Inspired by its seemingly doomed fate, the Colombian species was named after the protagonist of Gabriel García Márquez’s Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
When researchers discovered an unknown orchid species growing in the cloud forests and páramos of Colombia’s Western and Central Andes, they were struck by the iconic first line of Gabriel García Márquez’s 1981 novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold.
Lepanthesnasariana. A. Flower, frontal view; B. Leaf, showing its thick, succulent morphology; C. Habit of the plant, showing the growth form and habitat. Photographs by J.S. Moreno.
Found thriving in lush, humid habitats at altitudes between 2,800 and 3,600 metres, Lepanthes nasariana is currently assessed as “Least Concern” according to IUCN Red List criteria. But its discovery is shadowed by a grim future, and a team of Colombian botanists has issued an urgent wake-up call after projecting its likely extinction within decades due to climate change.
Drawing inspiration from the tragic fate of protagonist Santiago Nasar, the researchers have termed their finding the “Nasar Effect”: a phenomenon where new species are described even as their demise is foretold by the conditions that threaten them. In the novella, Nasar’s impending death is known to everyone but himself, reflecting the fate of this new species.
Gabriel García Márquez.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold cover.
Published in the open-access journal PhytoKeys, the researchers’ models show Lepanthes nasariana could lose up to 96% of its suitable habitat by 2090 under a worst-case climate scenario, shrinking the orchid’s presence to tiny refugia in just two Colombian national parks.
The projected impact of rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns would, under more severe climate projections, qualify it as “Critically Endangered” in less than a century. This trajectory is reflected in numerous high-Andean species, many still unknown to science, whose fates may soon be sealed by global warming.
Projected changes in the potential distribution of Lepanthes nasariana under future climate scenarios. A. scenario for 2070; B. scenario for 2070; C. scenario for 2090; D. scenario for 2090. Blue indicates stable habitat, red indicates habitat loss. Each map represents the ensemble average of multiple GCMs under intermediate (SSP2-4.5) and high (SSP5-8.5) greenhouse gas emission pathways.
“Like the fate of Santiago Nasar, Lepanthes nasariana lives under a prophecy it cannot hear. Its extinction foretold by the warming of the very clouds that cradle it. Yet, in naming it, we hope to break that spell, to remind the world that there is still time to change the ending,” said the research team behind the discovery.
Original source
Moreno JS, Herrera Cobo AT, Palacio RD, Hazzi NA (2025) Chronicle of a death foretold: Lepanthes nasariana (Orchidaceae, Pleurothallidinae), a newly described high-Andean orchid facing a worst-case climate change scenario. PhytoKeys 266: 219-240. https://doi.org/10.3897/phytokeys.266.161410
A new species of wolf snake was discovered from the Great Nicobar Islands, India.
Photo by Girish Choure.
Researchers R. S. Naveen and S. R. Chandramouli of the Pondicherry University, Zeeshan A. Mirza of the Max Planck Institute for Biology and Girish Choure of Pune published the discovery in the open-access journal Evolutionary Systematics.
Photo by S. R. Chandramouli.
The team named the new species Irwin’s wolf snake, or Lycodon irwini, after the late Stephen Robert Irwin, the renowned Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, and wildlife educator. “His passion and dedication to wildlife education and conservation have inspired naturalists and conservationists worldwide, including the authors of the paper,” they write in their study.
Photo by Girish Choure.
The adults of the new species are glossy black and can grow to a meter in length. The snakes are non-venomous and likely feed on reptiles, amphibians and small mammals. Currently, the species appears to the endemic to the Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Archipelago. Based on the narrow distribution range and potential human threats to the species, the authors suggest that it should be considered Endangered.
“New species continue to be discovered, exemplified by Lycodon irwini, highlighting the ongoing progress in taxonomy and the incomplete understanding of herpetofaunal diversity and distribution in the region,” the researchers write in their paper.
Research article:
Naveen RS, Mirza ZA, Choure G, Chandramouli SR (2025) A ‘Crikey’ new snake: An insular Lycodon Fitzinger, 1826 (Squamata, Colubridae) from the Nicobar Archipelago, India. Evolutionary Systematics 9(2): 221-228. https://doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.9.170645
Researchers have rediscoveredMoema claudiae, a species of seasonal killifish in Bolivia that was thought to be possibly extinct. This rediscovery provides new hope for the conservation of this unique fish and the diverse wetland habitats of the region.
