1. Florian Wetzel, EU BON Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability 2016 GEO Work Programme Symposium Breakout Session Report 4 May 2016

2. Introduction Agenda - Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability 1. Reports of activities – SBA overview Ecosystem Accounting GEO BON GECO GEO-GNOME GFOI GEO Wetlands 2. Addressing the four objectives 3. Wrap-up 2

3. Breakout Tasks 1. Discuss the key objectives for the SBA. 2. Recommend activities for 2017-2019 Work Programme, fill gaps. 3. Recommend data, information and knowledge to be provided via the GEO Portal. 4. Recommend a structure to support … SBA User Needs Process (GD-08) GEO Knowledge Base Development (GD-09) 3

4. 1) Evaluate SBA Objectives and (2) identify missing activities  Purpose 1: Evalute the objectives for the SBA “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability” Communities and institutions User needs and policies Applications  Purpose 2: Identify missing activities in the work programme 4

5. The SBA (from Strategic Plan) GEO will advocate the value of Earth observations, engage communities and deliver data and information in support of: Biodiversity and Ecosystem Sustainability: by bridging multiple types of observation data and knowledge to provide information on the health of Earth’s biological and ecological systems and their services to society; in order to strengthen conservation, restoration and sustainable use of ecosystems and biodiversity, including marine planning and ocean use, and forest management, in response to changes in climate and land use, through science-society collaborations at local, national, regional and global levels. 5 GEO Strategic Plan 2016-2025: Implementing GEOSS

6. 1.) & 2.) Discussion outcomes Create 1-2 page annotation for the text in the strategic plan, including information such as:  Understand and predict how and why biodiversity, ecosystems and their services are changing over local, regional and global scales, from year to year, decade to decade and into the future.  Identify the users and develop the tools needed to create products and services required.  Because earth has many types of ecosystems and each has their own community this SBA should strive to connect them.  Develop and apply models to better understand and predict biodiversity and ecosystem change. 6

7. 1.) & 2.) Discussion outcomes II  Each activity should support capacity building where needed.  Identify dormant activities and….  Identify areas for collaboration - but prioritize, then focus only on those for which resources are available. 7

8. 3) GEO Portal Recommendations  What data do we want from the GEO Portal? Key datasets, providers Data, information, knowledge  Prioritize support for heterogeneous (different data providers) and multi-disciplinary (ecological, socio- economic) searches.  Outcome needs to be harmonized (across regions, data types and sources).  Community portals from various communities should have the same look and feel 8

9. 4) GEO Requirements Development  How to support the requirements development process SBA User Needs Process (GD-08): “Systematic determination of user needs / observational gaps” GEO Knowledge Base Development (GD-09) All the initiatives need to get together to talk about the data that they need / use – cross pollination GEOSS / GCI Document is a good starting point (provides top-level view, to add in lower level requirements) – top down framework. 9

10. 4) GEO Requirements Development Existing activities already understand many user requirements, these need to be coordinated across activities and SBAs – bottom up. Give the users something to respond to (Mock-up, demonstration etc.) to better articulate their requirements. Suggestion was made to combine GD-02 + GD-07 + GD- 08 Clearly show connection between data / products and policy needs and verify its actually used. 10

11. Thanks for the discussions and your input! 11