In the run up to the World Biodiversity Forum in June, where we will be conveneing an in-person workshop, we will also be organising a few preparatory webinars. You will find details of up-coming webinars and recordings of previous webinars here.

The pre-workshop webinars are intended to provide background information that will facilitate discussion at the Workshop of the World Biodiveresity Forum in June 2026.

World Biodiversity Forum Workshop - June 14th 2026

[FUT8] Workshop “Improving data to decision flows with actionable scenarios and models for biodiversity conservation through science-policy collaboration” Link to Workshop

Date and venue: 14 June 2026, World Biodiversity Forum 2026, Room Schwarzhorn 0830-1800

Sign up required: Follow this link to the sign-up sheet

Webinars

February

Pre-workshop webinar 1 - 25th Feb 2026

“CBD, IPBES, the Nature Futures Framework, and their integrative national application”

Description: Prof. Shizuka Hashimoto (University of Tokyo, former co-chair of IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel) will give a presentation on how Japan has taken-up and applied the CBD policy frameworks, IPBES science-policy interface mechanisms and the Nature Futures (scenario modelling) Framework to long-term national research projects in informing policy in the last two decades. Japan has systematically reflected CBD and IPBES developments into Japan’s national assessments, including the Satoyama-Satoumi Assessment, followed by the ongoing Japan Biodiversity Outlook series. Early work relied on expert judgement given data gaps, particularly for regulating and cultural services, with successive research programmes progressively shifted toward more spatially explicit and quantitative approaches.

March

Pre-workshop webinar 2 - 27th March 2026

“Multi-faceted biodiversity and ecosystem services modelling for scenario analyses and policy support”

This session introduces two major Model Intercomparison Projects (MIPs) that have evolved over the past two decades in biodiversity science from marine to terrestrial systems - their origins, policy and societal context, community-driven development, and scientific contributions. The focus is on how a diverse ensemble of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning, and services models can collectively and consistently simulate scenarios, highlighting the value of comparative and complementary modelling for scientifically rigorous, purposeful, and context-specific policy support. Presentations will provide an outlook on how MIPs can advance standardizing data (e.g., EBVs, EESVs, NCPs) for social-ecological monitoring and indicator development and inform biodiversity spatial planning, target-setting, and progress reporting in the CBD National Reports and National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans.

Presentation 1: FishMIP (marine model intercomparison project) by Prof. Derek Tittensor, Dalhousie University

Presentation 2: BES-SIM (terrestrial model intercomparison project) by Prof. Henrique Pereira, iDiv German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research

April

Pre-workshop webinar 3 - 23th April 2026

“Integration of biodiversity indicators in policy – a national case study”

This presentation will give an overview of biodiversity monitoring and assessment processes implemented over the last 20 years in South Africa, and how it has influenced national policy and action. South Africa is a party to the CBD, and takes its commitments to biodiversity conservation seriously, but like many other developing countries, we have experienced challenges with national implementation of CBD targets. The presentation will give a national perspective on the implementation of the KMGBF, and how South Africa is exploring new ways to overcome implementation challenges.

Presenter: Dr. Lize von Staden, South Africa National Biodiversity Institute

Pre-workshop webinar 4 - 1st June 2026

“Nature Futures scenarios for conservation spatial planning and policy ​implementation”

This webinar will present the Nature Futures Framework — a senario modelling framework developed by IPBES — with application cases on conservation spatial planning for policy support (e.g. EU Green Deal). It will inform how scenarios and models can bridge across ecological monitoring, modelling, and indicators in conservation planning, implementation and evaluation to improve the effectiveness of anticipatory biodiversity governance.

Presenter: Prof. Peter Verburg, VU University Amsterdam