Introducing the progress monitoring tools of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030

The European Union's Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (EU BDS) represents a pivotal step forward in the commitment to protect and restore biodiversity, not only within Europe but also at a global scale. In order to reinforce its implementation, an innovative biodiversity knowledge governance has been established. It includes, among other measures, a progress monitoring system that fosters transparency and can inform corrective action to be taken when progress is being reviewed. In this context, we introduce the official, publicly available, online tools at the core of the EU BDS progress monitoring system: the actions tracker and the dashboard. The actions tracker is specifically designed to track progress on the implementation of the more than a hundred actions stemming from the EU BDS, while the dashboard monitors progress across 16 targets using indicators. However, while the actions tracker is a mature tool, the work on the dashboard is still in progress, as indicators are missing for several targets. New scientific input is needed to propel policy tracking and ensure transparent and datadriven monitoring of the EU BDS targets. With this paper, we invite the scientific community to seize this opportunity to actively participate in the policy monitoring process.