a companion report, we compiled a practitioner guide to habitat connectivity planning using spatial modeling software and an accompanying dataset on dispersal distances for dozens of indicator species. We found several examples where implementation-relevant information could be gleaned from the scientific literature, and we propose a framework for researchers to increase the practical applicability of their findings. We also highlight challenges brought on by the co-creative process, namely: how to promote an inclusive process while avoiding stakeholder fatigue, how to incorporate divergent perspectives and feedback, and issues brought on by coordination across multiple institutions.
How to cite: Richman, S., Bussmann-Charran, K., Camichel, A., Gindorf, S., Pärli, R., and Steinegger, L.: Improving habitat connectivity for biodiversity conservation: The benefits of co-creation with conservation practitioners, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-574, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-574, 2026.
It is undisputed: the preservation and promotion of biodiversity are essential for a sustainable future, yet global losses are accelerating. To efficiently tackle this, science, policymakers, and practitioners should engage closely with one another to clarify what questions need answering. However, reality paints a different picture. We zoom in on Switzerland. Several policy–science initiatives exist, but the science–practice connection remains comparatively weak. This is where the Translational Centre Biodiversity (TCBC) steps in, using knowledge synthesis and capacity-building to identify gaps that hamper effective biodiversity promotion and to close them together with practice partners.
One recently identified gap revealed through interviews concerns dialogue competence between certain cantonal nature conservation offices and farmers. This phenomenon can be observed particularly when the canton designates agricultural land to be legally placed under protection for nature conservation. Ideally, a cantonal staff member visits the farmer managing the designated plot, explains the decision and its implications, outlines management changes, clarifies compensation, and the agreement is accepted. Nature protected. On to the next plot.
If only it were that simple. Although the procedure is carried out as described, many farmers react with resistance. They feel disempowered, not included in the decision-making process, deprived of their life’s mission of producing food, and cannot comprehend why exactly this plot should now be placed under protection when it served perfectly well for grazing their livestock. The rest is easy to imagine: harsh words, legal disputes, hardened fronts. This helps neither people nor biodiversity. TCBC wants to change that.
We aim to co-create shared ground. A cohort of cantonal staff (especially those without agronomic training) and farmer partners are co-designing and piloting a modular learning journey: foundational agricultural literacy adapted from a Swiss agricultural knowledge organization; a dialogue block from an agricultural–environmental consultancy; and a facilitated workshop to rehearse real cases. The process is end-to-end participatory, including needs assessment, joint material adaptation, design workshops, pilot delivery to selected cantons, and iterative feedback to refine and scale.
This co-creation is designed to fill trust gaps, not data gaps, so that the distance from decision to action can be shortened.
How to cite: Steinegger, L., Camichel, A., Bussmann-Charran, K. B.-C., Pärli, R., Richman, S., and Gindorf, S.: To Action through Trust: Agriculture and Nature Protection in Dialogue, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-616, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-616, 2026.
Biodiversity loss erodes ecological resilience and threatens the long-term viability of agricultural systems, yet monitoring efforts remain fragmented, costly, and difficult to scale. The project, KICS-ZERT, addresses these limitations by integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with citizen science to establish a practical, smartphone-based framework for assessing biodiversity and ecosystem structures. Citizen science, understood as the contribution of lay people to scientific research, has become essential for filling spatial and temporal data gaps and for enabling scaling that conventional research teams cannot achieve. By leveraging widespread smartphone use and recent advances in AI, the project tests whether lightweight, device-agnostic data collection combined with open-source models can produce a more consistent evidence base for biodiversity certification and CSRD-aligned corporate reporting. The approach integrates species identification and structural habitat assessment into a single workflow, reducing reliance on specialized equipment and expert-only field campaigns that often fail to operate at landscape scales. A key output is a scientifically validated indicator list suitable for certification and reporting contexts, addressing the current methodological inconsistency of industry practices.
The project also investigates the social and operational dimensions of participatory monitoring, examining how citizen engagement, co-creation with nonacademic partners, and heterogeneous data inputs affect data quality, acceptance, and feasibility. While citizen science can generate large volumes of observations, upscaling introduces risks related to uneven coverage, variable expertise, and potential overconfidence in AI-generated classifications. KICS-ZERT therefore scrutinizes these constraints rather than assuming that participatory data or AI ensures reliability. Embedding the resulting tool into an online marketplace for nature-positive projects enables companies to use these assessments to estimate ecological impacts in supply chains, albeit with critical attention to uncertainty and interpretability. Partnerships with research institutions, NGOs, and citizen-science networks provide diverse datasets and testing grounds for evaluating the limits of real-world deployment.
Through the combined development of AI models, ecological validation, and participatory methods, KICS-ZERT aims to produce a realistic and technically grounded contribution to biodiversity assessment without inflating the capabilities of current AI technologies or overlooking the complexities of citizen-driven data collection.
How to cite: Ryo, M., Zhou, Y., Petrat, P., Amaya Hernández, L. M., Schiller, J., Perennes, M., Matzdorf, B., Glemnitz, M., Kronenbitter, J., Hörmann, S., and Lösing, L.: AI- and citizen science-supported biodiversity monitoring, reporting, and certification, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-470, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-470, 2026.
