The grand opening ceremony of the IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025.
Held from the 9th to 15th of September 2025, the event brought together over 10,000 participants from 189 countries under five central themes: Scaling Up Resilient Conservation Action; Reducing Climate Overshoot Risks; Delivering on Equity; Transitioning to Nature-Positive Economies and Societies; and Disruptive Innovation and Leadership for Conservation.
Represented by Prof Lyubomir Penev (Founder and CEO), Maria Kolesnikova (Marketing and Sales Manager), and Denitsa Peneva (Scientific Illustrator), Pensoft took part in the Congress with a dedicated booth, engaging attendees in conversation about how open science, innovative publishing, and collaborative research can drive conservation.
Denitsa Peneva (left) and Maria Kolesnikova (right) representing Pensoft at the event.
Pensoft’s exhibit placed a strong emphasis on restoration and ecological research, showcasing the publisher’s active role in international initiatives supporting biodiversity recovery and sustainable ecosystem management. Numerous illustrated materials were available for attendees to browse through and take home.
A key feature of the booth was Pensoft’s participation in Horizon 2020 projects such as REST-COAST, which aims to restore and safeguard coastal ecosystems through innovative, large-scale nature-based solutions. Alongside the company’s project involvement, visitors explored Pensoft’s diverse range of open-access journals, including Nature Conservation, One Ecosystem, Estuarine Management and Technologies, NeoBiota, and the newly launched Individual-based Ecology.
A selection of Pensoft’s materials at the congress.
Maja Vasilijevic opening the session, Bridging Science and Policy: European Action for Biodiversity and Climate Goals..
Keynote speaker Musonda Mumba at Advancing Large Scale Restoration Programmes Through Sharing Insights of EU Funded Nature Restoration Projects.
A platform for lasting impact
One of the most anticipated events on the calendar, the IUCN Congress was a fantastic event that looked to the future of collaborative global conservation. For Pensoft, participation in Abu Dhabi reaffirmed its mission to foster open, accessible, and data-driven knowledge to support efforts to protect and restore our planet’s ecosystems.
Letsema Adontsi, Minister of Environment and Forestry, Lesotho.
Visitors at the Pensoft booth.
Taxonomist Korsh Ararat.
Kostas Triantis, author of several articles in Frontiers of Biogeography.
Nature Conservation author Kristijn Swinnen.
Sana Taktak, part of REST-COAST project.
IMA Fungus author Jonathan Cazabonne..
Nature Conservation author Neil D’Cruze.
Elisa Furlan and Elena Alegri from REST-COAST.
Sofia Paredes Maury and Claudia Garcia Barrios from the Guatemalan Association of the Private Nature Reserves.
Maggie Kilian, botanist and Director of Engaging Heritage Consulting.
Guido Berguido, who recently had a new species named ater him in PhytoKeys.
Srijana Joshi Rijal and Bandana Shakya from GBIF Nepal, with Pensoft’s Maria Kolesnikova.
Julia Sigwart, Senckenberg Research Institute. with Prof Lyubomir Penev.
BDJ author Rachel Haderle.
NeoBiota author Ana Nunes.
Pensoft Founder and CEO Prof Lyubomir Penev.
Matthieu Lapinski and Mathilde Michaud from REST-COAST.
The conversations, collaborations, and commitments shared at IUCN 2025 will continue to shape the publisher’s approach to science communication and innovation going forward.
Relive highlights of the conference on Bluesky and LinkedIn using the hashtag #IUCNcongress.
Events like these continue to be of great significance for Pensoft as it works to innovate the landscape of academic data management and scientific outreach.
Effective biodiversity conservation at the global level requires consolidated, streamlined and open scientific data to support it. This was the tenet at the heart of Living Data 2025, a conference unprecedented in its scale and ambition to foster a transcontinental dialogue on the past, present and future of research into the biosphere.
The event took place between 21 and 24 October in Bogotá, Colombia, and was made possible via an extensive collaboration between the biodiversity networks GBIF, TDWG, OBIS and GEO BON, with support from the Humboldt Institute.
With an audience spanning the globe and a four-day agenda reflecting the diversity of innovations and challenges to be addressed in this context, the scene was set for an inclusive and productive dialogue on biodiversity data.
For its part, Pensoft seized the opportunity to join this crucial forum. Represented by founder and CEO Prof. Lyubomir Penev, CTO Teodor Georgiev and Science Communication Expert Peter Bozakov, the open-access scholarly publisher and technology provider became an active participant in the programme as:
Pensoft’s Chief Technology Officer Teodor Georgiev, Science Communication Expert Peter Bozakov, and founder and Chief Executive Officer Prof. Lyubomir Penev
Еxhibitor on the conference floor
Pensoft’s representatives were front and centre at the event by virtue of a dedicated booth showcasing the company’s work in academic publishing and science communication, as well as FAIR biodiversity data innovation. A wide array of materials was available for researchers to browse through, reflecting a variety of scientific subjects and endeavours. The ensuing conversations reflected a shared commitment to a more ambitious biodiversity research landscape today and tomorrow, as the parties charted potential avenues for cooperation.
