The Mediterranean Basin is a biodiversity hotspot facing increasing degradation due to climate change and unsustainable forest management. Although recent land-use changes have led to forest expansion, these forests are often structurally simple, limiting biodiversity and increasing wildfire risk. Enhancing forest structural complexity has become a key management goal, yet practical indicators for assessing biodiversity across large, forested regions remain limited. This study investigates how forest structural features affect bird abundance across a Mediterranean landscape in northeastern Iberia, aiming to identify species that can serve as indicators of Mediterranean forests quality. We modeled the abundance of 43 forest bird species as a function of remotely sensed forest structural attributes, composition, and regional environmental variables. Many generalist species showed low sensitivity to forest structure or yielded poorly fitting models, leaving only 16 species with models showing good fit to the data. For these species, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) and coefficient comparisons revealed that forest composition and elevation were the main drivers of bird abundance, while structural attributes were especially relevant for canopy and cavity specialists. Our findings highlight the hierarchical nature of species-habitat relationships, where broad environmental gradients shape species distributions, and local structural attributes modulate abundance. These results have direct implications for refining biodiversity indicators and designing regionally tailored forest management strategies. By identifying species most responsive to structural variation, this study contributes to more targeted and ecologically informed approaches to forest restoration in Mediterranean landscapes.

The operationalisation of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) is critical for assessing whether conservation and restoration measures effectively meet the biodiversity objectives outlined in national and international commitments such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. EBVs provide a standardized framework of biological measurements that enable the evaluation, reporting, and management of biodiversity changes across time, space, and biological levels. At the EU scale, the Europa Biodiversity Observation Network (EuropaBON) identified 84 EBVs that are key to supporting EU environmental policies. Here, we evaluated 17 coordinated European monitoring programmes to identify bottlenecks in biodiversity data flows that could operationalise EBVs across freshwater, terrestrial, and marine realms in Europe. We evaluated these bottlenecks using a qualitative framework applicable across taxonomic, spatio-temporal, and ecosystem scales. Our analysis identified several persistent challenges to the operationalisation of EBVs at supranational scales: misalignment between monitoring data outputs and EBV definitions; insufficient taxonomic, spatial, and temporal coverage; limited open access to raw data and data products, and incomplete automation of end-to-end data workflows. Certain taxonomic groups—including freshwater zooplankton, lichens, terrestrial arthropods, and crop pests—remain underrepresented, while marine EBVs are constrained by fragmented monitoring and inconsistent protocols. To overcome these challenges, securing long-term funding, coordinated hubs, harmonized protocols, and enhanced data integration are essential. These measures will enable the delivery of EBVs in Europe that comply with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) principles, supporting robust biodiversity policy assessments in Europe.

In response to increasing human pressures on biodiversity, conservation targets have been set to reduce these pressures and halt biodiversity decline. However, consequences of these objectives on common species are rarely studied. We analyse the effect of a range of drivers related to climate, land use and land-use intensity on 265 common bird and 144 common butterfly species from more than 20,000 sites between 2000 and 2021 across 27 European countries. We use land use and land-use intensity scenarios produced previously using the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Nature Futures Framework and climate change scenarios to project biodiversity drivers in Europe up to 2050. We translate these driver changes into abundance variations for common bird and butterfly species and for multi-species indicators used to monitor common biodiversity status in Europe. The projected trends relatively improve, while still declining for birds, notably farmland species, under the scenarios meeting conservation objectives, with few effects on butterflies. No scenario shows a stop or a reversal in the average decline in abundance of bird and butterfly species. Our results therefore question the common biodiversity future under current conservation policies and highlight the need for other anticipatory frameworks not implicitly based on a growing need for natural resources.

Biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented pace, eroding the planet’s natural heritage and destabilizing the ecosystems that sustain societies and economies. Meeting global commitments — from the Kunming–Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to the European Green Deal — demands precise and consistent tracking of biodiversity change from genes to ecosystems. Yet current monitoring is fragmented, uneven and rarely integrated across borders. Here, we present a Roadmap for a unified, transnational biodiversity observation system in Europe built around 84 Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs). The Roadmap combines traditional field surveys, satellite and airborne remote sensing, DNA-based methods, citizen science and emerging in situ sensors within an optimized spatial design to close taxonomic and geographic gaps. Standardized data sharing, coordinated governance and advanced modelling will fuse these streams into policy-ready insights. A proposed European Biodiversity Observation Coordination Centre (EBOCC) would oversee the network, ensuring interoperability, scalability and alignment with policy needs. By delivering a scalable architecture for biodiversity monitoring, this framework will enable rapid detection of ecological change, strengthen conservation actions and safeguard the natural systems that underpin human well-being — offering Europe a path to meet its biodiversity goals and a global template for coordinated, transnational, open and technology-enabled observation. Understanding biodiversity loss and achieving global commitments requires effective biodiversity monitoring. This Roadmap outlines the necessary steps to achieve a transnational European Biodiversity Observation Network built around Essential Biodiversity Variables, combining targeted sensing methods, spatial design, data sharing, data integration and modelling workflows, and coordinated governance to deliver policy-ready insights.

Despite the prevalence of forest disturbances, their effects on bird abundance are poorly understood on a continental scale. Near future harvest rates and natural disturbances will likely increase, thus quantifying the influence of disturbances on biodiversity is increasingly important to plan conservation. We studied the influence of forest disturbances on the abundance of 107 bird species across 25 European countries between 2000 and 2022. We explored the response of birds associated with different habitats, the influence of forest cover and time since the disturbance, comparing results at continental and regional scales. 95 species responded significantly to disturbances, mostly negatively. Forest-associated birds responded mostly negatively, while shrub and edge birds showed a higher proportion of positive responses. Open habitat birds had few statistically significant responses with mixed directions. Forest cover negatively influenced the effect of disturbance on abundance. Responses varied among regions, reflecting differences in community composition and landscape characteristics. Importantly, for 21% of species the response direction changed between region and/or forest cover. These findings suggest that forest disturbances, dominated by clear-cut harvesting, exert a mostly negative influence on birds across Europe, requiring adaptive forest management strategies for avian conservation.

Recent advances in machine learning have accelerated automated species detection across diverse ecological domains, enabling large-scale, non-invasive monitoring of biodiversity. In ornithological research, the combination of passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) and rapidly-developing novel identification tools such as BirdNET—a deep learning–based sound recognition algorithm—offers new opportunities for surveying vocally active bird communities. Here, we present the first worldwide evaluation of BirdNET using 4224 one-minute recordings from 67 sites across all continents annotated by local experts. More specifically, we assessed the capacity of BirdNET to accurately identify individual vocalizations and characterize bird communities based on the automated analysis of passively collected soundscapes. We further analyzed how its performance varies across continents, biomes, species, and minimum confidence thresholds. The proportion of correct BirdNET predictions (precision) was generally high and consistent across continents (range: 0.57–0.71) and biomes (range: 0.55–0.76). In contrast, the proportion of vocalizations successfully detected (recall) was generally lower and more heterogeneous across continents (range: 0.24–0.52) and biomes (range: 0.34–0.72), reflecting differences in species coverage and local ecological context. BirdNET predictive power, as measured by the Precision-Recall Area Under the Curve (PR AUC; higher values indicating better performance), was highest in North America, Oceania, and Europe (range: 0.16–0.23), moderate in Central/South America (0.13), and lowest in Africa and Asia (range: 0.03–0.04). Species-specific analyses revealed substantial heterogeneity in detection accuracy, with optimal confidence thresholds varying widely by species and analytical goal. Our results establish a global reference point for BirdNET reliability and highlight where algorithmic refinement and expanded acoustic sampling are most needed.

Knowledge of species distributions is essential for informing policies on nature conservation and restoration. However, updating them on a regular basis and doing so in a harmonized manner at the international level is difficult. The European Bird Census Council integrated national monitoring data covering 5 years to update farmland bird distributions and assessed how they changed. We used these data on 50 farmland bird species to generate 10×10 km maps showing their probability of occurrence from 2018 to 2022. We produced these maps with weighted ensemble species distribution models. We also developed models for the previous 5 years and plotted the differences in probabilities of occurrence per 10 × 10-km area between the two periods as calibrated change maps. We evaluated model performance at continental and regional levels and interpreted changes in probability of occurrence in relation to known abundance trends. Models showed good predictive performance (mean AUC ≈ 0.84; mean squared error ≈ 0.13). Change estimates were reliable for 43 species (high accuracy, low bias), and distribution changes were positively correlated with independent abundance trends (Pearson's r ≈ 0.50). Thus, the distribution maps for the two periods accurately captured species' distribution patterns and their temporal changes for all species at the European scale and for the majority of species in all regions except southeastern Europe. Among the 43 species with reliable estimates, predicted occurrences declined for 33 species, increased for nine, and were the same for one species. For most species, the direction of change in distribution was consistent with changes in species overall abundance in the same period, except for four species. Overall, our results indicated a recent contraction of farmland bird distributions in Europe, highlighting the strong capacity of existing bird monitoring networks to provide continent-wide species maps that can be updated regularly.

