My trip to Europe to build partnerships for biodiversity science and policy

Prof Andrew Gonzalez in front of the European Space Agency in Rome, Italy.

by Prof Andrew Gonzalez

Since COP15 in Montreal, new partnerships are being formed worldwide to support the action needed to achieve the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. I enjoy building partnerships, it is one of the best parts of my job, but I cannot stress enough the importance of meeting people in person to build trust and have stimulating and creative discussions about the future. While technology has made it easier to communicate with others across the globe, there is no substitute for face-to-face interactions.

It was for this reason that I took a trip to Europe in my role as co-Chair of GEO BON. I visited partners and colleagues in four cities in ten days. It all started in Rome where I visited the Centre for Earth Observation (also known as the European Space Research Institute or ESRIN) at the European Space Agency in Frascati (Rome). ESRIN is dedicated to research involving earth observation data taken from satellites. There I met with Marc Paganini and the team working on Earth observation for biodiversity. This is a fast-expanding knowledge frontier with many opportunities for space agencies to work with the research community. We identified several ways to support collaboration between ESA and GEO BON (e.g., how we can detect change in Essential Biodiversity Variables from space?).

I then flew to Zurich to meet with colleagues at the University of Zurich. I was hosted by Cornelia Krug of Future Earth and GEO BON. There I gave a seminar on detection and attribution of biodiversity change. I had the pleasure of meeting many graduate students and postdocs who asked many probing questions about this topic. I also had the pleasure of talking with the President of the University of Zurich, Michael Schaepman, where we discussed ideas for collaboration with McGill University on the theme of biodiversity science and Earth observation.

After a precious weekend with my family in London, I went on to Geneva where I met with the executive director of GEO, Yana Gevorgyan, and her team at the secretariat. We discussed avenues for collaboration on a new Atlas for Ecosystems and opportunities to work together to build a Global Biodiversity Observing System. I also met with Tom Brooks (Chief Scientist) and PJ Stephenson (Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission) at the headquarters of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Gland, just a short train ride from Geneva. I am excited about a new collaboration on the relationship between EBVs and criteria for the Red List of threatened species.

I acknowledge that taking flights is a burden for our climate, so when I do travel, I try to meet as many partners as possible.  The trip was a huge success because it allowed me to have slow and thoughtful face-to-face conversations that are difficult with videocalls. I came home with a host of ideas and partnership that I hope will serve GEO BON and our partners long into the future.