The Connected Portal for Biodiversity and Monitoring

The portal serves as a central hub and guide to consolidated information and data on biodiversity in Germany, based on monitoring activities. It provides orientation for research, practice, and the general public, offering access to a continuously growing and up-to-date pool of knowledge. With a clear nationwide focus, it brings together expertise on biodiversity monitoring and information about stakeholders and monitoring programmes. It also presents their findings on different species and habitats, highlighting overarching trends in biodiversity across Germany.

The content is well-structured, interconnected, thematically flexible, and contextualised – meaning it can be combined in a modular way and placed in the appropriate context depending on the user’s professional focus. This enables users to navigate purposefully through the knowledge network and find relevant content, expertise, and contacts within the monitoring community.

An intelligent search function supports the targeted exploration of the portal’s resources and relevant external information, displaying results in clearly and accessibly. The portal also provides professional services – including educational and informational materials, as well as practical tools and resources such as data and analysis tools, visualisation resources, species identification materials, and guidelines for monitoring and practical application.

A basis system for the portal will be established by the end of 2026. The initial version is designed to start addressing the key questions:

How is biodiversity faring in Germany?

Users will find the following here, for example:

• an overview and explanation of the current state of knowledge,
• key biodiversity indicators and how they are developed,
• data stories trace the journey from data collection to indicator development, showing how biodiversity trends are interpreted using selected pilot projects.

Based on this foundation, the portal will integrate decentralised monitoring data in future to provide a comprehensive, nationwide perspective. Modelled, aggregated and harmonised data on aspects such as species occurrence and distribution will be made visible across Germany. This will make it easier to find and use the original data sources.

The portal also helps users to gain a better understanding of how biodiversity monitoring works. It answers key questions such as:
 

How does biodiversity monitoring work in Germany?

• Who coordinates and conducts it?
• Where does it take place?
• Which aspects are being monitored?
• What results are available, and how are they used?
• What are the main developments in nationwide biodiversity monitoring?

The portal offers clear and accessible visualisations to answer these questions and make the information easy to explore. Those responsible for monitoring programmes can also upload data and descriptions of their projects, which are visually processed and linked with other relevant monitoring activity information.

At the same time, the portal facilitates collaboration and communication within the monitoring community. Planned features include participant profiles, an events calendar and a news feed.

The portal will be expanded step by step, guided by user needs. Experts, public authorities, researchers and interested citizens are invited to play an active role in shaping its development. This approach ensures that the portal is driven by and built for its community.

A key principle in developing the portal is to build on and integrate existing relevant initiatives, thereby fostering targeted cooperation and joint offerings. Key partners in this area include the institutions that coordinate and hold the data for nationwide monitoring programmes, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN), the environmental information system umwelt.info, the NFDI4Biodiversity consortium within the National Research Data Infrastructure, and specialised institutions such as the Soil Monitoring Centre and the Red List Centre.