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Faktencheck

For decades, a decline in biodiversity has been recorded worldwide. To counteract this, rapid action and a societal transformation are necessary. This requires profound knowledge about the state of species and habitats, the direct and indirect drivers influencing them, and the consequences. The Faktencheck Artenvielfalt has set itself the task of compiling and evaluating existing knowledge on the status and development of biodiversity in Germany. In an assessment, which is being jointly compiled by around 120 authors from various institutions, key questions on the state of biodiversity in Germany are addressed for the country's most important habitats (agricultural and open land, forests, inland waters and floodplains, coasts and coastal waters, urban areas).

As part of the project management, we contribute to the coordination of the Faktencheck Artenvielfalt and support the topic "Indirect Drivers" as well as the chapter groups "Coasts and Coastal Waters" and "Urban Areas". However, the focus of our work is on the topic "Effectiveness of conservation measures and obstacles to implementation", in the context of which concrete nature conservation and environmental measures, agricultural measures as well as silvicultural, water management and urban planning measures are reviewed for their effectiveness. The effectiveness of official and private (economic) commitment as well as the influence of duration and scope of the measure on its effectiveness are to be examined and compared. Obstacles to implementation, which impede the use of promising measures, are also a focus of this topic. In addition, the system of protected areas in Germany is analyzed. In this context, it will be investigated how well the existing German protected areas cover the different natural areas and species groups as well as their effectiveness and potentials for the conservation of biological diversity.

PIs: Prof. Dr. Christian Wirth (University of Leipzig), Prof. Dr. Nina Farwig, Prof. Dr. Josef Settele (Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Halle) and Prof. Dr. Helge Bruelheide (Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg)

Team: Nina Farwig and Theresa Spatz

Project homepage: https://www.feda.bio/de/faktencheck-artenvielfalt/

Project funding: BMBF