Natural history museums play a central role in communicating biodiversity to the public and act as an interface between scientific knowledge production, educational practice, and societal outreach. To foster sustainable biodiversity awareness, these institutions increasingly integrate citizen science and other participatory formats into their communication strategies. When combined with educational formats and regional and national biodiversity monitoring activities, such approaches not only broaden participation but also create meaningful opportunities for diverse stakeholder groups to contribute to and engage with biodiversity knowledge.
Drawing on practical experience with different participatory monitoring formats flanked by educational work, we present a set of methodological tools that support effective and inclusive biodiversity communication in natural history museums. These tools include accompanying research, coordination and outreach of participatory projects to effectively involve stakeholders, citizen science based educational programs (e.g., Bioblitzes, Nature Challenge Competitions), and the high importance of developing topic-specific networks within and beyond the museum that facilitate iterative exchange and mutual learning between professional scientists and the public. A key focus is placed on connecting the expertise of museum scientists, educators, local communities, and other societal actors through collaborative data collection, co-design processes, and targeted communication initiatives that link museum-based activities with ongoing biodiversity monitoring efforts.
Particular attention is given to mechanisms that promote coordinated dialogue, ensure transparency in scientific processes, and align institutional goals with stakeholder needs. In this context, long-term partnerships with topic-specific networks, citizen science communities, and the broader public not only enhance the relevance and inclusivity of biodiversity communication but also strengthen the role of the natural history museum as an accessible, trustworthy, and collaborative hub for biodiversity knowledge which is increasingly co-generated with the support of volunteers.
How to cite: Nöske, N. and Waskow, K.: Communicating Biodiversity through Participatory Monitoring combined with Education and Stakeholder Engagement– Best Practices from a Natural History Museum, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-768, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-768, 2026.
Biological invasions drive biodiversity loss and result in significant economic costs. The pond slider (Trachemys scripta) is classified as an invasive alien species (IAS) in the European Union. Non-native terrapins have become widespread in Germany, and genetic evidence confirms the reproduction of three species and their establishment in the wild (Tietz et al., 2023). However, the ecological impact of these terrapins on freshwater ecosystems remains poorly quantified, leaving authorities without a robust basis for prioritising management. The AquaSchild project brings together scientists, authorities, and society to compile ecological and social evidence on non-native terrapins in water bodies of varying ecological value, assess the risks associated with different habitats, and co-develop prevention-first management strategies. In Baden-Württemberg, we are implementing an evidence sprint that combines standardised terrapin surveys in two contrasting water bodies with DNA metabarcoding of diets, parasites, and pathogens. This will enable us to characterise trophic and pathogen-mediated impacts between two water bodies with differing conservation values, and develop a habitat-risk ranking that highlights habitat types where the establishment of invasive terrapins is of particular concern. In parallel, a survey of stakeholders, including official authorities, planning offices, NGOs, the pet trade and citizen science coordinators, will assess their knowledge and perceived feasibility of management measures, and reveal implementation barriers. Subsequently, we will synthesise the ecological and social findings during co-design workshops. This will result in a practical management decision tree and associated standard operating procedures for the removal and handling of non-native terrapins. Targeted communication tools will be produced for the relevant authorities, the pet trade, and citizen scientists, together with a policy brief on management needs in Germany that will inform the Standing IAS Committee and embed these tools in national governance. Collectively, these outputs will provide a blueprint for the prevention-focused management of non-native terrapins, before they become invasive, which could be extended to other vertebrate species under the EU IAS Regulation. This will contribute to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) and other biodiversity strategies.
How to cite: Meka, J., Penner, J., and Vamberger, M.: AquaSchild: Evidence-based Management of Non-native Terrapins in Germany, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-118, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-118, 2026.
Although citizen science (CS) is a well-established topic in biodiversity, its policy impact remains inconsistent across scales, local to EU level. The BioAgora project aims to connect the biodiversity research with the needs of policy making through the development of fair and functional Science Service. In doing so, it aims to integrate citizen science as a vital component of biodiversity decision making and governance. Our work explores how citizen science initiatives contribute to transformative biodiversity action by engaging local communities, generating high-quality environmental data, and what can foster and hinder the interaction with policy process. At the same time this work aims to highlight the transformative potential of citizen science in its ability to democratize knowledge production, empower diverse stakeholders, and respond to the current biodiversity challenges.
The current work presents insights from the BioAgora project, designed to strengthen the science-policy-society interface, integrating citizen science as an integral aspect of biodiversity governance. Drawing on empirical insights from the project, we illustrate the linkage between citizen science and policy in domains such as marine, freshwater, pollination and nature-based solution.
In doing so, CS projects and infrastructures were mapped. In addition, criteria based on the existing literature were developed to assess the policy interaction and impact of the citizen science projects. Based on the criteria, semi structured interviews and online survey was developed and administered.
Our findings emphasize, what is needed to better connect citizen science to policy needs while ensuring data quality, interoperability, and mutual learning. We also discuss barriers and opportunities for scaling up citizen science to maximize its impact on biodiversity decision-making. By positioning citizen science as a key enabler of transformative change, this work aims to advance discussions on how participatory approaches such as CS can drive more effective and inclusive biodiversity policymaking and support in bridging the gap between science, policy and society.
This work was supported by Bioagora, Grant Number 101059438
How to cite: Sharma, N. and Veronesi, L.: Connecting Citizen Science to policy for transformative biodiversity action: insights from Bioagora , World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Davos, Switzerland, 14–19 Jun 2026, WBF2026-194, https://doi.org/10.5194/wbf2026-194, 2026.
