Harmonising sensing capabilities and synergising societal efforts towards conservation of protected areas and biodiversity

The United Nation’s Sixteenth Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP-16) will convene in October 2024 in Cali, Colombia. It is the opportunity to assess implementations of the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) adopted in COP-15. A particular target of COP-15 GBF is to conserve at least 30% of the world’s nature by 2030. The so-called 30 × 30 action plan focuses on creation of protected areas (PAs) of lands, inland waters, coastal areas and oceans with importance for biodiversity and ecosystem functioning and services (Convention on Biodiversity, 2022). Improvement in monitoring framework and synergy in collaborative resource mobilisations are critical to achieve the GBF goals.

Rapid human-caused biodiversity loss is a global change with consequences that may exceed those of climate change (Rockström et al., 2009, Sala, et al., 2000; Turner, 2014). Biodiversity consists of a myriad species of living things on Earth, their genetic materials, communities and ecosystems in which they live. The essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) include classes of genetic composition, species population, species traits, community composition, ecosystem functioning, and ecosystem structure (Pereira et al., 2013). EBVs establish the referencing framework for systematic and standardised monitoring and assessment of biodiversity change (Jetz et al., 2019; Kissling et al., 2018).

Protected terrestrial, coastal and marine areas contain hot spots where biodiversity survives and sustain. Assessments of change in PAs and biodiversity are usually location-based, time-sensitive and scale-dependent. Often PAs are situated in transition zones with natural and anthropogenic boundaries, such as national borders and geopolitical margins, natural barriers of coastal lines, mountain ranges, watersheds, elevation zones, and ecotones. Therefore, unified approaches to facilitating monitoring and assessment are in demand to deal with complexities of transition zones across spatial and temporal and energy scales under the framework of EBVs. Protocols and tools with flexibility to accommodate temporal variations in density and frequency of historical data and records, current and future samplings in scalable monitoring and assessment are needed in harmonised processes.

Remote sensing has been proven effective in monitoring landscape dynamics of PAs and the habitats. Various passive and active Earth observation (EO) sensors, hyperspectral capacities, LiDAR, drone imaging, proximal sensing and ground-based sensing networks have been applied in monitoring exercises. Revolutionised observational capabilities are advancing methodologies and data products with ever improving accuracy and precision (Hanan & Anchang, 2020; Pettorelli et al., 2014; Turner et al., 2003). Rapid development of orbital EO, advancement of computing facilities and power, accessible open-source data and global collaborations catalyse research and innovation. Harmonising monitoring data and tools is the key to produce scalable products of indicators under the framework of EBVs in assessment of change. For example, DNA sequencing and metabarcoding have been proven to be valuable for biodiversity monitoring (Creer et al., 2016; Eastwood et al., 2024). Harmonising data from environmental DNA (eDNA) for tracing microorganisms and from orbital sensors for mapping macrophytes can reveal functional diversity in marine PAs and submerged coastal environment. Harmonisations of data from EO, field-based observations, and molecular diagnostic testing enable cross disciplinary investigation and scalable resolutions for monitoring biomes from genes to landscape and seascape.

Data integration is always among the hurdles. Data consistency, transparency, sharing and efficiency are always among challenges in monitoring and assessment of global PAs and the biodiversity. For example, approaches in multiplatform and multisource data fusion, deep learning, artificial intelligence, multistep modelling, species distribution modelling have pioneered and applied in mapping and change analyses.

Successful conservations depend on synergetic efforts from all societal sectors. The existence, uniqueness, characteristics and change of PAs and the biodiversity are shaped by intertwined past and present drivers of the Earth system in atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, planetary change, which have been and are being imposed by accumulative impacts from human activities. Evidence-based policy and decision-making must directly engage with scientific research, technological innovation, societal responses and political wills of all the parties to achieve a sustainable humanity on our home planet (Figure 1).

Figure 1. This figure sketches a conceptual understanding towards harmonising sensing capabilities and synergising societal efforts in conservation of protected areas (PAs) and the biodiversity. Selected photos illustrate the relevance and sensitivity of species and communities and ecosystems to the classes of essential biodiversity variables (EBVs). The photos and places include (a) sea fans (The Great Barrier Reef, Australia); (b) macrophytes (Hawaii); (c) Hawaiian Green Sea Turtle (Kahe Point, Oahu); (d) platypus (Tasmania); (e) alpine peat marsh (Qinghai Tibet Plateau); (f) Boreal Forest (Interior Alaska); (g) Montane Forest (Southern slope, Mt. Kilimanjaro); (h) subalpine tundra (Changbai Mt., China); (i) fungi (Swiss Alps); (j) pollinator with pollen pockets (Rhode Island); (k) kea - alpine parrot (South Island, New Zealand); (l) Siberian cranes wintering in Poyang Lake, Lower Yangtze River Basin; (m) Magellanic Penguins (Los Pingüinos Natural Monument, Chile); (n) Siberian tiger (Northeast China); (o) polar bear mother and cubs (the Hudson Bay). (photo credits: Yeqiao Wang, Michael Luu, Annie Wang).