Biodiversity assessment experts meeting 2020

The biodiversity assessment experts held a meeting which focussed on detailing the plans for indicator assessments for the Quality Status Report (QSR) 2023 from 14-16 December 2020. Work is well underway to update assessments of the common indicators which were assessed for the first time as a component of the Intermediate Assessment 2017. The aim is to expand several of these indicators to additional OSPAR Regions for the QSR 2023 to provide a more complete picture of status of biodiversity in the North East Atlantic than ever before. Furthermore, work is ongoing to develop new candidate indicators to cover elements of marine biodiversity which has not been assessed by OSPAR previously.

The ICG-COBAM experts discussed how to prepare for assessments that link the knowledge we have on the status of biodiversity with information on the pressures created through human activities. The ICG-EcoC group presented a concept for how this could be achieved, and further dialogue will result in new and important thematic assessment outputs for the QSR 2023.

More information our biodiversity and ecosystems subgroups can be found here https://www.ospar.org/work-areas/bdc