Biodiversity Monitoring Switzerland

[9][10] By signing the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), Switzerland also has an obligation under international law to monitor the long-term development of biodiversity.

On a precisely defined transect of this quadrant, vascular plants, butterflies and breeding birds are surveyed.

[15] The density of the sampling grid in the Jura and in Southern Switzerland was increased in order to obtain reliable data for these regions.

The sampling grid to survey aquatic insects comprises approximately 500 small sections of minor watercourses measuring around 5–100 metres long.

[20][21][22][23] Thanks to the systematic sampling design, the standardised methodology and the long-term nature of the programme, the data can be used to answer new, as yet undefined questions.

[25] Furthermore, data from the Biodiversity Monitoring Switzerland contributed to the determination of critical loads in nitrogen deposition in Europe[26] assessed due to the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (CLRTAP) implemented by the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP).

Biodiversity Monitoring Switzerland provides a cross section of the overall landscape covering a wide variety of uses.