IBE

IENE (Infrastructure and Ecology Network Europe) is a network of stakeholders dedicated to mitigation and management of infrastructure’s impacts on biodiversity. Historically, it focuses on linear transportation infrastructure (roads and railways) but the network now broadens its field to energy networks, airports, waterways etc. Its 460+ members are researchers, technicians and decision-makers from public or private sector. The network aims at sharing knowledge and experience acquired across the world, especially in Europe, to design and implement the most efficient measures to avoid or mitigate harmful impacts of infrastructure on biodiversity. The network organizes biennial scientific conferences with a growing success among the international research community and practitioners (see for example IENE conference in Lyon in 2016 with 465 participants or the last one in Eindhoven in 2018). The network started with a COST project which delivered in 2003 the Wildlife and Traffic Handbook on how to reverse ecosystem fragmentation. In its informal set-up, the network ensured that knowledge was shared from one conference to the other, and occasionally provided advice on the topic of infrastructure and biodiversity in European or international projects (e.g. on a highway design project in South-East Asia). The French Ministry for a Solidary Transition (MTES), involved in the network, requested the French Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB) to rebuild the network, with a new Executive Secretariat established with the mission to engage members, coordinate international actions and foster research funding on the topics of ecology and infrastructure. At the national scale, FRB set up the Club of linear infrastructure and biodiversity (CILB), which gathers public and private stakeholders funding the national research programme Ittecop (Infrastructure for terrestrial transportation, ecosystems and landscapes). IENE’s goal is to coordinate research needs on the topic of infrastructure and biodiversity in order to mobilize funding under H2020 and Horizon Europe after 2020. The proposal submitted for H2020 is a CSA (Coordination and Support Action) expected to deliver recommendations for biodiversity integration in the infrastructure sector. A strategic research agenda on the topic will be developed after an analysis of existing knowledge. Talks with the European Commission on the relevance of the proposed CSA are well advanced and the proposal is received positively. About 30 organisations including research laboratories, NGOs, public administrations and private sector (consulting firms for impact assessment) from more than 16 European countries (EU and non EU) have already signed a letter of intent to participate to this CSA. Several meetings need to be organised with the partners to develop the content of the work packages between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. Scientific and industrial members of the network need to be engaged with, because most of European research on biodiversity and infrastructure is implemented at the national level, except some supported by the CEDR. Activities falling under the MRSEI include specific communication towards researchers, within IENE current network and beyond, with a aim to mobilize the scientific community for the upcoming CSA.