[Call for experts] Which practices are the most effective for biodiversity enhancement ? Your expertise is required !

Field margins, reducing pesticides, diversification of tree species, set-aside forest … which practices are the most effective for biodiversity enhancement? Does a consensus between experts exist? You may have part of the answer! 

The platform Puzzling Biodiversity is OPEN ! 

You are an experienced ecologist currently working in the biodiversity and environment sector (academic research, private company, nature management and conservation…)? You have an opinion on biodiversity-friendly practices efficiency in forest management or agriculture in temperate climate of Western Europe ? Work out your own ranking of biodiversity-friendly practices on the Puzzling Biodiversity platform. 

The Puzzling Biodiversity Platform 

Puzzling Biodiversity is a platform specifically design to allow you to share your expertise. Thanks to your contribution, we will be able to test the degree of consensus between experts and attempt to publish a reference ranking of biodiversity-friendly practices in open access that could change the game in assessment tools currently available. 

The platform especially design to provide the most fluid experience for users will allow you to produce quality data based on your knowledge, skills and intuition. More than just an online form to fill out Puzzling Biodiversity is built to look like a real personal work space available until the 30th of June 2025 meaning the end of this first experimentation. 

🔎 Find out more…

A scientific consortium composed of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) (The French National Natural History Museum), Carbone 4 and the Fondation pour la recherché sur la biodiversité (FRB) (French Biodiversity Research Foundation) launched, in early 2024, a methodological research project based on biodiversity-friendly practices certification. The assessment of the expected biodiversity gains associated with the maintenance or set-up of these practices will be achieved thanks to expert consultation and consensus building.

• Webinar : Many of you attended the webinar presenting the project and the method for assessing biodiversity gains! If you were unable to attend or would like to see it again, the video of the webinar is now online : https://youtu.be/y7ycfKzuqQc

• Expert consultation : open to academic and non-academic experts. A particular attention will be given to quantifying the degree of consensus to the underlying assumptions of additivity of the various practices listed and the conditions of validity of associating an average gain in biodiversity with the maintenance and/or implementation of a given practice. A critical examination of the results from the statistical analysis of the data collected during the study will be carried out, including the profile of the respondents. The whole assessment process will take place on the Puzzling Biodiversity platform specifically developed for the matter. It has been specifically designed to provide an easy and fluid experience for the users.

• The wider project : The research project lead by the scientific consortium was built to achieve two main objectives :

➣ The development of an assessment methodology to test the degree of consensus between experts on expected biodiversity gains associated with the maintenance or set-up of biodiversity-friendly practices. The lists of forest management and agricultural practices used in this evaluation thanks to the Puzzling Biodiversity platform were elaborated in consultation with practitioners and academic researchers. The whole methodology as well as the reference rankings of practices that will be published at the end of the critical examination of the results could be applied to many purposes: building practices lists and elaboration of reference rankings for other sectors; utilization in projects of practices improvement; targets identification and set-up levels for plan or strategy design …

➣ The mapping of risks, opportunities and use cases associated with the set-up of a practices certification mechanism. This work led to the undermentioned publication: Publication_ Biodiversity certificates – risks and opportunities

Results from the Puzzling Biodiversity platform would supply this type of mechanism.