The operationalisation of Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) is critical for assessing whether conservation and restoration measures effectively meet the biodiversity objectives outlined in national and international commitments such as the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. EBVs provide a standardized framework of biological measurements that enable the evaluation, reporting, and management of biodiversity changes across time, space, and biological levels. At the EU scale, the Europa Biodiversity Observation Network (EuropaBON) identified 84 EBVs that are key to supporting EU environmental policies. Here, we evaluated 17 coordinated European monitoring programmes to identify bottlenecks in biodiversity data flows that could operationalise EBVs across freshwater, terrestrial, and marine realms in Europe. We evaluated these bottlenecks using a qualitative framework applicable across taxonomic, spatio-temporal, and ecosystem scales. Our analysis identified several persistent challenges to the operationalisation of EBVs at supranational scales: misalignment between monitoring data outputs and EBV definitions; insufficient taxonomic, spatial, and temporal coverage; limited open access to raw data and data products, and incomplete automation of end-to-end data workflows. Certain taxonomic groups-including freshwater zooplankton, lichens, terrestrial arthropods, and crop pests-remain underrepresented, while marine EBVs are constrained by fragmented monitoring and inconsistent protocols. To overcome these challenges, securing long-term funding, coordinated hubs, harmonized protocols, and enhanced data integration are essential. These measures will enable the delivery of EBVs in Europe that comply with FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) and CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) principles, supporting robust biodiversity policy assessments in Europe.

The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework calls for restoring at least 30% of degraded ecosystems by 2030, while the IPCC and IPBES emphasize restoration as central to addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. Rewilding, defined as the promotion of self-sustaining, complex ecosystems through minimal human intervention, has emerged as a prominent restoration strategy, yet its climate change mitigation potential is often underexplored. Here, we propose a climate-smart rewilding framework that explicitly integrates biodiversity recovery with climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and socio-economic considerations. Using Europe as a case study, we map potential synergies and trade-offs among carbon sequestration, ecosystem resilience to climate change, wildlife-based tourism opportunities, and the risk of livestock predator conflict. We argue that this integrative framework provides a practical basis for identifying and assessing restoration strategies that deliver multiple benefits across regional and continental scales.

Abstract Ecological surveys are often fragmented, costly and limited in scale, leading to large and long‐standing knowledge gaps which threaten our ability to properly safeguard biodiversity. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) has promised to deliver automated biodiversity monitoring, but networks are rarely deployed on scales that can offer truly novel insights due to scalability and standardization challenges around collecting, managing, analysing and sharing data. Here we present the Transnational Acoustic Biodiversity Monitoring Network (TABMON), a standardized deployment of 108 autonomous sensors across Norway, the Netherlands, France and Spain along a continental bird migration route. Audio is recorded continuously, uploaded in near real‐time and processed through an automated analysis pipeline designed to support expert validation and the generation of datasets for deriving Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs). TABMON provides a methodological blueprint for transnational, networked PAM deployments and highlights both the opportunities and current limitations of near real‐time acoustic biodiversity monitoring at continental scales.

Under the current global biodiversity crisis, there is a need for automated and noninvasive monitoring techniques that can gather large amounts of data cost-effectively at various ecological scales, from local to large spatial scales. These data can then be analyzed to inform stakeholders and decision-makers. One such technique is passive acoustic monitoring, which is commonly coupled with automatic identification of animal species based on their sound. Automated sound analyses usually require the training of sound detection and identification algorithms. These algorithms are based on annotated acoustic datasets which mark the occurrence of sounds of species inside sound recordings. However, compiling large annotated acoustic datasets is time-consuming and requires experts, and therefore, they normally cover reduced spatial, temporal, and taxonomic scales. This data paper presents WABAD, the World Annotated Bird Acoustic Dataset for passive acoustic monitoring. WABAD is designed to provide the public, the research community, and conservation managers with a novel and globally representative annotated acoustic dataset. This database includes 5047 min of audio files annotated to species-level by local experts with the start and end time and the upper and lower frequencies of each identified bird vocalization in the recordings. The database has a wide taxonomic and spatial coverage, including information on 91,931 vocalizations from 1192 bird species recorded at 72 recording sites in 29 recording locations (mainly countries) and distributed across 13 biomes. WABAD can be used, for example, for developing and/or validating automatic species detection algorithms, answering ecological questions, such as assessing geographical variations on bird vocalizations, or comparing acoustic diversity indices with species-based diversity indices. The dataset is published under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license that permits redistribution and reuse on the condition that the original work is properly credited.