Pensoft’s stand at Living Data 2025.
Sponsor of the Best Student Presentation award
Unwavering in its support for young scientists and early-career researchers, Pensoft also left a mark with its sponsorship of the most critically acclaimed student oral talk delivered at Living Data 2025. During the conference’s closing ceremony, Prof. Lyubomir Penev delivered the award to Mélisande Teng for her presentation, titled “A machine learning approach to species distribution modelling using remote sensing and citizen science data“. This distinction entitles her to a free publication in one of the journals in Pensoft’s extensive and exclusively open-access portfolio.
Prof. Penev presenting the Best Student Presentation award
Co-organiser of a symposium
Last but not least, Pensoft drew on its experience across its multiple expertises to address some of the topical pillars of the event in its own symposium. The publisher and technology provider was joined in this effort by long-standing partners from LifeWatch ERIC (represented by its CEO Christos Arvanitidis) and the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre (represented by Niels Raes).
Together, they delivered two sessions sharing the title “Long Live Biodiversity Data: Knowledge Transfer and Continuity across Research Projects”. In that sense, the aim was to emphasise the importance of science results being repurposed and reused, finding new life beyond the endeavours that gave rise to them. The role of open data, targeted communication and clearly defined pathways to impact in decision-making was singled out as an essential aspect on the road to such long-lived outputs.
Both sessions attracted the attention of attendees, leading to proactive engagement with the topics in focus.
Together with a number of other fellow projects, they provided inspiring testaments to the potential of results to grow beyond the vision they first emerged out of. Overall, the symposium brought together 16 abstracts with over 90 contributing authors, more than 20 initiatives and more than 30 affiliated institutions and organisations. The recordings of Session #1 and Session #2 are already available on YouTube.
Later this year, extended abstracts presented throughout the Living Data 2025 conference will be published in the open-access journal Biodiversity Information Standards and Science (BISS): the official scholarly outlet of TDWG launched in 2017 in partnership with long-term collaborator Pensoft. Initiated by a dedicated call from TDWG, this year’s extended abstracts collection will provide further insight into the perspectives, opportunities and issues discussed in the respective showcases.
All in all, the conference was a noteworthy milestone for the international biodiversity community – an exchange of views, results and opportunities at a broad geographical and multidisciplinary scale that is truly oriented towards tangible outcomes for the planet’s future. As ever, formats like these continue to be of great significance for Pensoft as it works to innovate the landscape of academic data management and scientific outreach across and beyond borders.
Relive highlights of the conference on Bluesky and LinkedIn using the hashtag #LivingData2025.
Did you know that three years ago Pensoft hosted the TDWG annual conference? Check out the highlights on our blog!
The 13th NEOBIOTA International Conference on Biological Invasions (NEOBIOTA 2024), held in Lisbon, Portugal, brought together 421 participants from 47 countries for one of the most significant global gatherings in invasion science. Notably, this meeting featured the strongest representation of aquatic studies to date, spanning marine and freshwater systems across oral sessions, posters and workshops.
This momentum contributed to the creation of a dedicated NeoBiota Special Issue, incorporating contributions from both conference participants and other aquatic researchers.
As outlined in the editorial paper – written by the issue’s editors Pedro Anastácio, Filipe Ribeiro and Paula Chainho – the collection comprises 23 papers organised into five themes: Responses to Environmental Stressors; Ecological Interactions and Invasion Impacts; Detection and Monitoring Tools; Management and Policy; and Global and Regional Syntheses.
