Monitoring biodiversity in Luxembourg: What is left to be done?

Presentation day for the different biodiversity monitoring programmes in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Whether they are part of European or national initiatives, and carried out by the public or voluntary sector, biological observations are becoming more and more harmonized in order to constitute standardized time series. Such time series are proving vital for describing the changes in our environment and serve as an indicator for sustainable development.

Objectives

The aim of this conference day is to go through the following points together:

ongoing monitoring programmes in Luxembourg,
current knowledge concerning distribution and/or abundance,
possible shortcomings to be addressed in readiness for the next European reports (e.g. Habitats, Birds and Water Framework directives, European regulation on invasive exotic species).

Posters

Would you like to submit a poster presenting a biodiversity monitoring project? Send a description to xavier.mestdagh@list.lu

Programme

	Title	Subtitle	Speakers
08:30	Registration and Welcome Coffee
09:00	Monitoring the status of biodiversity	Obligations and deadlines	G. Biver & N. Elvinger (Ministère du Développement durable et des Infrastructures)
09:20	Biotope cadastre	Evolution of non-forest habitats in Luxembourg	E. Schauls (Ministère du Développement durable et des Infrastructures)
09:40	Macroinvertebrates as indicators of biodiversity erosion in waterways	Implementation of a synergy between Water Framework and Habitats Directives in Luxembourg	A. Dohet (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology)
10:00	Monitoring of amphibians and reptiles in Luxembourg	Results from targeted monitoring since 2010	R. Proess (ECOTOP)
10:20	Coffee Break
10:40	IT developments and data sharing	Evolution of encoding systems and geoportals, data sharing with public sector and the scientific community	T. Walisch & C. Pépin (Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle de Luxembourg)
11:00	Butterflies of Luxembourg	Abundance trends, species richness and distribution	L. L'Hoste & X. Mestdagh (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology)
11:20	Bird monitoring in Luxembourg	An overview	M. Bastian (Centrale Ornithologique Luxembourgeoise)
11:40	Discussions
12:10	Lunch
13:30	Biodiversity from a policy point of view		C. Dieschbourg (Ministre de l’Environnement) & C. Gira (Secrétaire d’Etat au Développement durable et aux Infrastructures)
13:40	The use of genetic to assess biodiversity	Metabarcoding and environmental DNA	A.Frantz & D. Porco (Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle de Luxembourg)
14:10	Monitoring of bats in Luxembourg	Progress in knowledge on bat populations in Luxembourg	Ch. Harbusch (ProChirop) & G. Biver (Ministère du Développement durable et des Infrastructures)
14:30	Monitoring of forest mammals listed in Annexes IV and V of the Habitats Directive (except bats)	Distribution and evolution since 2010 of the wildcat, pine marten, polecat and dormouse	L L'Hoste & X. Mestdagh (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology), L-M. Pigneur (Université de Liège) & M. Moes (GEODATA)
14:50	Coffee Break
15:20	Monitoring and management of beavers in Luxembourg	Field surveys, genetic analysis, and alien species management	J. Herr & L. Schley (Administration de la Nature et des Forêts)
15:40	The next Habitat Directive reporting	Summary of knowledge on species for the next reporting, as required by Article 17 of the Habitats Directive, and applied methodologies to assess conservation status	X. Mestdagh (Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology)
16:00	Discussions and closing
16:30	Closing cocktail