CLEVER Annual Meeting in Bonn: Advancing research on biodiversity and global trade
The CLEVER Annual Meeting took place in Bonn on November 19–20, bringing together researchers and partners from 8 different institutes for stimulating discussions on biodiversity indicators, modeling biodiversity loss, and user-friendly platforms for alternative trade-governance mechanisms to avoid deforestation. This final annual meeting of the project was co-hosted by the Center for Development Research (ZEF) at the University of Bonn and the European Forest Institute (EFI).
The first day welcomed Prof. Martin Persson from Chalmers University of Technology and the BEDROCK project. He delivered an insightful talk on the challenges and progress in mapping commodity-driven deforestation globally, featuring the new interactive dashboard on deforestation footprint.Day two featured a keynote by Prof. Lisa Biber-Freudenberger, lead author for the IPBES Nexus Assessment, from the University of Bonn. Her presentation explored strategies to enhance the connection between CLEVER research and science-policy platforms, such as IPBES and Eklipse. The day also included a session dedicated to improving research communication and dissemination.
Throughout the meeting, team members presented updates on their research, collaborated to identify leverage points for transformative change, and continued planning the next research publications. The cross-disciplinary workshops encouraged participants to explore connections between their expertise and the project’s broader goals, with more innovative thinking.
This annual meeting set the tone for the year ahead, the last of the project, refining priorities and timelines. As CLEVER progresses, the discussions and outcomes of this meeting will lay the groundwork for impactful research findings to be showcased at next year’s final conference, on June 4-5th in Brussels.
Written by Rosa Castañeda (EFI) and Fernanda Martinelli (UBO).
Cover photo by Shanqing Gao.