While disturbances are essential for biodiversity, their escalation driven by climate change may threaten forest ecosystems. Contrasting approaches to adapt forests to disturbances-intensifying management versus encouraging natural succession towards more mature ecosystems-have sparked a debate about whether protection influences forests' vulnerability to disturbance. This question, however, has barely been investigated. Natura 2000 network is the backbone of biodiversity protection in Europe. We compared the long-term incidence of harvesting, wildfires and drought-driven forest dieback inside and outside Natura 2000 areas in Catalonia (NE Spain) by combining remote sensing-derived maps of harvesting and wildfires (1985-2023), an exhaustive ground survey on forest dieback (2012-2023) and forest characteristics extracted from 3400 permanent plots inventoried in 1990, 2000 and 2015. From 1985 to 2023, remote sensing-identified wildfires and harvesting affected 20% of the total forest area, with 60% attributed to harvesting and 40% to wildfires, highlighting the strong influence of wildfires on Mediterranean landscapes. From 2012 to 2023, the forest area affected by drought-driven dieback (11%) matched the sum of the area of wildfires and harvesting for the same period or that of wildfires for 40 years, which suggests an increasing impact of drought-driven dieback. Harvesting occurrence and intensity were significantly higher outside Natura 2000 sites, whereas protection did not influence wildfires or dieback, triggered by environmental and forest characteristics, that is, bioclimatic region, topography or leaf habit. Ultimately, a higher harvesting intensity did not prevent forests from experiencing drought-driven dieback later. Synthesis and applications. Lower forest harvesting in Natura 2000 sites may align with socio-economic barriers often claimed by local communities, but protection does not influence vulnerability to other disturbances. In a general scenario of reduced forest harvesting in the region, we argue that differences in harvesting due to protection are statistically significant but ecologically irrelevant in influencing wildfires or drought-driven dieback. Moreover, beyond protection status, the lack of effects of the current harvesting intensities in halting drought-driven dieback suggests they may be insufficient for supporting forests' adaptation to climate change. Additionally, other measures (e.g. promoting more drought-tolerant tree species and genotypes) should also be considered. Aunque las perturbaciones son esenciales para el mantenimiento de la biodiversidad, su intensificaci & oacute;n impulsada por el cambio clim & aacute;tico amenaza a los ecosistemas forestales. En este contexto, enfoques contrapuestos para adaptar los bosques a esta nueva realidad-como aumentar la gesti & oacute;n o fomentar la sucesi & oacute;n natural hacia ecosistemas m & aacute;s maduros-ha generado un debate sobre si la protecci & oacute;n puede influir en la vulnerabilidad de los bosques al aumento de perturbaciones. Sin embargo, esta cuesti & oacute;n apenas ha sido investigada. La red Natura 2000 es la columna vertebral de la protecci & oacute;n de la biodiversidad en Europa. En este estudio comparamos la incidencia a largo plazo de la gesti & oacute;n forestal, los incendios y el decaimiento inducido por sequ & iacute;a, dentro y fuera de & aacute;reas Natura 2000 en Catalu & ntilde;a (NE de Espa & ntilde;a), combinando mapas de cortas e incendios identificados mediante teledetecci & oacute;n (1985-2023), un exhaustivo muestreo de campo sobre decaimiento forestal (2012-2023) y las caracter & iacute;sticas forestales extra & iacute;das de 3.400 parcelas permanentes inventariadas en 1990, 2000 y 2015. De 1985 a 2023, los incendios forestales y las cortas identificados mediante teledetecci & oacute;n afectaron al 20 % de la superficie forestal total, con un 60 % atribuido a cortas y un 40 % a incendios, lo que pone de manifiesto la fuerte influencia de los incendios en los paisajes mediterr & aacute;neos. De 2012 a 2023, la superficie forestal afectada por decaimiento inducido por sequ & iacute;a (11 %) igual & oacute; a la suma de la superficie afectada por incendios y cortas en ese mismo periodo, o la de los incendios durante 40 a & ntilde;os, lo que sugiere un impacto creciente del decaimiento inducido por sequ & iacute;as extremas. La ocurrencia e intensidad de las cortas fueron significativamente mayores fuera de los espacios Natura 2000, mientras que la protecci & oacute;n no influy & oacute; en los incendios ni en el decaimiento, que estuvieron influenciados por caracter & iacute;sticas ambientales y del tipo de bosque, como la regi & oacute;n bioclim & aacute;tica, la topograf & iacute;a o el tipo de hoja. En & uacute;ltima instancia, una mayor intensidad de corta no evit & oacute; que los bosques experimentaran posteriormente decaimiento inducido por sequ & iacute;a. S & iacute;ntesis y aplicaciones. La menor intensidad de aprovechamiento forestal en los espacios Natura 2000 puede obedecer a las barreras socioecon & oacute;micas a menudo se & ntilde;aladas por las comunidades locales, pero la protecci & oacute;n no influye en la vulnerabilidad frente a otras perturbaciones. En un escenario general de escaso aprovechamiento forestal en la regi & oacute;n, creemos que las diferencias en las cortas debidas a la protecci & oacute;n son estad & iacute;sticamente significativas, pero ecol & oacute;gicamente irrelevantes a la hora de influir en los incendios forestales o en el decaimiento inducido por la sequ & iacute;a. Adem & aacute;s, m & aacute;s all & aacute; del estatus de protecci & oacute;n, la falta de efecto de las intensidades de corta actuales para frenar el decaimiento por sequ & iacute;a sugiere que estas pueden ser insuficientes para favorecer la adaptaci & oacute;n de los bosques al cambio clim & aacute;tico. En este sentido, deber & iacute;an considerarse otras medidas, como por ejemplo, promover especies y genotipos m & aacute;s tolerantes a la sequ & iacute;