Moemaclaudiae. Credit: Heinz Arno Drawert and Thomas Otto Litz.
Moema claudiae was last seen over 20 years ago in its original locality, in a site now destroyed and converted to agricultural land. Despite extensive surveys in recent years, no other living individuals had been found, and the species was deemed Critically Endangered according to IUCN criteria and thought to be possibly extinct.
However, in a recent expedition, researchers Heinz Arno Drawert and Thomas Otto Litz located a surviving population in a small, temporary pond within a remnant forest patch surrounded by farms.
Heinz Arno Drawert at the biotope where Moemaclaudiae was rediscovered in 2024. Credit: Heinz Arno Drawert and Thomas Otto Litz.
Published in the open-access journal Nature Conservation, this is the first record of the species in more than two decades and enabled scientists to take the first-ever live photographs, observe its behaviour, and study previously unknown aspects of its natural history.
Thomas Litz, one of the co-authors, said: “For me, it is something special to have rediscovered Moema claudiae. This has shown that we now have the opportunity to preserve this species in the wild. I am all the more pleased because Prof. Wilson Costa named this species after his wife Claudia, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him especially for decades of collaboration and support.”
Thomas Otto Litz.
Heinz Arno Drawert.
The rediscovered habitat harboured not only Moema claudiae but also six other species of seasonal killifish, making it the most genetically diverse assemblage of these fish ever documented worldwide. The region’s unique ecology, where the Amazon forest meets the Llanos de Moxos savannas, appears to support this diversity, but rapid deforestation and agricultural expansion threaten these habitats at an alarming rate.
Following this discovery, scientists emphasise the urgent need to protect the area, as it is now the only known site harbouring a wild population of Moema claudiae, as well as an exceptional global hotspot for seasonal killifish diversity.
Moemaclaudiae. Credit: Heinz Arno Drawert and Thomas Otto Litz.
Over the last 25 years, nearly 10 million hectares of forest have been lost in Bolivia, including vital wetland habitats. Deforestation has accelerated dramatically in recent years, raising serious concerns for the future of many unique species and ecosystems.
“Without rapid and effective action to curb the irrational expansion of the agricultural frontier in Bolivia’s lowlands, we risk losing some of the world’s most important terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and with them the irreplaceable goods and services they provide,” added co-author Heinz Drawert. “We cannot hope to achieve true social and economic wellbeing unless we also maintain the functionality of the ecosystems that sustain it.”
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.
A new study published in the open-access journal Nature Conservationassesses the threat status of bird species from Vietnam, underscoring the country’s critical conservation needs.
Vietnam is well known for its extraordinary level of biodiversity, particularly its very rich bird fauna. However, although the country is home to more than 900 species, co-author of the study Dr. Hung Le Manh stresses that no efforts had been made to assess their conservation status to better protect them from extinction risks.
Lesser fish eagle in Vietnam. Credit: Dr. Hung Le.
For this reason, the study provides a comprehensive list of bird species reported from Vietnam. It incorporates threat statuses, identifying avian richness hotspots and their coverage by the national protected area network. The implementation of the IUCN’s “One Plan Approach to Conservation” is also examined.
Prof. Dr. Truong Quang Nguyen highlights that 61 species are listed in the 2007 version of Vietnam Red Data Book, 112 species in the 2024 version, and 138 species are included under national decrees.
Streaked barwings in Vietnam. Credit: Dr. Hung Le.
Ass. Prof. Dr. Dennis Rödder from the Leibniz-Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB) stresses that highest bird species richness was found in northern and central Vietnam. The Mekong Delta is an important area for non-breeding species, but it had comparatively low protected area coverage.
Zoo databases show that 308 species are represented in zoo holdings, including 20 threatened and two threatened and endemic species. One of these species, the Vietnam pheasant, listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, has not been reported from the wild in Vietnam since 2000. It is one of the flagship species of the current VIETNAMAZING conservation campaign and network, and is set to be released back into the wild to restock the natural populations.
Vietnam pheasant at Hanoi Zoo. Credit: Thomas Ziegler.
The team led by Prof. Dr. Thomas Ziegler, Cologne Zoo and the Institute of Zoology at the University of Cologne, has contributed to identifying gaps in conservation of Vietnamese vertebrates. Three papers written by the team have already been published in Nature Conservation: amphibians (2022), reptiles (2023), and mammals (2024). These threat analyses are intended to accelerate effective conservation measures by implementing IUCN’s “One Plan Approach” and the “Reverse the Red” initiative.
