First National Meeting of the Bulgarian Community-Driven Biodiversity Knowledge Hub

On 25 February 2026, from 9:30 to 13:00, the first national meeting of the Bulgarian Community-Driven Biodiversity Knowledge Hub was held in the “Europe” hall of the Ministry of Environment and Water, as part of the Green Talent project (Building Capacity and Partnerships for Systemic Solutions to the Climate and Biodiversity Crises). The Bulgarian participants in the project include the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy, and Geography at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and the international scientific publisher Pensoft.

The meeting was officially opened by Valeri Georgiev, Head of the “Biodiversity” Department at the National Nature Protection Service Directorate, Ministry of Environment and Water. Prof. Stoyan Nedkov, the project leader at the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy, and Geography, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, introduced the project and the Bulgarian demo hub. Following this, Ms. Kalina Stoyanova, National Representative of the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) at the Ministry of Environment and Water, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Kristina Prodanova from the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy, and Geography — scientific representative for Bulgaria at IPBES, informed the participants about the development of the organisation in recent years and the key analyses produced to date in the form of global and regional reports.

Ms. Ivona Grozeva, the national representative from the Ministry of Environment and Water in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), presented the panel’s work and outlined the main needs for improving the functioning of the institution and the ministry in the area of climate change.

Interesting presentations were also made by the private sector. Specifically, Ms. Alexandra Korcheva, head of the SciencePolicy team at Pensoft Publishing, presented the company’s work in communicating scientific news related to the BioAgora, CO-OP4CBD, and RESPIN projects, funded by the European Commission, which are directly linked to IPBES and IPCC.

The meeting continued with presentations of two IPBES reports: the Transformative Change Assessment and the Business and Biodiversity Assessment. Participants had the opportunity to work in groups with the reports, evaluating which key messages in these two reports are relevant to their work and identifying the main barriers to the implementation of their recommendations in the country.