Identifying where and how anthropogenic drivers affect biodiversity is essential for effective conservation and restoration planning. Drivers impact mapping is an important tool to achieve this goal. Species select habitats with attributes that support key ecological functions, such as reproduction, foraging, and refuge; collectively referred to as habitat requirements. Traditional risk mapping often focuses solely on mapping drivers, overlooking species-specific ecological responses mediated through impacts on these habitat requirements. Building on the understanding that species’ sensitivity to drivers is strongly influenced by the availability of their habitat requirements, we present a novel framework that integrates habitat requirements availability into assessments of driver impacts on species distributions. We compared three methodological approaches: a classical model based on standalone drivers’ intensity, a statistical species-driver approach and specific habitat-driver interaction approach incorporating interactions between habitat requirement availability and drivers from a heuristic perspective. These approaches were applied to seven bird species associated with open habitats in Catalonia (NE Spain) and validated against observed distributional changes from two breeding bird atlases spanning a 15-year interval. Our results show that the interaction-based approach improves the understanding of spatial patterns changes of species distribution shifts. Although the magnitude of this improvement depends on the validation framework. Under AUC-based pairwise comparisons, where colonisations and extinctions are evaluated separately, the advantage is modest and context-dependent. In contrast, the Temporal Validation framework reveals a clearer and more consistent improvement, particularly in capturing the ecological consistency between impact gradients and observed changes. These findings highlight the importance of integrating interactions between environmental drivers and species’ habitat requirements into impact mapping, providing robust support for impact attribution and for informing conservation and restoration actions.

The United Nations and European Union have set ambitious conservation goals to halt and reverse declines in biodiversity by protecting 30% of land and sea areas by 2030. Effective conservation planning requires evidence-based spatial prioritization to maximize the coverage of species within designated protected areas. Based on a pan-European database for occurrence and abundance of breeding birds collected in the 2010s, we applied the Zonation algorithm to identify key areas that would maximize the protection of ranges and populations for 435 species of breeding birds across Europe using either continental or national prioritization targets. When 30% of Europe's highest priority terrestrial areas were selected by the algorithm, 49% of species' ranges and 63% of species' populations were protected. When 10% and 30% of the highest priority lands were selected, compared with prioritization using occurrence data, prioritization using abundance data resulted in a higher percentage of species' populations, especially rare and range-restricted species, being represented for protected area coverage. Stratifying prioritization by habitat criteria greatly enhanced habitat-specific conservation efficiency, enabling coverage of over 80% of breeding bird species' populations in tundra, Mediterranean, and coastal habitats with a selection of 10% of the highest priority areas for each. Our prioritization supports international targets adopted under the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by identifying key areas and providing a roadmap to guide optimal site protection and conservation planning in Europe.