Biotic responses to abiotic drivers – such as warming, pollution or eutrophication – are central to predicting invasion success, as explored in the following articles:
Functional trait responses of emergent and free-floating Alternanthera philoxeroides to increasing salinity with sea level rise: stress tolerance, avoidance, and escape strategies – Grewell et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.150325
Differential elemental accumulation of the signal crayfish (Pacifastacus leniusculus) along an invasion gradient – Gonçalves et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.148414
Assessing the upper thermal limit constraining the physiological performance of Callinectes sapidus embryogenesis under climate warming scenarios – Rodríguez-Ruiz et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.148122
Invasive potential of Phymactis papillosa: assessing environmental tolerance and ecological impact on the Portuguese intertidal ecosystems – Pereira et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.148042
Nutrient enrichment and artificial light at night synergistically confer a competitive advantage to alien aquatic species over natives – Zhang et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.142791
Ecological interactions and invasion impacts
Interactions between invading species, native species, and other non-native species, are critical in determining the population dynamics and ecological impacts. This group of papers includes studies dedicated to freshwater fish, crustaceans, amphibians, higher plants and algae, and estuarine bivalves:
Eating contest between native and non-indigenous bivalve species: estimating capture efficiencies and clearance rates using natural seston – Cabral et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.148326
Predatory interactions between two global aquatic invaders beyond their native ranges: An experimental approach – Reshetnikov et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.145644
Epiphytic algae mitigate the inhibitory effects of two aquatic invasive plants, Pontederia crassipes and Pistia stratiotes, on a submerged plant community – Shen et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.144004
Detection and monitoring tools
Monitoring of non-native species has evolved beyond taxonomic surveys to incorporate the use of molecular tools, informatics and citizen science for detecting and monitoring non-native species:
Integrating social media and environmental DNA records to enhance surveillance and improve early detection of invasive species – Dias et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.151710
Mapping the northernmost transnational non-native population of Xenopus laevis using pooled eDNA sampling – Everts et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.150311
Seek and you shall find: Detection of alien bryozoans along the Chilean SE Pacific coast with a simple and cost-efficient methodology – Rech et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.144725
Management and policy
Policy effectiveness and practical management are central concerns in invasion science:
LIFE INVASAQUA networking events from López-Cañizares et al. (2025).
Effectiveness of legislative tools to stop biological invasions: freshwater turtles’ invasion in Europe as a study case – Rato et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.143330
Eradication attempt for an early detected invasive crayfish: the case of Pacifastacus leniusculus (Decapoda, Astacidae) in the Clitunno River (central Italy) – Carosi et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.146951
Population dynamics, habitat use and trapping efficiency of the invasive crab Callinectes sapidus in a Mediterranean hypersaline coastal lagoon – Herrero-Reyes et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.148388
Outcomes of the LIFE INVASAQUA project: An integrated approach for the prevention and awareness of aquatic invasive species in the Iberian Peninsula – López-Cañizares et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.148744
Global and regional syntheses
Global and regional syntheses play a critical role in guiding invasion policy and future research. Three regional and one global syntheses are provided in this issue:
First insights into the scale of invasions in African marine protected areas: leveraging global databases and citizen science data – Ackland et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.149275
Critical review of the literature on key invasive alien freshwater plants in Europe with special focus on their impact on the invaded ecosystems – Di Lernia et al. (2025) https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.102.146280
The special issue offers a timely and multifaceted view of aquatic invasions spanning a diversity of aquatic taxa including fishes, crustaceans, amphibians, molluscs, macrophytes, bryozoans and even parasite-host systems.
From functional trait ecology and trophic interactions to molecular diagnostics and policy assessments, the contributions demonstrate how aquatic invasion science is evolving towards greater interdisciplinarity and translational relevance.
The open-access journal NeoBiota has published its milestone 100th issue, celebrating more than fourteen years of advancing research on biological invasions and their impacts on biodiversity, ecosystems, and society. The milestone comes at a time of great achievement for the Pensoft-published journal in terms of editorial leadership, readership growth, and international recognition.
New editorial leadership
Last year, NeoBiota welcomed a new editorial leadership team, as Dr. Ana Novoa Perez, Prof. Tammy Robinson, Prof. Phil Hulme and Dr. Andrew “Sandy” Liebhold joined forces to bring a wealth of expertise to the journal.
According to the 2024 release of Web of Science metrics, NeoBiota achieved a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) of 3.0, maintaining its Q1 position in Biodiversity Conservation. At the same time, Scopus reported an impressive CiteScore of 6.8, which secures the journal a Q1 ranking across seven categories: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Insect Science; Aquatic Science; Plant Science; Ecology; and Ecological Modeling.
The rankings underscore the journal’s influence across ecological disciplines and its continued recognition as a leading publication in invasion science.
Growing global readership
NeoBiota has also experienced remarkable growth in readership. In just the latest quarter, articles published in the journal have attracted over 220,000 views from 90,000 unique readers worldwide.
This increase in readership, coupled with the journal’s focus on strong science communication, has attracted international media attention to NeoBiota’s research papers, such as this piece on the spread of lionfish in the Mediterranean Sea published in BBC Wildlife.
The landmark issue features a collection of articles that reflect the journal’s mission to expand both the geographical and conceptual scope of invasion science:
From Abreo et al. Map of Southeast Asia showing the number of established non-native species reported per country.
