RESPIN convened a workshop session at the World Biodiversity Forum 2026, bringing evidence from seven countries and over 700 interviews to the question of how science reaches policy and where it gets stuck.

From 14 to 19 June 2026, the world's biodiversity community gathered in Davos, Switzerland, for the fourth edition of the World Biodiversity Forum (WBF2026). Under the theme "Leading Transformation Together," the forum brought together more than 1,000 researchers, practitioners, artists, business leaders and policy makers from over 70 countries, across 79 sessions spanning everything from ecosystem science to biodiversity finance and law.

Among them was the RESPIN project, which featured a dedicated workshop session on the opening day of the conference.

Biodiversity-climate knowledge flows workshop

[Workshop] Biodiversity-Climate Knowledge Flows: Linking Science, Policy and Practice Across Scales Sunday, 14 June

Tackling biodiversity loss and climate change takes more than robust science, it takes effective pathways to make sure that knowledge is understood, trusted, and ultimately acted upon. In practice, the flow of biodiversity and climate knowledge between those who generate it and those who need it remains uneven and fragmented, limiting its potential to drive real transformation.

RESPIN set out to map and better understand these gaps. Drawing on social network analysis conducted in seven countries, together with surveys and interviews involving more than 700 knowledge holders and users, scientists, IPBES and IPCC experts, policy makers, societal organisations and practitioners, the project has traced how knowledge actually circulates, and where it breaks down.

The session shared comparative insights into how different national and regional contexts shape these knowledge networks: who sits at the centre, who is left on the margins, and which formats best support uptake. The recent IPBES Nexus and Transformative Change Assessments served as concrete examples of moments where knowledge input and uptake are decisive for policy impact.

Reflecting RESPIN's own findings on effective knowledge exchange work, the session was designed around dialogue rather than one-way presentation. Short talks introducing RESPIN's results were followed by structured small-group discussion in a World Café format with three thematic tables. 

Participants discussed which kinds of actors are needed for effective science-policy interfaces, which processes or mechanisms are currently missing, and what kinds of outputs would be most useful for strengthening knowledge uptake in practice. The format created space for a rich and engaged conversation between researchers, policy actors, and practitioners, and generated valuable reflections for the next steps of the project. 

Convened by

The session was convened by Yves Zinngrebe, together with co-conveners Yamini Yogya, Marianne Darbi and Rafael Calderon-Contreras. Marianne Darbi brings a distinctive science-policy background to the session: now professor for landscape planning and impact mitigation at Hochschule Geisenheim University, she previously worked at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) in Leipzig, where she coordinated the German Network Forum on Biodiversity Research (NeFo) at the interface of science, politics and society work closely aligned with RESPIN's own focus on strengthening science-policy interfaces.

Why it matters

With the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in need of support well beyond government structures, and with major assessments like those from IPBES setting the pace for global policy, understanding how knowledge moves and redesigning those pathways where they fail is as urgent as generating the knowledge itself. The Davos session offered RESPIN a chance to test its findings with a highly engaged, cross-sectoral audience and to gather fresh input on how the project's tools and recommendations can better serve knowledge holders and users alike.

Learn more about the World Biodiversity Forum 2026 at worldbiodiversityforum.org.

Stay tuned for the upcoming SNA engagement brochure produced by RESPIN.