At BiodivEarth, research is at the heart of what we do, helping to understand how conservation efforts can be more effective and long-lasting. That’s why, the last day of February, we gathered with our partners for a meeting focused on research to discuss where we’re headed and how we could work together to make it happen.

We all know that conservation isn’t just about protecting biodiversity today, but about ensuring the long-term resilience of the landscapes and seascapes that nurture it.

During the meeting, we talked about the big questions we want to tackle, like what makes some conservation efforts thrive over time while others struggle? How can we measure resilience in a meaningful way? And, most importantly, how can we turn research findings into concrete and practical solutions that actually help conservation stewards on the ground?

One of our major focuses is the development of a practical tool to assess resilience of management schemes, something that won’t require a massive local research team to run while still providing valuable insights.

Instead of reinventing the wheel, we’re exploring existing tools to adapt and expand their application to new conservation management schemes. We’re also considering a “resilience barometer” to track conservation success across different sites, enabling a broader perspective to identify patterns, monitor progress, and draw valuable insights. Another key takeaway? Solutions matter. It’s not enough to identify challenges, we need to be able to suggest concrete ways to improve resilience at conservation sites. That’s where our sites (or local) partners come in, sharing their expertise and on-the-ground experience to make sure our research leads to real-world impact.

One of the most inspiring parts of the meeting was seeing the level of engagement from our partners. All organizations including the United Nations University (UNU-IAS), the International Partnership for the Satoyama Initiative (IPSI), Yolda, the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR), the Resilience Partnership Institute (RPI), and the Socio-Environmental Observatory of Menorca (OBSAM) shared valuable insights, and expressed a definite interest in contributing to different aspects of the research effort such as helping refine the resilience barometer, sharing data and extracting resilience factors, or testing out new methodologies.

Now what’s next? Having taken in all this great input, we are embarking on our next steps. This means follow-up discussions with partners to precisely define the structure and operation of our research collaborative before kicking off research activities, more deep dives into existing resilience assessment tools, and site visits to test ideas in real conservation settings. We want to keep this discussion going as the more perspectives we bring in, the stronger our work will be. Stay tuned for updates, and let’s keep pushing for more resilient conservation together!