Compiling and analyzing the non-native flora of a megadiverse Neotropical country: a new catalogue for continental Ecuador (read here) by Ileana Herrera, Anahí Vargas, Kimberly Rizzo, Zhofre Aguirre, Isabella Dillon, Brunny Espinoza-Amén, Felipe Espinoza De Janon, Andrés Espinoza-Maticurena, José R. Ferrer-Paris, Efraín Freire, Carlos Gómez-Bellver, Diego Gutiérrez del Pozo, Vanessa Lozano, Alejandra Moscoso-Estrella, Nora H. Oleas, Kevin Panchana, Sebastián Pardo, Katya Romoleroux, Verónica Sandoya, Carmen Ulloa Ulloa, Isabela Vieira, Jordi López-Pujol – Also part of the above topical collection focusing on the Global South
Acacia invasion triggers cascading effects above- and belowground in fragmented forests (read here) by Raquel Juan-Ovejero, Filipa Reis, Pedro Martins da Silva, Elizabete Marchante, Fernanda Garcia, Maria Celeste Dias, Filipe Covelo, António Alves da Silva, Helena Freitas, José Paulo Sousa, Joana Alves.
From Juan-Ovejero et al. Conceptual flow chart showing the hypotheses of the study.
Transparency and reproducibility in invasion science (read here) by Fabio Mologni, Jason Pither.
Taken together, these contributions highlight both regional challenges, such as managing alien taxa in biodiversity hotspots, and broader conceptual issues, including methodological rigour in invasion science research.
–
As NeoBiota celebrates its 100th issue, it continues to push the boundaries of open, accessible, and impactful publishing in invasion science. With new leadership, growing readership, and a commitment to innovation in scholarly communication, the journal is poised for further growth in its next hundred issues. Explore the full 100th issue here.
Researchers have emphasised the vital role of public reporting in controlling the invasive yellow-legged hornet (also known as the Asian hornet) in Great Britain.
Indigenous to Southeast Asia, the hornet (scientific name: Vespa velutina nigrithorax) was first detected in France in 2004 and has since rapidly spread across western Europe, including Great Britain.
This species poses a serious danger to native pollinators, especially honeybees (Apis mellifera), which lack natural defenses against the hornet’s predation. The hornet’s arrival threatens both biodiversity and the beekeeping industry, with intense predation leading to depleted colony reserves and deaths.
A new research paper published in the open-access journal NeoBiotapresents a simulation model that predicts the hornet’s dispersal and gauges how long official nest-detection efforts could remain effective before being overwhelmed. The model considers natural dispersal, genetic factors such as the production of diploid (and therefore infertile) males and the realistic distribution of public observers in the landscape.
Without public reporting, the study found that hornet populations in Britain could become unmanageable within 3–7 years of undetected spread, overwhelming resources for nest detection and destruction. However, when public and beekeeper reports are incorporated, control efforts can remain effective for at least 10 years, with this window extending based on reporting rates and observer density.
Mean density of undetected nests (per km2), estimated at year six for scenarios involving two incursions per year. A) Average density in scenarios where control is absent B) Under the lowest national reporting probability C) Under the highest national reporting probability. Each scenario was estimated across all 100 simulations.
Proximity to populated areas greatly increases the likelihood of successful nest discovery and destruction as they are much better protected due to frequent sightings and reports. Conversely, nests in remote or sparsely populated zones pose a greater risk of escaping detection and fueling further invasion.
Public awareness campaigns, online reporting tools, and targeted outreach to beekeepers have proved highly effective. For instance, in 2023, nearly 21,000 public reports led to 72 nests being destroyed. Now researchers call for continued improvement of such engagement strategies, especially in vulnerable low-density regions.
Do think you’ve seen a yellow-legged hornet in Great Britain? Report it here.
Original source
Warren DA, Budgey R, Semmence N, Jones EP, Jones B (2025) Public reporting is essential for controlling the invasive yellow-legged hornet: a novel model simulating the spread of Vespa velutina nigrithorax and timescales for control in Great Britain. NeoBiota 101: 25-44. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.101.148570
In 1869, the construction of the Suez Canal was completed, connecting two marine regions previously separated for 16 million years and initiating major ecological changes that continue to this day.
Now more than 100 fish species native to the Indo-West Pacific Ocean – including the ‘devil firefish’ – have crossed to become established in the Mediterranean Sea.
But how do they make the journey?
Researchers from the American University of Beirut and the American University in Dubai analysed how invasive fish from the Indo-Pacific region colonise the Mediterranean. Combining ocean current modelling, shipping data, and environmental analysis, they examined records of 136 fish species to map the natural and human-driven factors that enable these invaders to thrive.
Location of the Suez Canal.
Published in NeoBiota, the findings indicate that the primary drivers for the initial entry of invasive fish into the Mediterranean are proximity to the Suez Canal and sea currents transporting fish larvae into nearby eastern Mediterranean regions. However, while sea currents play an important role early in the invasion stage, they cannot explain how species cross into the western Mediterranean.
Indeed, cargo shipping has become increasingly influential, with focal points like Malta acting as key stepping stones for the spread of non-native fish, especially to western Mediterranean areas. Over time, the odds of a region being colonised via shipping have grown significantly.