“This updated avifaunal assessment underscores Vietnam’s critical conservation needs, highlighting areas for improved protection, integration of expanded ex situ conservation efforts, and alignment of legislation with global conservation priorities,” says Ass. Prof. Dr. Minh D. Le from Central Institute for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (CRES), Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam.
Original source
Ginal P, Hackenbroch H, Le Manh H, Nguyen TQ, Le MD, Rödder D, Ziegler T (2025) Assessment of the threat status of bird species from Vietnam – Implementation of the One Plan Approach to conservation. Nature Conservation 60: 49-72. https://doi.org/10.3897/natureconservation.60.162832
A new white paper delivers a clear message: protecting biodiversity is not just an environmental issue. It is essential for food security, public health, climate stability, and the global economy.
The authors make a call for a decisive shift: from fragmented initiatives to a holistic, global approach to biodiversity research and policy, already demonstrated during a workshop at the 79th United Nations General Assembly and the Science Summit (UNGA79). A key part of this transformation concerns the role of research infrastructures in connecting science, technology, and policy: from vast biodiversity collections and genomic observatories, to ecosystem “digital twins” powered by supercomputers.
Behind the paper are a network of legal entities based in Europe and holding global interests, which includes biodiversity, ecology, and engineering communities, coordinated by the LifeWatch European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC).
With their combined expertise and through European initiatives, such as Research Infrastructures, e-Infrastructures, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), the Digital Twin projects and academic publishers, these communities provide a basis for collaboration in strategically contributing to the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (K-M GBF) targets.
Biodiversity needs to be placed at the centre of the upcoming 2026 UN Summit of the Future and become a core pillar of the agenda after the 2030 deadline for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
The UN Pact for the Future should include biodiversity as a core pillar: “not only of environmental sustainability, but of equity, security, and intergenerational justice”.
urges the team.
To do this, the authors propose the establishment of a global alliance that will strategically integrate biodiversity conservation into the core priorities of the UN Summit of the Future and the post-SDG agenda.
This alliance is meant to join the voices of researchers, policymakers, indigenous knowledge holders, civil society, and industry to ensure that biodiversity underpins peace, prosperity, and justice as a universal enabler.
The white paper also demonstrates how the research infrastructures collectively contribute to the seven Strategic Considerations of the K-M GBF, outlined here in brief and further detailed in the full publication:
Contribution and rights of Indigenous Peoples and local communities: Ensuring fair recognition and sharing of benefits with indigenous peoples and local communities, thus integrating their knowledge into biodiversity science.
Collective efforts towards the targets of the K-M GBF: Coordinating biodiversity monitoring, databases, and digital infrastructures to track progress towards global conservation targets.
Fulfilment of the three principal objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its protocols: Studying or supporting the study of all aspects of biodiversity; and providing public and streamlined access to biodiversity information.
Implementation through science, technology, and innovation: Developing and offering technologically advanced and novel solutions for research, data sharing and management to various users; and promoting open science by publishing research findings and increasingly sharing more facets of the research process.
Ecosystem approach: Developing and implementing technologies that enable a cross-domain, multidisciplinary approach to studying biodiversity and ecosystems; and using holistic, cross-disciplinary methods to understand and predict biodiversity and environmental dynamics.
Cooperation synergies: Collaborating with organisations responsible for implementing the CBD, policy agents, international research projects; and participating in international forums and social, scientific and technical initiatives.
Biodiversity and health linkages: Demonstrating how healthy ecosystems support human health, food security, and resilience to pandemics by supporting interdisciplinary research through bringing together knowledge and data and uncovering links and interactions between humans and the environment.
“With the UN’s ‘Pact for the Future’ currently being shaped, we see a unique opportunity to anchor biodiversity as a unifying thread across global goals that will transform how societies respond to the intertwined crises of climate change, nature loss, and pollution,” say the authors.
The white paper is the latest contribution to the LifeWatch ERIC Strategic Working Plan Outcomes open-science collection meant to provide a one-stop access point to the most important deliverables by the European biodiversity and ecosystem research infrastructure, which is currently undergoing a significant upgrade as a response to the needs of its target communities and stakeholders.
