Ecological valuation of diffuse immission of chemicals within the national biodiversity strategy | Bewertung von diffusen Stoffeinträgen im Rahmen der nationalen Biodiversitätsstrategie : Plädoyer für eine integrierte Umweltbeobachtung

Background, aim and scope In 2007, the German government approved a national strategy on biological diversity. The strategy requires the integration of its quality targets and action targets into other policies. In addition to other pressure factors, area-wide diffuse substance discharges contribute considerably to the loss of biological diversity. Reducing these diffuse substance discharges to long-term ecologically compatible levels is one of the main action targets. This paper aims to provide an overview of preconditions for implementing this objective in terms of content as well as organization and to point out important deficits.Main focus To achieve this, the paper will discuss environmental monitoring and its implementation in Germany drawing on the targets of the national strategy on biological diversity. It will discuss the opportunities for the evaluation of the German and European biodiversity strategies using monitoring required in the execution of environmental laws and regulations as well as international substance-related indicators.Results Environmental monitoring in Germany and in Europe is characterized by a plurality of monitoring networks operated under different administrative competences and environmental sectors. Only a small part of the collected data is evaluated in a cross-media and cross-sectoral perspective even though the linking of the different data sets is technically possible.Discussion A key problem is that harmonized minimum requirements to monitor the reduction of diffuse substance discharges are missing. Without the implementation of a cooperative and harmonized monitoring approach and organizational guidelines, the reduction of diffuse substance discharges will not be verifiable. Environmental data as well as indicators are essential to evaluate the success of the national biodiversity strategy. Suitable monitoring concepts are available in the German Federal Republic and its Federal States, nevertheless, a political impulse for their implementation is missing.Recommendations and perspectives The national biodiversity strategy may reopen the discussion on the necessity of an integrated monitoring. A coordinated approach that refers both to the international indicator-discussion and to institutional obstacles and aims to develop a proposal for integrated monitoring data is necessary.