A ship passing through the Suez Canal in Egypt.
Additionally, local conditions such as high salinity in Mediterranean waters boost the likelihood of invasive species establishing permanent populations, as these fish tend to be pre-adapted to saline environments from their native habitats.
“Scientists have long suspected that the anti-clockwise spread of invasive species in the eastern Mediterranean is due to currents and the high number of first records in Malta is due to shipping.
“Our use of sea current simulations and shipping data could confirm these conjectures and provide quantitative estimates of the effects.”
Heinrich zu Dohna, lead author of the paper.
Logistic regression models indicate that in some regions shipping leads to a sixfold increase of the odds of receiving invasive species, indicating targeted management and monitoring is needed at major shipping hubs.
Better data on ballast water release and ship movements in the Mediterranean are needed, as cargo shipping’s impact on biological invasions is now clear. Malta’s role as a major shipping hub makes it a particular hotspot for secondary introductions and warrants special attention by policymakers and marine managers.
Original source
zu Dohna H, Lakkis I, Bariche M (2025) The spread of Indo-Pacific origin fish species in the Mediterranean Sea is influenced by sea currents, habitat factors, and increasingly by shipping. NeoBiota 101: 73-89. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.101.157775
We attended the International Congress for Conservation Biology to present the REST-COAST and SELINA Horizon-funded projects, as well as our scholarly journals and books portfolio.
Over 1,200 people from more than 90 countries, including conservation and social science researchers, students, practitioners, government and NGO professionals, policy specialists and leaders from indigenous groups attended the 32nd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2025), hosted by the SCB Oceania Region from 15th to 19th June 2025 in Brisbane/Meanjin, Australia.
The Brisbane Convention & Exhibition Centre (BCEC) welcomed over 1,200 participants for the 32nd International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2025) hosted by the SCB Oceania Region. Photo credit: BCEC.
A special focus seen across the talks and overall rhetoric of the event was on indigenous peoples, culture and knowledge, and how they can be recognised and further engaged in the study and protection of the environment in a sustainable and culturally appropriate manner. Other topics popular during the week included biocultural diversity and wildlife trade and traffic.
Throughout the week, the delegates enjoyed three sets of plenary talks, and got to choose from upwards of ten parallel sessions taking place three times each day. Multiple workshops and business meetings would also take place every day around lunch time. Then, each day of the congress would conclude with a poster session at the Exhibition hall. Additionally, multiple social events scheduled throughout the week – such as a nature documentary movie night, a science comedy night, and a closing reception, held amongst the exhibits of the Queensland Museum Kurilpa – would take care of the attendees’ entertainment after long days of talks and presentations.
Our team at Pensoft was proud to join this amazing event as one of the 14 exhibitors at ICCB 2025. At our stand, Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva would invite delegates to elaborate on their scientific interests and latest research endeavours, as well as wants and needs concerning the publication, communication and outreach of their work.
Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva at the ICCB2025 (Brisbane, Australia).
Then, visitors would leave the Pensoft stand with helpful advice concerning scholarly publishing and multiple recommended titles from the Pensoft open-access journal portfolio fitting the scope of their research. If you have met us at any event in the past couple of years, you would also know that it is next to impossible for a visitor of ours to leave without at least one of our signature stickers featuring captioned scientific illustrations of species studied in papers from across our journals.
At every event in the past two years, Pensoft has been handing out stickers featuring detailed scientific illustrations of species studied in papers published in Pensoft’s scholarly portfolio. This is our ‘thank you’ to the authors who have trusted our journals with their work.
Many would also become intrigued to know more about the latest activities and results of the two European Union-funded projects that enjoyed prominent visibility at the Pensoft stand, namely: SELINA (an acronym for Science for Evidence-based and Sustainable Decisions about Natural Capital) and REST-COAST (Large scale RESToration of COASTal ecosystems through rivers to sea connectivity). At both projects, our team takes pride in leading work packages dedicated to the communication and dissemination of the projects’ outputs.
Having started in 2022 and set to run until 2027, SELINA comprises 50 partner organisations coordinated by the Leibniz University Hannover. This transdisciplinary project provides smart, cost-effective, and nature-based solutions to historic societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security. A main objective is to identify biodiversity, ecosystem condition, and ecosystem service factors that can be successfully integrated into decision-making processes in both the public and private sectors.
Most recently, the consortium launched SELINA’s Communities of Practice initiative to promote collaborative learning and knowledge integration across Europe. This digital platform provides a forum for scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and business representatives to exchange knowledge and further engage with its real-life application. On the Communities of Practice webpage, visitors may explore how SELINA is driving change across Europe.
