May 21-22, 2025
Washington, DC
Assessing biodiversity is fundamental to understanding the distribution of biodiversity, the changes that are occurring and, crucially, the effectiveness of actions to address the ongoing biodiversity crisis. Such assessments face multiple challenges, not least the great complexity of natural systems, but also a lack of standardized approaches to measurement, a plethora of measurement technologies with their own strengths and weaknesses, and different data needs depending on the purpose for which the information is being gathered. Other sectors have faced similar challenges, and the Forum will look to learn from these precedents with a view to building momentum towards standardised methods for using environmental monitoring technologies, including new technologies, for particular purposes. We will explore ways to ensure interoperability between different outputs and confidence that observed changes in biodiversity are the result of real changes in what is being measured, and advance the integration of biodiversity monitoring with evaluation to help ensure conservation at a variety of scales can be more effective.
The videos of presentations containing unpublished scientific results have been temporarily omitted from the recordings of the Forum. These presentations have been marked with an asterisk.
Introductory Session
Welcome remarks by NAS President Marcia McNutt and Forum co-chairs Gene Robinson (NAS) and William Sutherland (Royal Society).
Session chair: William Sutherland, Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge
Session speakers:
- Andy Purvis, Research Leader, Natural History Museum; Research Investigator, Imperial College London
- María Cecilia Londoño Murcia, Investigator, Colombia Humboldt Institute
- Sallie Bailey, Chief Scientist, Natural England
- Cristián Samper, Managing Director and Leader for Nature Solutions, Bezos Earth Fund
- Marco Lambertini, Convener, Nature Positive Initiative
Session 1: What Are the Problems?
Session chair: Neil Burgess, Chief Scientist, UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), and Professor, Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate University of Copenhagen
Session speakers:
- Barnabas Daru, Assistant Professor, Stanford University*
- Iroro Tanshi, Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Washington
- Nick Issaac, Macroecologist and Head of Biodiversity Monitoring and Analysis, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
- Cristina Eisenberg, Associate Dean for Inclusive Excellence, Maybelle Clark Macdonald Director of Tribal Initiatives in Natural Resources, Oregon State University College of Forestry
- James O’Dwyer, Associate Head and Associate Professor, Plant Biology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign*
Session 2: Making Measurements Matter
Session chair: Julia P. G. Jones, Professor in Conservation Science, School of Environmental and Natural Sciences, Bangor University
Session speakers:
- Nick Salafsky, Director, Foundations of Success
- Philipp Boersch-Supan, Principal Ecological Statistician, British Trust for Ornithology
- Kat Bruce, Founder and Director, NatureMetrics
- Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Director of the Harvard University Herbaria, Harvard University*
- Anil Madhavapeddy, Professor of Planetary Computing, University of Cambridge
Session 3: Interoperability of Biodiversity Measurements
Session Chair: Harris Lewin, Research Professor, Arizona State University, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis
Session speakers:
- Harris Lewin, Research Professor, Arizona State University, and Distinguished Professor Emeritus in Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis
- Mark Blaxter, Programme Lead, Tree of Life Programme, and Senior Group Leader, Sanger Institute
- Christina Grozinger, Publius Vergilius Maro Professor of Entomology and Director, Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, Pennsylvania State University
- Oisin Mac Aodha, Reader in Machine Learning, University of Edinburgh
Session 4: Delivering Change
Session chair: Scott Edwards, Alexander Agassiz Professor of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Curator of Ornithology, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Session speakers:
- Winifred Frick, Chief Scientist, Bat Conservation International
- Andrew Gonzalez, Professor and Liber Ero Chair in Biodiversity, Department of Biology, McGill University, and Co-Chair of GeoBon
- Ron Milo, Professor of Systems Biology, Weizmann Institute of Science
- Ann Bartuska, Senior Advisor, Resources for the Future
Related Events
Event Disclaimer
It is essential to the National Academy of Sciences mission of providing evidence-based advice that participants in any of our meetings or events avoid political or partisan statements or commentary and maintain a culture of mutual respect. The statements and presentations during our meetings or events are solely those of the individual participants and do not necessarily represent the views of other participants or the National Academy of Sciences, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt organization.