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Original source:
Arvanitidis C, Barov B, Gonzalez Ferreiro M, Zuquim G, Kirrane D, Huertas Olivares C, Drago F, Pade N, Basset A, Deneudt K, Koureas D, Manola N, Mietchen D, Casino A, Penev L, Ioannidis Y (2025) From Knowledge to Solutions: Science, Technology and Innovation in Support of the UN SDGs. Research Ideas and Outcomes 11: e168765. https://doi.org/10.3897/rio.11.e168765
This publication is part of a collection:
LifeWatch ERIC Strategic Working Plan Outcomes Edited by Christos Arvanitidis, Cristina Huertas, Alberto Basset, Peter van Tienderen, Cristina Di Muri, Vasilis Gerovasileiou, Ana Mellado
Europe’s biodiversity and ecosystem research infrastructure. LifeWatch ERIC provides access to biodiversity and ecosystem data, services and other research products: its virtual workbenches and digital twins for biodiversity science enable researchers worldwide to analyse biodiversity patterns, processes, and changes in ecosystems, and derive evidence-based knowledge for science and policy.
CSC hosts one of the world’s most powerful supercomputers (LUMI), pioneering biodiversity digital twins and climate models. CSC provides critical support for data-intensive projects that link computing, AI, and environmental science.
A federation of hundreds of data centres providing global-scale computing, AI, and data services. EGI enables large-scale analysis of biodiversity and environmental data from sensors and satellites, supporting international collaboration.
A hub for marine research, coordinating Europe’s Digital Twin of the Ocean and global biodiversity data systems, such as WoRMS (World Register of Marine Species). VLIZ drives blue innovation and ocean data integration.
Europe’s infrastructure for marine biology, offering access to organisms, labs, and genomic observatories. EMBRC connects over 70 institutes across 10 countries, supporting research “from genes to ecosystems.”
The largest initiative to digitise and unify Europe’s natural science collections into a single, FAIR-data-based infrastructure. DiSSCo makes museum collections globally accessible, boosting taxonomic, ecological, and environmental research.
A European e-Infrastructure dedicated to building a globally connected, interoperable, and sustainable open research ecosystem, with Open Science at its core. By offering a suite of services covering the entire research lifecycle, guidelines, and practices that support the adoption of Open Access and FAIR data principles across its network of National Open Access Desks in 34 countries, OpenAIRE supports local researchers, funders, and policymakers in aligning with European and global open science policies.
Founded in 1992 “by scientists, for scientists”, the academic open-access publishing company is well known worldwide for its novel cutting-edge publishing tools, workflows and methods for text and data publishing of journals, books and conference materials. Through its Research and Technical Development department, the company is involved in various research and technology projects. Pensoft coordinated the EU project BiCIKL (2021-2024), which established a new community of Research Infrastructures and users of FAIR and interlinked biodiversity data.
The world’s largest computing society, established to foster ethical and responsible innovation. ACM brings global expertise in computing and AI to biodiversity research and policy.
A leading ICT and AI research institute advancing digital infrastructures and open science platforms. Athena connects computing innovation with biodiversity, humanities, and societal challenges.
That’s not just a question for crime shows. It’s also exactly what we want to ask every pollinating insect we catch. Who are you – which species? And what have you done – which flowers have you visited, carrying pollen from one to the next? And these questions are important!
Do you like chocolate? Or maybe coffee? How about apples, strawberries, or cherries? All of them need insect pollinators. Unfortunately, many insects are in decline, threatening the stability of ecosystems. Studying them is more important than ever. Traditionally, researchers relied on field observations of foraging behaviour. But these are time-consuming and can never capture the full picture. That’s why many groups now use genetic approaches, studying the pollen carried by insects. This method is called pollen-metabarcoding, where a short genetic sequence from a specific region (in our case, ITS2) can identify the plant species that pollen belongs to.
There’s just one catch: collecting pollen often means killing the insect. Lethal sampling does have its merits – the preserved specimen can be used to answer other questions in the future, for example. But in our case, it felt counterintuitive. We want to study species that might already be endangered, and killing them could worsen their situation. So we had to find another way.
In the field, we found queen-marker cages easy to use and really helpful to get the genetic material we need for our analyses. Credit: Willi Müller.
Enter: the queen-marker cage. This tool – borrowed from beekeepers – is a plastic tube with a mesh at one end and a plunger at the other. We used it to capture a bumble bee, immobilize it, and remove its pollen. The mesh is also large enough to clip one of the bee’s feet – in insects, this part is called the tarsus. That may sound harsh, but it doesn’t significantly affect the animal. During our collection, we observed those five-footed bumble bees visiting flowers and gathering pollen in the days after release, with no difference to their six-footed counterparts.
