First European FEdA Conference: Biodiversity and Human Well-Being – Europe’s Role in Shaping Our Future

Collaborative Research Data Management Support for FEdA projects
Visit our virtual booth to learn more about how the NFDI consortia KonsortSWD and NFDI4Biodiversity cooperate to help researchers manage their biological & ecological as well as their social data from Research Initiative for the Conservation of Biodiversity (FEdA) projects. You can find us by klicking on the "Exhibition" tile in the digital event lobby.

Not attending the conference, but still interested in our cooperation? Read more here.

About the event
The central importance of sustainable use and protection of biological diversity for the further development of human well-being is increasingly recognised. However, implementation remains difficult and the erosion of biodiversity and natural capital continues to progress, as the global IPBES Report 2019 and the Dasgupta Review 2021 have made clear.

There is no doubt: we need action now! To demand exactly this, thousands of representatives from diverse disciplines of science, society and economy worldwide turned recently towards national and international leaders, in open letters, public statements, or policy briefs (e.g. “A letter to fellow citizens of Earth”, “Berliner Erklärung”, “Scientists warning Europe”, “Business for Nature’s Call to Action”). But time is running out.  

High expectations are therefore linked to the “Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF)” which will be adopted at the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference of Parties (COP 15), after three postponements now scheduled for December 2022 in Montreal. In this global context, the EU is having the chance to lead the way, not least with its major sustainability project “Green Deal”. However, are these high expectations justified or do we need to be more ambitious? More specifically:

Analysed from a transdisciplinary, systemic perspective, are the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, as outlined in the available draft, and the EU Green Deal sufficient and realistic to achieve a short-term reversal of the actual biodiversity loss necessary to safeguard human wellbeing?

What is the reason for the failure of previous concepts and activities to preserve biodiversity, what can we learn from this and how can we assure the effective implementation of the intended goals?

How can synergies be created at the European and international scale, at the level of scientists and stakeholders, in order to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and thus contribute to improving human well-being?

To discuss and elucidate these questions, the BMBF Research Initiative for the Conservation of Biodiversity (Forschungsinitiative zum Erhalt der Arten­vielfalt, FEdA), funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), invites you to participate at the transdisciplinary digital conference.

To allow for a broad transdisciplinary discussion, the conference invites European scientists from all disciplines related to biodiversity, stakeholders from politics, society, economy and the media.