Why do we need monitoring? Biodiversity forms the basis for our existence in Switzerland.

The BDM data, together with other environmental data, form an important basis for future nature conservation policy and for other policy areas that have a significant impact on biodiversity – such as agriculture and forestry, road construction and land-use planning. The BDM programme can identify negative and positive developments in biodiversity at an early stage and trigger appropriate action.

Various organizations are already collecting data on the distribution of species and population sizes, but so far there has been little time series. Even the “Red Lists” of endangered species in Switzerland have a fundamental flaw: by definition, they focus only on rare species. Numbers of rare species can create a false impression, however. This is why a programme designed to document biodiversity as a whole must look not only at rare species but also at common and widespread species. This requires surveys such as the ones that will be carried out in conjunction with the BDM programme.

By signing the Convention on Biodiversity in Rio in 1992, moreover, Switzerland has pledged to monitor biodiversity over the long term.