***
Meanwhile, the mission of the EU Horizon’s Green Deal-funded REST-COAST is to address today’s challenges to coastal ecosystems caused by a long history of environmental degradation of rivers and coasts. Bringing together 38 European institutions, led by the Catalonia University of Technology UPC-BarcelonaTech (Spain), the project is set to demonstrate to key stakeholders and decision-makers that large-scale restoration of river deltas, estuaries and coastal lagoons is necessary to sustain the delivery of vital ecosystem services.
A prominent output by the REST-COAST project is a policy brief addressing the EU Nature Restoration Regulation, and serving to provide scientifically-informed policy recommendations and targets.
At the Pensoft stand, ICCB2025 participants had the opportunity to browse through nine fact sheets produced within the project. Each provides a neat snapshot of the story of one of the pilot sites selected by REST-COAST as representatives of particularly vulnerable hotspots for the main EU regional seas (Baltic, Black, North Atlantic and the Mediterranean). On display was also a recent policy brief addressing the EU Nature Restoration Regulation. It serves to provide a concise summary of the issues and challenges at hand, in addition to scientifically-backed policy recommendations and targets.
Both the pilot site factsheets and the policy briefs produced by the consortium are made public in the Media Center on the project website. Further project outputs, including research articles, data papers and project reports, are permanently available from the REST-COAST’s open-science project collection in the Research Ideas and Outcomes (RIO) journal.
***
On the final day, the ICCB 2025 did not disappoint either. The day started with a touching plenary talk by Amy Van Nice of the Wildlife Alliance, where she shared a lot of her own experience as a wildlife rescuer, but also as a human with her own personal battles along the way. Throughout her talk she remained fully transparent about the current situation in wildlife trafficking, which remains, sadly, a crisis yet to be tackled.
The day continued with a full programme of parallel sessions before everyone gathered for the closing session and the closing ceremony, where delegates could look back at the last year in conservation, and learn about what is to come. The closing ceremony also announced and celebrated the SCB 2025 Global Service Awards and the ICCB awards.
Following the ICCB tradition, the organisers also waited until the end of the event to announce the location of the next international congress. It will take place in 2027 some 12,000 km (7,500 miles) away from Brisbane: in Mexico, where it will be jointly hosted by the North American (SCBNA) and the Latin America and Caribbean (SCB-LACA) regions of the Society for Conservation Biology.
Official group photo of the delegates at ESP11 (Darwin, Australia). Courtesy of the Ecosystem Services Partnership.
Between 22nd and 26th June, the 11th Ecosystem Services Partnership World Conference (ESP11) brought about 250 international delegates from diverse backgrounds: professional and demographic alike, to the Darwin Convention Centre in the capital city of the Northern Territory, Australia.
Amongst the central topics of the event were the integrations of local and indigenous values and knowledge into the understanding of ecosystem services and their sustainable management; the implementation of nature-based solutions into practice; and the collaboration of scientists with policymakers, practitioners and other stakeholders.
Cultural diversity was specially celebrated at both the opening and the closing ceremonies, as well as the special conference dinner. Attendees enjoyed multiple traditional performances from the region, but also from other parts of the world. They also had the chance to hear directly from members of Darwin’s indigenous communities about their own perspectives on ecosystem services and their sustainable management.
Indigenous Australian performance at the opening ceremony at ESP11 (Darwin, Australia).
During the week, each day would open with keynote speeches by renowned scientists from around the world. The programme would then continue with a set of six parallel sessions. The conference also included poster sessions, a conference dinner and field trips meant to provide the conference participants with a face-to-face encounter with Australian natural phenomena, including close-up encounters with the signature Northern Territory fauna, such as crocodiles, birds and sea turtles.
One of the field trips took participants to the uninhabited Bare Sand Island where they got the chance to see up close a Flatback sea turtle coming out of the water, making her nest and laying her eggs before making her way back to the waves under the cover of the night.
At the Pensoft stand, delegates met Pensoft’s Head of Journal development and PR: Iva Boyadzhieva, who would answer their questions about the various publishing opportunities and scholarly resources by the publisher, but also about the latest activities and results of the Horizon Europe-funded project SELINA (an acronym for Science for Evidence-based and Sustainable Decisions about Natural Capital).
Pensoft’s stand at the ESP11 conference in Darwin, Australia.
Having started in 2022 and set to run until 2027, SELINA comprises 50 partner organisations coordinated by the Leibniz University Hannover and Prof. Dr. Benjamin Burkhard (Leibniz University Hannover, Germany), who is also co-Chair of the ESP and Editor-in-Chief of the One Ecosystem journal. As an experienced science communicator and open-science publisher, at SELINA, Pensoft has been assigned to lead the project’s communication and dissemination activities.
The transdisciplinary project aims to provide smart, cost-effective, and nature-based solutions to historic societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and food security. One of the consortium’s main objectives is to identify biodiversity, ecosystem condition, and ecosystem service factors that can be successfully integrated into decision-making processes in both the public and private sectors.
