Polices on climate, nature, agriculture and soils that support the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 (BDS) have indicators (used for the monitoring of their implementation) in common – such as soil organic carbon (SOC) and deadwood indicators. The EU Biodiversity Platform Sub-Group on Monitoring & Assessment (EUBP MA) proposed that a task for 2024, assigned to the European Commission’s Knowledge Centre for Biodiversity (KCBD), would be the “harmonisation of monitoring methods across policy areas” related to the implementation of the BDS. As a starting point on this task, this report presents a semantic interoperability study focused on the linkages, synergies, and differences in reporting requirements on SOC and deadwood indicators across nine different policies relating to climate, nature, agriculture and soil. We identified explicit cross-policy linkages written in the policy documentation in addition to some communalities, and also identified differences in the reporting requirements of these indicators across policies. These differences are related to indicator scope and definition, to the level of detail given for indicator definitions and methodologies, or to the resolution of land use categories, meaning that an indicator measured for one policy may not fit for purpose to be used in another policy having a different purpose. On the other hand, the synergies include the measurement of the same indicator for overlapping land categories across multiple policies, and references to the same well-established methodologies. This reflects the overall coherence of EU policies on the area of natural resources. By consulting greenhouse gas inventory reports, we additionally identified instances whereby current methodological choices by certain Member States may not be compatible with the requirements of some of the investigated incoming policies (i.e. policy proposals). The cross-policy linkages that we identified highlight the importance of achieving scientific and technical consistency in the monitoring methodologies used across policies, but also highlight the potential for improving synergy in monitoring and reporting across policies. The differences in reporting requirements for SOC and deadwood indicators and the potential lack of alignment on methodologies identified in this report could provide a starting point for cross-sectoral technical guidance documents or discussions with experts groups aiming to achieve greater harmonisation, simplification and cost-effectiveness of monitoring methods across these policies, particularly in view of the new and revised legislative proposals.

HAMMOND Eleanor;  GUERRERO Irene;  JONES Arwyn;  PANAGOS Panos;  TERRES Jean-Michel;  LIQUETE Camino; 

2026-06-16

Publications Office of the European Union

JRC141162

978-92-68-40175-0 (online),   

1831-9424 (online),   

EUR 40744,    OP KJ-01-26-245-EN-N (online),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC141162,   

10.2760/6820949 (online),