Departamento de Desarrollo Económico, Sostenibilidad y Medio Ambiente

BID-REX - From Biodiversity Data to Decisions: enhancing natural value through improved regional development policies

Matching conservation priorities with regional development policies while paying special attention to ERDF fund availability is a critical challenge to deploy robust and effective biodiversity conservation strategies at European and regional levels. However, the development of conservation priorities requires the adequate mobilisation of consistent, relevant and structured biodiversity information aimed at feeding and eventually guiding decision-making.

BID-REX aims to enhance natural value preservation through improved regional development policies by creating/reinforcing the link between relevant biodiversity data and conservation decision-making processes. More specifically, it aims to facilitate the use of biodiversity information and increase the impact of ERDF allocation in the preservation of the European natural heritage by providing decision-making processes with appropriate biodiversity information.

BID-REX pretende mejorar la conservación del valor natural gracias a mejores políticas de desarrollo regional creando/reforzando el vínculo entre los datos relevantes sobre biodiversidad y los procesos de toma de decisiones sobre conservación. Más concretamente, aspira a facilitar el uso de la información sobre biodiversidad y aumentar el impacto de la asignación del FEDER en la conservación del patrimonio natural europeo proporcionando procesos de toma de decisiones con información sobre biodiversidad adecuada.

“Better prioritization of biodiversity conservation efforts using evidence-based methods”

 

DURATION: 5 years (April of 2016—March of 2021)

  • PHASE 1: Interregional learning process (3 years)
  • PHASE 2: Monitoring of the Action Plan Implementation (2 years)

TOTAL BUDGET: 1.609.294 € (85% funded by ERDF)

The Interreg Europe programme, financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), was designed to support policylearning between relevant policy organisations with the aim of improving the performance of regional development policies and programmes. It allows regional and local public authorities and other players of regional relevance across Europe to exchange practices and ideas on the way public policies work, and thereby find solutions to improve their strategies for their own citizens. (Source: Interreg Europe Programme Manual, 19 January 2016)

 

7 EUROPEAN REGIONS FROM 6 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

9 PARTNERS

5 public authorities

4 research institutions

7 POLICY INSTRUMENTS TO ADDRESS

4 Regional ERDF Operational Programmes 2014—2020

3 Other regional policy instruments

 

REGION

Policy instrument to address

Partners

1 CATALONIA

Catalan ERDF Operational Programme 2014 - 2020

AXIS 6: Protecting the Environment and Promoting Resource Efficiency. Strategic Objectives 6.3.2 & 6.4.2.

2 BASQUE COUNTRY

ERDF Operative Program for the Basque Country

PO6 «Conserve and protect the environment and promote resources efficiency»

3 NORFOLK COUNTY (United Kingdom)

ERDF 2014 - 2020 for Norfolk County, England.

PRIORITY AXIS 6: Preserving and Protecting the Environment and Promoting Resource Efficiency

2.A4 INVESTMENT PRIORITY 6dProtecting and restoring biodiversity and soil and promoting ecosystem services, including Natura 2000 and green

infrastructure.

4 MARCHE REGION (Italy)

Marche Region Ecological Network

5 LJUBLJANA MARSH (Slovenia)

Regulation on Ljubljana Marsh Nature Park

6 North Great Plain Region (Hungary)

Hungarian Environment and Energy Efficiency Operational Programme 2014 - 2020

7 WALLONIA (Belgium)

The Regional Policy Statement for Wallonia 2014 - 2019

The BID-REX project will develop an interactive interregional learning process aimed at facilitating the exchange of approaches, tools and methods that have proven useful for bridging the existing gap between environmental information availability and decisions. More specifically, the work plan is designed to allow a logically planned interregional and local learning process organized around conferences, workshops and more in depth visits to explore and exchange best practices. The planning of these activities will allow for a progressive integration of the knowledge gained.

Thematic workshops, as main exchange activities, are the principal axis of the project work plan. The knowledge exchanges on good practices and discussion around regional challenges and potential solutions will be based on the experiences and background of each partner and local stakeholder group. The topics of the exchange activities follow a clear linear and interrelated flow starting from the needs of the regions, going through the tools and methodologies and ending with the impacts on policies.

An Action Plan for each region will be prepared providing details on how the lessons learnt from the workshops could be implemented in order to improve the policy instrument that is addressed within each region. Regular meetings with the regional Local Stakeholder Groups will be organized to identify the most useful outputs for each region to be included and adapted into their respective Action Plan. Furthermore, technical documents resulting from the corresponding thematic workshop will be also published to expand the impact of the results beyond the partnership.

 

Regional workshop - Innobasque (06/02/2017)

Interregional workshop - Walonia (abre en nueva ventana) (22-23/02/2017)

Regional workshop - Txingudi (15/11/2017)

Interregional workshop - Hungary (abre en nueva ventana) (30-31/01/2018)

Interregional workshop - Norfolk (abre en nueva ventana) (18-22/06/2018)

Regional workshop - Txingudi (20-21/11/2018)

Interregional workshop - Slovenia (21-22/01/2019)

 

Nature Information System

Objective

  • Improving the use of knowledge generated, especially for decision-making, in projects financed by ERDF funds and other public funds, through the Nature Information System of the Basque Country.

Actions

See 1-INFORMATION-SYSTEM.pdf (PDF, 2 MB) (leiho berri batean irekitzen da)

Network of Knowledge

Objective

  • Promoting the involvement of local stakeholders and improving governance in establishing criteria for public financing

Actions

See 2-KNOWLEDGE-NETWORK.pdf (PDF, 906 KB) (leiho berri batean irekitzen da)

  • Annual biodiversity social forum. See 20202019201820172016
  • Creation of the network in the new Law for the conservation of the Natural Heritage of the Basque Country (in parliamentary debate, it will be approved in the second half of 2021)
  • Development of the electronic administrative procedure to register / unsubscribe from the network (operational in the second half of 2021)

Create and integrate expert knowledge

Objective

  • Promoting synergies between the different priorities of ERDF funds (especially TO1 Strengthening research, technological development and innovation and TO2 Enhancing access to, and use and quality of, information and communication technologies), in order to strengthen priority 6

Actions

See 3-INTEGRATE-KNOWLEDGE.pdf (PDF, 494 KB) (leiho berri batean irekitzen da)

  • Continuous development. We hold coordination meetings with Innobasque and transversal projects of the Basque Government: Public innovation, Open Government, Urban Agenda

Criteria for public financing

Objective

  • Improving the quality of projects financed with ERDF funds and other public funds

Actions

See 4-PUBLIC-FINANCING.pdf (PDF, 992 KB) (leiho berri batean irekitzen da)

  • Publish a practical Guide. See GUIDE FOR THE DESIGN OF KNOWLEDGE GENERATION PROJECTS ON BIODIVERSITY
  • Promote the use of the Guide as a basis to prioritize and evaluate projects financed with public money. Since 2021 we have included the use of the Guide as mandatory in all calls for grants, agreements and contracts that generate knowledge on biodiversity 

Citizen Science

Objective

  • Improving the orientation of projects, especially those based on citizen science, financed by ERDF funds and other public funds to the conservation objectives established in the European strategic and normative documents

Actions

See 5-CITIZEN-SCIENCE.pdf (PDF, 640 KB) (leiho berri batean irekitzen da)

  • Publish a practical Guide. See Guide for the design of species monitoring programmes
  • Promote the use of the Guide as a basis to prioritize and evaluate projects financed with public money. Since 2021 we have included the use of the Guide as mandatory in all calls for grants, agreements and contracts that involve the design of species monitoring programmes.

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