Biodiversity continues to dramatically decline across the world. After the targets of the European Biodiversity Strategy 2020 were largely missed, the new European Green Deal emphasizes the need to protect, conserve and enhance the EU's natural capital and ensure human health and well-being. This year, the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 has been launched.

The final online conference of the FIThydro project brought together over 280 participants from across the globe to explore the latest research developments on the topic of sustainable and fish friendly hydropower showcasing the final project’s results in addition to presentations by experts from outside the project on related topics. The online conference was hosted by Ecologic Institute and the Technical University of Munich.

The central objective of the Hydromorphology IV Workshop was to exchange experiences and information and to identify and reflect on challenges of the administrative and practical implementation processes of watercourse development measures.

On November 2020, over 40 international experts with research and governance backgrounds on marine Arctic conservation and its governance frameworks discussed the protection of the Arctic maritime ecosystems as subject of the "Arctic Marine Conservation Dialogue". The experts converged in working groups on "Area-based management" under climate change, sustainable fisheries in the Arctic and oil, gas and biodiversity protection, identified the Status Quo and the specific challenges of the respective subject areas and turned towards potential solutions. The workshop proceedings are available for download.

A group of polish local government experts, landscape planners, architects and engineers participated in a study tour on nature-based solutions in Berlin on 25 and 26 August 2020, which was part of the EUKI project "Climate NBS Poland". Nature-based solutions (NBS) can be implemented in urban settings to deliver a suite of services to address climate change, such as reduce demand for heating and cooling, stormwater management, microclimate regulation but also support human health and recreation. Thanks to their multi-functionality and sustainability NBS are increasingly applied as measures to address climate change in cities – in Berlin, a number of innovative NBS projects have been implemented in Berlin already since the 1990s to address such challenges.

The European Stakeholder Workshop on Fish-friendly Hydropower will be held on 28 and 29 January 2020 in Brussels (Belgium). This event will serve as a platform for consultation and exchange between FIThydro scientists, policy-makers and technical experts working on the assessment of impacts from hydropower plants and the planning of mitigation measures.

On 25 October 2019 the Ecologic Institute supported the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) in a webinar on the IPCC Special Report on "The ocean and the cryosphere in a changing climate" (SROCC). The Ecologic Institute, together with the project Partner Climate Analytics, supported the UBA in defining and formulating the core messages of the SROCC published in September 2019.

The IPCC published a special report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL) in August 2019. The report shows that climate change is increasing pressure on land systems. At the same time, however, land systems also play an important role in climate protection, for example through the preservation of ecosystems, more sustainable agriculture and forestry, more climate-friendly diets and the avoidance of food wastage.

The Ecologic Institute organised in June 2019 the two-day Future Workshop of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) on Floodplains and River Development as Future Tasks for Departmental Research. The BfN introduced the instrument of future workshops in 2015 in order to determine and discuss medium- and long-term research needs in selected topic areas on an annual basis. The main target is the exchange between research institutions, operators and users of research results with the specialist departments of the BfN.

On 7 March 2019, experts working on nature-based solutions (NBS) met in Berlin for an exchange of experiences. The discussions focused on the challenges of planning and implementing NBS and the opportunities and creative solutions to overcome them. The results of this meeting will be integrated into including the development of a catalogue of NBS and an overview of policy instruments to the "Climate NBS Polska" project.

On 19 and 20 February 2019, the German Environment Agency (UBA) hosted the international conference "Raw Materials & Environment 2019" in Berlin. More than 25 speakers and about 150 participants – decision makers and experts in the thematic areas of mining, raw material supply, environmental assessment, climate change, sustainable supply chain management, and sustainable resource management – joined the event and discussed in various sessions and working groups different aspects of the topic. The conference aimed at fostering awareness of environmental issues in the national, European and international debates on responsible sourcing and responsible mining. Dr. Camilla Bausch, Director of Ecologic Institute, facilitated the two-day event, which was co-organised by Ecologic Institute.

In January 2019, the stakeholder workshop "Using the Subsoil to Better Prepare for Droughts - An Acceptance Analysis of Measures to Enhance the Subsoil" of the BMBF-funded BonaRes project "Soil³ - Sustainable Subsoil Management" took place in Bonn. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the prevailing opinions on subsoil management measures. Ecologic Institute researchers discussed with farmers and other ecological actors under which conditions they would implement or support these measures. The protocol is available for download.

On Saturday, 8 December 2018, Ecologic Institute hosted a side event in the EU Pavilion at the COP24 in Katowice (Poland), in cooperation with ICLEI Europe. Invited practitioners and experts discussed the role nature-based solutions (NBS) and multi-level governance play in facilitating the transition of cities and regions to carbon-neutrality.

In June 2017, the EU Commission adopted the new EU One Health Action Plan to combat antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The "One Health" approach which lies at the basis of the Action Plan is centred on an integrative management of health risks; it leaves aside a purely human or veterinary approach in favor of a more holistic one which includes the environment. In this context, the UBA (Umweltbundesamt Deutschland) has prepared a background paper which presents various options for action in the areas of use prevention, entry and disposal of antibiotics. UBA supports the overarching objective of the EU One Health Action Plan, against the background of growing problems with antibiotic resistance, of maintaining the possibility of effective infection treatment in humans and animals.

As part of the project "Environmental Guidelines of German Arctic Policy" funded by the Federal Environment Agency, Ecologic Institute hosted the expert workshop "Environmental protection of the High North – How to protect the Arctic from afar?" on 24 October 2018 in Berlin. The aim of the workshop was to facilitate exchange and discussion on how observers of the Arctic Council can engage strategically and practically in the protection of the Arctic environment. The exchange with states active in the High North, indigenous communities, businesses, research and civil society produced solutions for a sustainable development in the Arctic that allows for the reconciliation of a wide spectrum of interests in the region. The focus was on climate change and air pollution control, shipping in the Arctic and sustainable tourism in the region.