European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity EIONET consultation on SEBI process Sophie Condé ETC/BD, Katarzyna Biala EEA

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity Questionnaire sent in May countries answered Questionnaire on the SEBI process, not on the indicators

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity 1.Albania Belgium (Flanders) Croatia Cyprus Czec Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France FYROM Germany Ireland Italy Kosovo Netherlands Norway Poland Serbia Slovakia Slovenia Switzerland United-Kingdom

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity Question 1 Did the SEBI initiative help you to support the development of your national set? (eg helped to convince political or administrative level about the importance of indicators for carrying out biodiversity assessments) Question 2 Did the SEBI initiative help you to support any technical developments? (ie definition of the national set, methodological guideline,…) Question 3 Did the SEBI initiative help you to support reinforcing biodiversity data collection?

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity 63% agree the SEBI initiative help them to support the development of their set. “The SEBI-initiative was one convincing reason, to establish a national indicator system as part of the National Strategy on Biological Diversity” “Yes, by operationalizing the global and EU targets into a set of indicator headlines” “As the SEBI is an initiative on European level, it was set as the minimum for comparative initiative for development of National Biodiversity Indicators and it was accepted as such on decision-making level. “ “ Not yet. We have since 1995 a biodiversity monitoring programme which has been used to gather information on state, pressures and response of biodiversity “. “ We had already established a national set of indicators. Our national indicator set partly coincides with SEBI set – some indicators are the same, but most indicators are similar. “

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity 82% estimate SEBI initiative helped for technical development by exchange with other European experts and organisations or by using methodological guidelines. “Methodological guidelines for several indicators have been used as a basis for the development of national indicators ” “SEBI definitions of indicators, their descriptions and relevant methodology helped us to define these indicators on national level; we used SEBI initiative as much as possible, in order to make national indicators compatible with SEBI” “ No, there is already quite a lot experience on technical developments available. “. “ SEBI indicators haven't been applied directly in the decision making but the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shows interest.. “

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity Only 59% express SEBI has helped to reinforce data collection. “Although Biodiversity data collection started before the SEBI initiative, this SEBI initiative stimulated data collection to develop new indicators, corresponding to the SEBI definition. ” “SEBI initiative represented strong argument to promote and organise biodiversity relevant collection of data ” “ No, as data would have been collected anyway. But SEBI represents an additional reason to do it. “. “ Most of our biodiversity data collection processes were in place before the SEBI initiative “

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity Question 4 In your opinion, what should be the priorities in the post phase of SEBI for the indicator set? Question 5 In your opinion, what should be the priorities in the post phase of SEBI for the SEBI process?

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity Future of the SEBI set of indicators First priority “Refining the set in view of the new targets” (44%) “Reinforcing the Ecosystem Services approach” (28%) Second priority “Reinforcing the sectoral approach” (40%) Third priority “Increasing the geographical coverage” ( 40%)

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity Future of the SEBI process First priority “Increasing dissemination of SEBI findings,…” (36%) Second priority “Strengthening stakeholder involvement” (48%)

European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity Many thanks for your encouraging comments and remarks We will make the best use as much as possible!