METLA Project 832902

Linking Pan-European Landcover Change to Pressures on Biodiversity, BIOPRESS

[  Suomeksi  |  Objectives  |  Project leader  |  Researchers  |  METLA Research  ]

Duration: 2003-2005   Keywords: Natura 2000, aerial photo, biodiversity, biodiversity, , change detection, global monitoring, pressures on biodiversity models
Research Program: National Forest Inventory

Objectives

A project under EESD-GMES Program by an international consortium of 7 partners lead by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Monks Wood (CEH Monks Wood), United Kingdom:

Background

The European environment is continually undergoing change caused by a combination of socio-economic and climatic processes at global to local level. To protect the environment and ensure sustainable use of natural resources a wide variety of national and international legal mechanisms (e.g. Amsterdam Treaty 1997, Habitats Directive, EU Common Agricultural Policy and Kyoto Protocol) have been established which in their turn have spurred on a wide range of environmental monitoring activities. Today Europe urgently needs to consolidate these monitoring efforts. The GMES initiative aims at achieving this ‘European capacity for Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security’ by 2008. BIOPRESS will help realize this ambitious goal.

General Focus

The focus of BIOPRESS is to develop a standardised product that will be extendable to Europe. The proposed product will link measures of historical (1950 – 2000) land cover change to pressures on biodiversity and is aimed at the EU-user community concerned with the impact of land cover/use changes on the environment and biodiversity. The proposed activities of the project are geared to the activities of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and European Topic Centres (ETC’s) and support the further development of Community Information Systems for nature, biodiversity and forests.

Main Objectives