The Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD) just published a science for policy brief presenting the state of play and the future steps for the EU Biodiversity Strategy (EU BDS) dashboard as of April 2024.

In terms of updates compared to the last brief published at the end of 2023, six new indicators have been recently published, resulting in a dashboard containing 16 indicators to monitor progress on 8 out of the 16 EU BDS targets. The EU BDS dashboard has also undergone technical updates to make it easier to navigate and maintain.

In terms of future steps, the two indicators selected following the 4th meeting of the EU Biodiversity Platform’s Monitoring and Assessment subgroup (EUBP-MA) are planned to be published by the end of 2024 (Share of agricultural area covered with landscape features and Trends in the uptake of agro-ecological practices), as well as the two pesticide indicators previously proposed (Use and risk of chemical pesticides, Use of more hazardous pesticides).

The brief also presents two new indicators proposed to be added in the EU BDS dashboard (Natural area connectivity on land and Woody landscape features on agricultural land) as well as the indicator developed to track progress on the EU BDS commitment to unlock at least € 20 billion/year for biodiversity. These three indicators were discussed during the 5th EUBP-MA meeting on 17 April 2024, and the Commission is now analysing the feedback received on these proposals to decide whether and how these indicators should be used in the EU BDS dashboard.