Most recently, the consortium launched SELINA’s Communities of Practice initiative to promote collaborative learning and knowledge integration across Europe. This digital platform provides a forum for scientists, policymakers, practitioners, and business representatives to exchange knowledge and further engage with its real-life application. On the Communities of Practice, visitors may explore how SELINA is driving change across Europe.
Once again, all around the venue one could easily catch a glimpse of both local and exotic biodiversity that had taken cover on the laptops of the participants. The vivid stickers have become a signature Pensoft freebies that feature scientific illustration of species discussed in publications from across the publisher’s scholarly portfolio in a nod to the authors who have chosen a journal from the Pensoft scholarly portfolio.
Those who have missed the opportunity to sign up for those journals’ newsletters at the stand, can do this by filling in their email address from the homepage of the journal they fancy or by updating their profiles in the Pensoft system.
Understandably, the highlight in the Pensoft’s journal portfolio for ESP11 delegates was One Ecosystem, which was once born in a collaboration between Pensoft, the predecessor of SELINA: ESMERALDA, and the ESP community itself.
Since its launch in 2016, the open-access peer-reviewed journal has published about 200 research papers, including field-specific research outputs typically falling outside of what traditional scientific journals would see as a publication. These include Software description, Methods, Ecosystem Services Mapping, Ecosystem Accounting Table amongst others. You can find about the origins of One Ecosystem in the 2016 launching editorial. A few years ago, the journal became part of the scholarly literature databases of both Scopus and Web of Science. In fact, the latest Scopus CiteScore of One Ecosystem places the journal in Q1 in all five categories it has been assigned to.
At a special session within the ESP11 programme, Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Benjamin Burkhard welcomed various questions concerning the One Ecosystem journal.
As part of the ESP11 programme, a session dedicated on the open-science approach of One Ecosystem that relies on opening up diverse research outputs and data, in order to prompt transparency, reusability and interdisciplinary in ecological research. Together, Pensoft’s Iva Boyadzhieva, Editor-in-Chief Prof. Dr. Benjamin Burkhard and subject editor Dr. Paulo Pereira talked about the journal and addressed the questions of the audience, while also providing general advice on scholarly publishing and editorial work to early career researchers at the session.
The session also presented the announcement that in 2025, ESP members are eligible for a 10% discount on the APC at One Ecosystem.
As usual, the conference closed with an engaging and heart-warming ceremony, where the organisers paid another tribute to local communities and volunteers who made the event an unforgettable experience for everyone. The ceremony finished with the awards for the three best posters presented at ESP11.
Hamid Arrum Harahap was awarded first place for his poster “Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) to Climate Change for Indigenous Women in the Mentawai Islands and Aceh Singkil, Sumatra (Indonesia)”.
Hamid Arrum Harahap (Universitas Andalas, Indonesia), Nicole Boyd (Charles Darwin University) and Gail Sucharitakul (Imperial College of London, United Kingdom) were recognised for their research posters.
“My poster highlights the climate knowledge of Indigenous women in the Mentawai Islands and Aceh Singkil. Their voices are often underrepresented in climate discourse, despite contributing the least to climate change and being among the most affected by its impacts”
said first-place sitter Hamid Arrum Harahap about his poster, titled “Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (EbA) to Climate Change for Indigenous Women in the Mentawai Islands and Aceh Singkil, Sumatra (Indonesia)”.
“In regions where downscaling climate models is difficult, intergenerational knowledge passed through indigenous women is critical. Our study highlights that while our climate models from modern science are built on numbers and projections, Indigenous women’s climate memories are rooted in stories and emotions—together, they offer complementary insights for understanding and adapting to climate change.”
In addition to the prizes handed by the ESP, he received a waiver for a free publication at One Ecosystem from the journal’s publisher Pensoft.
“I plan to use this opportunity to publish my research on Indigenous knowledge and ecosystem services. I am currently working on two studies: one on the relational values of ecosystem services governance with Indigenous Batak communities, and the other on ecosystem-based adaptation and the vulnerability of ecosystem services to climate change, focusing on Indigenous women in Sumatra and Far North Queensland, Australia. I believe One Ecosystem is an ideal platform for this work, as it offers an innovative and accessible forum for multidisciplinary studies like mine and focusing on sustainability of the ecosystem.
he added.
Third-placed Gail Sucharitakul received a copy of “Mapping Ecosystem Service”: a best-seller in Pensoft’s scientific book portfolio, edited by Prof. Dr. Benjamin Burkhard and Dr. Joachim Maes (European Commission DG Environment): both well-renowned in the field and the ESP community scientists. Maes is also a Deputy Editor-in-Chief at One Ecosystem.
Now that the ESP11 World Conference has turned into a wonderful memory, we set our sights on the 2026 European conference, which will be taking place in historic Prague, Czech Republic. See you there!
