Project
MOTIVATE – Monitoring Of Terrestrial habitats by Integrating Vegetation Archive Time series in Europe
Biodiversity changes in Europe
Reversing the biodiversity crisis requires precise tracking of the long-term patterns and drivers of biodiversity change.
Based on the Habitats Directive (HD, Council Directive 92/43/EEC), the monitoring programme of Annex 1 habitats is by far the most comprehensive and consistent monitoring approach in Europe
Yet, although effective biodiversity monitoring is a key element of EU environmental legislation, the applied monitoring assessments vary across countries, with gaps in data on habitat quality, extent, and biodiversity changes.
About MOTIVATE
In MOTIVATE, we aim to enhance the characterization and reporting of European habitats and plant biodiversity trends, bringing together expertise in vegetation science, biodiversity modeling, remote sensing, and human geography.
By compiling and and analysing vegetation-plot time series data from the ReSurveyEurope database, MOTIVATE strives to
- produce detailed biodiversity trend estimates for major European habitat types and species of interest
- reveal current gaps in plot-level biodiversity monitoring
- use remote sensing to upscale current biodiversity trends to the European level
- build capacities and data pipelines for ongoing data collection
- secure the involvement of future generations in the continued sampling of vegetation-plot time-series
Living archives: expert opinions and stakeholder perspectives
Knowledge exchange among expert surveyors, different stakeholders together with participatory, citizen science approaches will help understanding how biodiversity data can be integrated with broader public perceptions. This will improve how monitoring data is put into practice by decision-makers
Get involved
Would you like to participate in data collection in the future or make data that has already been collected available? Then get involved now!