MCRV Mission

The National Biodiversity Future Center (NBFC) focuses on the Mediterranean region, considered a biodiversity hotspot, in order to address global challenges related to the following:

-Knowledge and protection of Italian biodiversity;
-Monitoring of different species, including rare, endangered and exotic pest species;
-Development of appropriate 'Restoration Ecology' strategies also with the aim of achieving the goals of the Nature Restoration Law;
-Enhancement of biodiversity through innovation actions that produce economic, environmental and social value.
Through targeted research and adoption of new technologies, NBFC provides intervention bodies and territorial administrations with the scientific basis for the establishment and management of protected areas, the design and implementation of efficient monitoring systems, the implementation of ecological restoration programs, and the enhancement of biodiversity to obtain new food, medical, cosmetics, and new materials. An entire sector of the center is dedicated to innovation, the involvement of national and international companies and institutions to support sustainable production processes, stimulate the creation of start-ups and expand green jobs. In this area, the center works with industrial supply chains by identifying process innovations and studying innovative biotechnological solutions that make it possible to promote circular productions, enhancing the value of raw materials and revitalizing strategic sectors for Italy such as the nursery sector, fishing, aquaculture and the production of bioactive compounds. The NBFC is therefore proposed as a national and international reference for generating knowledge and value from biodiversity and transferring them to the territory with the aim of implementing ecosystem services, promoting the well-being of people and generating social and environmental economic value for society.

Monitoring

Biodiversity (from species to ecosystems) monitoring is the systematic measure of response variables and processes for assessing system state and drawing inferences about changes in state over time. Monitoring, more than a stand-alone-activity, should be considered a component of a larger processes: if well designed, it can capture changes in biodiversity patterns, causes of biodiversity loss and changes over time and support evaluating the outcomes of either conservation-oriented and management intervention, a commitment from several regional and global agreements relevant to the sustainable use of biological resources (e.g., CBD Aichi Target 11, SDGs, EU Biodiversity Strategy and EU environmental directives). The NBFC intends to explore monitoring technologies and methodologies to support this process.

An efficient monitoring strategy requires in the first place an accurate knowledge of the taxa present in each ecosystem, that means investing on taxonomy as well as focusing on genetic biodiversity as a more detailed information on population structure and species distribution. Moreover, effective biodiversity monitoring requires the collection, transfer, processing and storage of data. NBFC is also tackling the known weaknesses of monitoring activities which include: lack of well-articulated objectives, flawed experimental designs, need of setting clear thresholds of change across systems and under different combination of stressors, need of increasing the spatial and temporal extent of efforts, substantial lack of focus on the effects of global impacts, need to develop monitoring tools that allow continuous measures and early warning systems, need to develop monitoring infrastructures for sharing data and make them FAIR.

Another major limitation for evaluating the ecological status of ecosystems and improving estimates of cumulative effects is also the difficulty to capitalise on existing data although , often fragmented in the scientific literature and reports from environmental agencies, or not easily available. iIn Europe , the Natura 2000 network potentially offers a solid basis for EU Member States for sharing systematic monitoring schemes. with the production of comparable outcomes across countries. However, there is no integration and common use of the collected information on species, habitats, and threats with comprehensive and consistent assessments. In this context, the NBFC can represent the element of national agreement and aggregation not only of information but also of local initiatives and projects. In this context, the NBFC can represent the element of national agreement and aggregation not only of information but also of local initiatives and projects.