During the BID-REX interregional learning process, the Slovenian partners identified the Biodiversity Audit Approach, developed by the University of East Anglia (BID-REX UK partner), as a good practice that could be adapted and used as a decision tool for nature conservation in the Ljubljana Marsh Region. Hence, at the end of the first phase of the BID-REX project in 2019, the Slovenian partners submitted to the Interreg Europe monitoring committee, a proposal for a pilot action using this approach. The proposal was approved and therefore the Biodiversity Audit approach will now be tested in Slovenia to see whether it can be useful as a tool for managers and decision makers also in other European regions beside the UK.
The Biodiversity Audit is a landscape-scale and evidence-based approach to deliver biodiversity information. A core aspect of this approach is to collate all existing biodiversity data for selected areas, prioritize the areas and use expert knowledge to define their ecological requirements, and lastly to organize groups of species into management guilds, i.e. species with similar ecological requirements. This evidence-based approach allows to answer questions to support decision making in nature conservation, such as for example, how many and which species will be preserved if we undertake specific conservation measures. Until now, the approach was carried out only in the United Kingdom within three areas of East Anglia (Fens, Broads, Brecklands) but this approach has a high potential to be used in other regions as well.
