As the project progressed towards its final stage of Maturity, in November 2024 it was time for SHOWCASE partners to gather one last time in Cadiz, Spain. This occasion was marked by each institution sharing their progress from the past year and where they will focus their strengths in the upcoming year.

The meeting, organised by project coordinator Prof David Kleijn, Dr Ignasi Bartomeus and Dr José M. Herrera, highlighted various achievements since the previous annual meeting in Hungary. Some of these include, but are not limited to:

• Developing a framework for defining operational biodiversity targets from the field to farm to regional level;

• Interviewing numerous farmers in the Experimental Biodiversity Areas (EBAs) whether they would continue the legacy work that is on-going about sustainable farming;

• Updating on the progress made within the EBAs related to experimental analyses conducted in the regions;

• Presenting on the EBA videos that will be soon published in 2025;

• Analysing farm-level costs of implementing “biodiversity-targeted” regulation and incentives; 

• Researching how to integrate biodiversity in business and agriculture;

• Presenting on impact of citizen science-based monitoring on farmers’ attitudes and motivations to integrate biodiversity enhancing practices;

• Reporting on the relationship between on-farm biodiversity and key attitudinal drivers of farmer behaviour;

• Covering the development of three key outputs: the SHOWCASE Handbook, Platform and Biodiversity monitoring app;

• Discussing SHOWCASE’s policy briefs displayed at relevant policy-oriented events, such as UN CBD’s COP16;

• Showcasing various dissemination and communication activities conducted within the past year, such as the creation of awareness-raising materials, publishing project videos on biodiversity and ecosystem services, attending conferences and events, and much more!

The event was also attended by sister project FRAMEwork’s coordinator Dr Graham Begg and project manager Alastair Simmons to discuss the recent development of collaboration efforts between the two projects. These consist of cross-promotion on social media, newsletters and respective websites, as well as including SHOWCASE content on FRAMEwork’s Recodo platform. In addition, video abstracts and video stories about the projects’ EBAs/cluster network will be synchronised to increase dissemination possibilities while also organising future online and in-person events. 

As we strive boldly into the final stage of SHOWCASE, stay tuned for future updates!