Popular Science

Several of the results obtained at CBD have relevance for the management of biodiversity in Norway.

In 2020, CBD-members have therefore presented their results on several occasions to management agencies at different levels. For example, a lecture on principles for the design of national monitoring programmes for biodiversity was given on a workshop organized by the Norwegian Environmental Agency. Input on how to implement predictive models in practical management of biodiversity has also been provided. Furthermore, researchers at CBD are members of several board and committees appointed by different management agencies. For example, the director is member of the Scientific Council for the National Monitoring Programme of Carnivores in Norway, Sigurd Einum is a member of the Norwegian Scientific Advisory Committee for Atlantic Salmon and Jane Reid acts as a scientific adviser to NatureScot, through the Scottish Chough Forum. In addition, Anders G. Finstad is member of the Scientific Committee in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, GBIF. Members of the CBD attracted attention in the public media. For example, the director was involved in a newspaper chronicle arguing for the necessity to increase the public funding for monitoring of biodiversity, and in another chronicle arguing for the importance of easing access to universities, especially for younger researchers, during the lock-down due to the Corona-pandemic. Research at CBD was also presented in a prime-time television show in NRK. Research from the Arctic ecosystem at Svalbard and the house sparrow studies at Helgeland, as well as the study on impact of highways on local and invasive fauna, received particular attention in national and international media, including forskning.no, Science Daily, ScienceMag, Nature World News, EOS (Science News by American Geophysical Union), Phys.org, as well as a number of Norwegian newspapers. Irja Ida Ratikainen and Aline Magdalena Lee are strongly involved in communicating science to the public through being responsible and authoring topics within ecology and ethology in the Norwegian online encyclopaedia “Store Norske Leksikon”, snl.no.

Red fox (Vulpes vulpes)

Photo: NINA / Lars Rød-Eriksen