This paper aims to present insights about the beneficial use of fire within a strategic and operational framework, providing actions for better adaptation to fire regime shifts in the face of climate change and land use changes. Supported by transdisciplinary analysis and aimed at supporting an actual regulation in the Aran ( 600 km2 in the Spanish Pyrenees), our case study focuses on creating a management path toward landscape resilience at the social and ecological level. We present a novel approach for fire management in Europe, where fire is no longer treated as an isolated, unpredicted, and unwanted element but where the fire regime (considering both wildfires and prescribed burns) is managed as a whole and under changing conditions. Under this approach, some unplanned ignitions represent a window of opportunity where emergency responders can turn wildfire incidents into land management goals. This way, the present framework helps to reduce uncertainty by proactively anticipating plausible future scenarios. In addition, the subjacent strategic innovation dissolves the trap linked to fully aggressive fire suppression strategies, proposing a transformative role for emergency management organizations to overcome the burden of extinction everywhere, every time. This work highlights the importance of understanding fire complexity through transdisciplinary knowledge, acknowledging its historical significance for rural populations, and recognizing fire as a cultural heritage and essential ecological process that shapes the landscape. The study expects to serve as a catalyst for fire resilience in the region and inspire other mountainous areas to address similar challenges posed by global change.

Rewilding is one approach to restoration that aims at restoring natural self-sustaining ecosystems, allowing natural processes to resume by targeting an increase in trophic complexity, disturbance stochasticity, and dispersal, while minimizing human interventions. These components have also been argued to enhance ecosystem resilience, yet this claim has barely been specifically addressed. We conducted a meta-analysis to explore whether rewilding interventions aimed at increasing biodiversity (i.e., trophic complexity), disturbance stochasticity or connectivity increase ecosystem resilience to future abiotic and biotic disturbances. We integrated two recently developed operational frameworks to address rewilding and resilience and scrutinized the outcomes of 42 case studies (305 observations). We found that, overall, the three abovementioned rewilding components increased resilience of variables related to demography, biodiversity, biophysical characteristics and the disturbance regime characteristics (70% of observations). Yet, this result was influenced by the nature of the disturbance and the resilience approach, with lower success reported for abiotic disturbances (drought and fire) and social-ecological resilience. While interventions targeting only disturbance stochasticity or biodiversity and disturbance stochasticity together showed positive effects, interventions targeting the trophic complexity alone contributed less to system variables related to biodiversity. The most common rewilding interventions, such as domestic and wild herbivore introductions and invasive plant removals, enhanced resilience towards biotic disturbances (i.e., invasions). We also found that some particular resilience contexts (social-ecological systems) lack sufficient observations to allow clear conclusions. Overall, our results empirically demonstrate the predominantly positive effects of rewilding on ecosystem resilience, underpinning the potential of this approach for preparing ecosystems for the uncertain effects of increasing climate change and associated disturbances yet acknowledging some limitations depending on the nature of the disturbance.

Transnational monitoring frameworks are crucial for tracking progress and guiding biodiversity conservation policies at continental and global levels. Yet their development is constrained by the lack of comprehensive analyses of biodiversity monitoring gaps. Focusing on Europe, we quantified the shortfall between data integrated by transnational initiatives and the requirements for producing 48 Essential Biodiversity Variables (EBVs) identified with stakeholders for continent-wide monitoring. About 20% of EBVs lacked transnational data integration, and existing initiatives often covered fewer than 70% of countries. Even where integration occurred, major deficiencies remained in sampling standardization, taxonomic and ecosystem coverage, spatial and temporal resolution, data collection frequency, and data accessibility. Monitoring shortfalls varied widely across countries. Addressing monitoring gaps will require sustained funding for new transnational initiatives, stronger alignment between national and supranational efforts, improved sampling designs, novel technologies, and equitable open data sharing. Establishing such a framework could offer a model for global biodiversity monitoring.