This year’s International Day for Biodiversity (IDB) and its theme of “harmony with nature and sustainable development” provided a crucial occasion to foster a global conversation on the future of the natural world on Earth. In that sense, 22 May is more than an occasion to promote the Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD) and its associated statutes - it is a moment to showcase the initiatives and research efforts that work towards their actual implementation on the ground.
Cognisant of this important opportunity, the Transformative Change Cluster of EU-funded projects came together with a month-long social media campaign that focused on transformative change for biodiversity. CO-OP4CBD joined partners from BioAgora, BIONEXT, BIOTraCes, BIOTRAILS, BioValue, CLEVER, RESPIN, TCforBE and TRANSPATH in this endeavour.
Officially launched on International Mother Earth Day (22 April), the campaign was collaboratively conceived by Cluster members with two primary objectives in mind. On the one hand, posts were meant to reflect the official messaging issued by the UN CBD’s Secretariat in concert with IDB 2025, extending global discussions on the future of conservation and restoration efforts and agreements. On the other, projects also supported each other in spreading the word about their own individual activities and achievements in the domain of biodiversity-centric transformative change. A unified visual identity for the campaign was ensured via specifically designed images and videos which were used in conjunction with a common hashtag, #TransformativeChange4Biodiversity.
In the lead up to IDB 2025, EU projects outside of the Transformative Change Cluster also joined with their own contributions to this social media effort. The full list includes:
With 23 EU-funded projects ultimately lending their support across LinkedIn, Bluesky, Instagram and X, the campaign set an important precedent for the substantial potential of cooperative ventures in public outreach. Moreover, the linkages established between participants in this context are set to be harnessed for similar initiatives in the future, both within the Cluster and beyond.