The mesh of the queen-marker cage is just big enough for a fine pair of scissors to fit through the holes and allow for precise clipping of the bumble bee’s tarsus, here Bombus lucorum agg.
But why take a bee’s foot in the first place? Many animal groups include cryptic species – species that look almost identical, even to experts. Bumble bees are no exception. The only reliable way to tell these look-alike species apart is through DNA barcoding, often using the COI gene. A single clipped foot provides just enough tissue to barcode the bee itself, in addition to analyzing the pollen it carried.
Of course, the work doesn’t end in the field. Once we had the samples, the real detective work started in the lab. And as everyone with hay fever knows: pollen gets everywhere. To avoid contamination, we processed everything in a special clean lab, wearing full-body protective suits. It may seem over the top, but when you’re working with invisible grains of pollen, even the smallest contamination can skew the results.
As pollen is everywhere, we had to use a special clean lab with the corresponding attire.
And in the end, it worked! Our results matched expectations: we detected a cryptic species (fittingly named Bombus cryptarum), we saw that the longest flowers were visited only by bumble bees with the longest tongues, and the pollen we identified came from plants flowering at our study sites during collection.
Now we have a simple and non-lethal way to gather the genetic material needed to identify pollinators and the flowers they visit, answering ‘Who are you, and what have you done?’ – without adding pressure to vulnerable insect populations.
Studying pollination helps us understand and protect ecosystems. Bombus lucorum agg. and Apis mellifera on Phacelia tanacetifolia. Credit: Anna Wurster.
Orignal source
Edwards A, Gemeinholzer B (2025) Case study of non-lethal sampling for plant-pollinator networks via barcoding and metabarcoding on bumble bees in Germany. Metabarcoding and Metagenomics 9: e141904. https://doi.org/10.3897/mbmg.9.141904
Follow Metabarcoding and Metagenomics on Bluesky and Facebook.
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.
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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.
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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.
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
Launched in June 2024, the Horizon Europe-funded project: Fostering European Lakes Restoration by Nutrient Removal, Recovery and Reuse: Integrated Catchment and In-lake Scale Approach (FERRO) – brings together scientists, engineers, and environmental experts from across Europe to develop innovative, nature-based, and circular solutions to reduce nutrient pollution in freshwater ecosystems.
Eutrophication, caused by excessive nutrients, such as phosphorus and nitrogen that enter lakes and reservoirs, remains one of the most pervasive threats to freshwater bodies. These excess nutrients often originate from agricultural runoff and wastewater discharges, resulting in algal blooms, oxygen depletion, and biodiversity loss.
FERRO addresses these challenges by working at both catchment scale and in-lake level, aiming not only toremove harmful nutrients, but also to recover and reuse them – aligning with Europe’s goals for circular economy and sustainable water management.
With a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary collaboration, FERRO combines natural science, engineering, economics, and policy to develop scalable restoration strategies adaptable across Europe’s diverse lake regions.
The FERRO consortium
FERRO unites seven partners from six European countries, each contributing unique expertise to the project’s holistic approach:
Together, these organisations form a powerhouse of knowledge, experience, and innovation in the fields of limnology, hydrology, environmental policy, circular resource use and communications.
Pensoft’s role in FERRO
As the leader of the Communication and Dissemination Work Package #2, Pensoft plays a key role in ensuring that FERRO’s results and insights reach the widest possible audience. The responsibilities include the development and maintenance of the project’s visual identity and digital presence, managing media relations, producing public outreach materials, and facilitating knowledge exchange between scientific, policy, and stakeholder communities. Pensoft also supports the strategic dissemination of scientific outputs and policy-relevant findings, ensuring alignment with the project’s broader impact goals.
FERRO marked its first anniversary with a successful General Assembly meeting held in Leipzig, Germany, between 20th and 22nd May. Over the three-day meeting, the project partners gathered to reflect on the progress achieved during the first year, align their visions for the project’s future, and collaboratively plan the next phases of implementation
As the project entered its second year, the Leipzig meeting served as a moment to evaluate initial findings, refine methodologies, and strengthen engagement with stakeholders at local, regional, and EU levels. The outcomes will guide the FERRO consortium in its continued efforts to advance lake restoration across Europe.
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Stay tuned for more updates as the FERRO project continues to develop and implement its solutions for healthier lakes and more sustainable nutrient management across Europe!
