The diversity of life is valuable: It guarantees people goods and services such as clean water, food and raw materials. Biodiversity is the basis for health and a stable environment. Diverse habitats mitigate the effects of climate change, secure yields in agriculture, and increase the attractiveness of locations. One of the key challenges is to reconcile the goals of national and international biodiversity agreements with the often competing objectives of climate, energy, agricultural and economic policies.

The Leibniz Research Network Biodiversity (Leibniz Biodiversity) combines the expertise of 18 Leibniz institutions in the environmental, social, life, spatial, and economic sciences as well as the humanities to develop sustainable solutions.

10 Must Knows from Biodiversity Science 2024

In the 10 Must Knows from Biodiversity Science 2024, 64 scientists have further developed their well-founded and diverse analyses of the 10MustKnows22. The content of the ten selected key areas of the Earth-human system is supplemented by relevant publications from 2022 and 2023 and linked to the 23 global goals of the Kunming-Montreal Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted in December 2022. The authors are aware that the next six years until 2030 are essential for achieving an ecologically sustainable and socially just life on our planet in the medium and long term. With the 10MustKnows24, they want to make an active contribution to accelerating the socio-ecological transformation by providing scientifically sound recommendations for politics and society. Click here if you would like to learn more about the 10MustKnows24. You can reach the press release here.

Digital sequence information (DSI): maintaining open, free and fair access

Major European research networks and institutions have published the declaration “Maintain open, free and fair access to DSI to harness technological innovation for new solutions to global challenges”. The signatories of the declaration, developed by a cross-institutional expert panel, address the negotiators at the World Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 16) in October 2024 and call for them to consistently advocate for the preservation of open, free and fair access to digital sequence information (DSI). This unrestricted access to DSI is essential for research, and to promote solutions for shared global challenges. This spans from the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), data exchange in the One Health area, future therapies, and climate change mitigation to the promotion of new approaches to bio-based and circular economies. There is no question that DSI users should share benefits. However, the mechanism to share benefits must be obligatory, enable open science principles and be legally and technically practical.