Invisible Biodiversity: addressing scientific and societal ignorance in ecoregions for a sustainable future

Application summary

Despite significant progress, our understanding of biodiversity remains critically biased and full of shortfalls. Accurate and reliable data are crucial for answering key scientific questions, predicting the impacts of environmental change, and developing effective conservation strategies for sustainable management of natural resources. However, the collection of biodiversity data often falls behind the rapid pace of decision-making, leading to the reliance on outdated, limited, and incomplete data. High levels of ignorance and uncertainty about biodiversity, or a lack of public awareness, cause many ecoregions remain "invisible" to science and society. This not only jeopardises their conservation but also limits our ability to meet global sustainability targets. To overcome this challenge, it is essential to assess what we know and do not know about biodiversity. In this context, I aim to evaluate the available knowledge on species diversity and distribution across ecoregions, identifying and addressing gaps, biases, and their underlying drivers. I will analyse public engagement with different ecoregions and their biodiversity by using digital data and on-site surveys and interviews, and identify the scientific contributions to the progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals across ecoregions. This project is novel and highly policy-relevant, especially in the context of informing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. By helping to identify relevant biodiversity knowledge shortfalls and ways to tackle them, and by addressing both scientific and societal ignorance in biodiversity knowledge, I intend to make the “invisible” visible. As the saying goes, 'out of sight, out of mind'— visibility of overlooked regions is pivotal for combating the biodiversity crisis; it helps raise awareness and drive behavioural change, which are essential to secure the future of terrestrial ecosystems, reduce global inequalities, and improve human well-being.