Published in the open-access journal NeoBiota, and funded by the European Commission, a new study identifies where and how targeted action against IAS can have the highest conservation impact.
Researchers applied the IUCN Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric to measure opportunities for species threat abatement caused by IAS. They estimated that fully removing threats from IAS could reduce extinction risk for EU species by up to 16%.
Methodological outline for the different steps of the STAR-t analyses on Invasive Alien Species threats.
The Macaronesian Islands, namely the Canary Islands (Spain), Madeira (Portugal), and the Azores (Portugal), present the largest opportunities for reducing species extinction risk. The research calculates this at an over 40% reduction in extinction risk if IAS were eliminated, illustrating how IAS pose a significantly higher threat to islands compared to mainland ecosystems. Islands are particularly vulnerable due to their unique biodiversity, high levels of endemism, and often fragile ecosystems.
“Given the alarming impact that invasive alien species have on native biodiversity and the economy, it is essential to identify where action can have the greatest effect. In this context, our work presents the first regional application of the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric, a science-based method that links conservation actions to the reduction of species extinction risk. By applying STAR with data from the EU Red List of threatened species, we highlight opportunities for addressing invasive alien species across national and subnational levels in the EU.
Randall Jiménez Q., Senior Conservation Scientist, IUCN (first author of the research).
For specific IAS, the greatest opportunities to reduce regional species extinction risk by mitigating threats from IAS come from managing feral goats (12.4%), mouflons (8.1%), rabbits (5.3%) and rats (4.6%).
Contribution of IAS threat abatement to extinction risk reduction. Relative contribution (in percentage) to the species extinction risk reduction that could be met by acting to abate IAS threats in each of the EU Member States or Outermost Regions.
Invasive alien species are a major threat to global biodiversity and the total cost of biological invasions across all European Union member states has been estimated at 129.9 billion US dollars between 1960 and 2020. In Europe, measures for IAS management are mainly established through the European Union Biodiversity Strategy 2030, which aims to halve the number of IUCN Red List of Threatened Species at risk from IAS by 2030.
“Mitigating the impacts of invasive alien species offers some of the greatest potential gains for conserving native biodiversity, while also delivering benefits for ecosystem services and local economies.
“This analysis provides decision-makers with guidance on where efforts can achieve the most significant results, supporting progress toward the EU Biodiversity Strategy target of reducing impacts on threatened species from invasive alien species by 50%.”
BorisErg, IUCN European Regional Director.
Across the EU, 3,759 species (excluding marine animals) have been assessed as Near Threatened or Threatened with extinction, of which 579 (15%) are documented to be threatened by IAS (IUCN 2024).
A 2023 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found that IAS have been a significant driver in 60% of documented plant and animal extinctions. The report, informed by experts from the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG), identified 3,500 invasive species that are severely harming biodiversity and human livelihood. These are increasing rapidly, with a forecast increase of 36% by 2050 – posing threats to the realisation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
Original source:
Jiménez RR, Smith KG, Brooks TM, Scalera R, Mair L, Nunes AL, Costello KE, Macfarlane NBW (2025) Guiding action on invasive alien species towards meeting the EU’s Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. NeoBiota 99: 109–129. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.99.148323
Content from more than 30 biodiversity journals published on the ARPHA Platform will now be archived in the Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL), the world’s largest open-access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives.
A global consortium of natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries, BHL digitises and freely shares essential biodiversity materials. A critical resource for researchers, it provides vital access to material that might otherwise be difficult to obtain.
Under the agreement, over 16,000 articles published on Pensoft’s self-developed ARPHA Platform are now available on BHL. Both legacy content and new articles are made available on the platform, complete with full-text PDFs and all relevant metadata.
Thanks to this integration, content in our journals will become even more accessible and readily discoverable, helping researchers find the biodiversity information they need.
Prof. Lyubomir Penev
More content published on ARPHA will gradually be added to the BHL archive.
The publications will be included in the Library’s full-text search, allowing researchers to easily locate relevant biodiversity literature. Crucially, the scientific names within the articles will be indexed using the Global Names Architecture, enabling seamless discovery of information about specific taxa across the BHL collection.
“Pensoft is pleased to collaborate with BHL in our joint mission to support global biodiversity research through free access to knowledge. Thanks to this integration, content in our journals will become even more accessible and readily discoverable, helping researchers find the biodiversity information they need,” said Prof. Lyubomir Penev, CEO and founder of Pensoft and ARPHA.
The news comes soon after BHL announced it is about to face a major shift in its operation. From 2026, the Smithsonian Institution – one of BHL’s 10 founding members – will cease to host the administrative and technical components of BHL. As the consortium explores a range of options, the BHL team is confident that “the transition opens the door to a reimagined and more sustainable future for BHL.”
