The success and potential of the Federal Biological Diversity Programme

The German National Strategy on Biological Diversity was adopted in 2007  by the German Government. It aims at stopping the decline of biodiversity and increasing positive trends for habitats and species. Since 2015, it has been supplemented by the Nature Conservation Offensive 2020.

In 2011, Germany adopted the Federal Biological Diversity Programme. Since its inception, 121 projects have been funden. In 2021, the programme was funded with 45 Mio €, making it the best funded instrument for nature conservation projects. The programme plays a key role in achieving the goals of the National Strategy on Biological Diversity. Measuring the effectiveness and success of this federal programme and of the funded projects  is crucial to assess its impact . On the project level, the Federal Biological Diversity Programme has defined a framework for evaluating the funded projects. In its ten-year period, however, the programme has not yet been systematically evaluated in a cross-sectional analysis at programme and project level.

This project systematically considers the success, weaknesses and potentials of the programme through structured, tailor-made analysis. It evaluates the overall quality of the programme and supports operational and strategic programme management. For the actors involved, in particular the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, the programme office and the programme users, as well as the general public, this project  examines the key aspects and successes of the programme and systematically reviews the funding practice.

adelphi is leading the project and, in cooperation with the evaluation institute CEval and the nature protection insitute PAN, carrying out the evaluation at the programme and project level. The evaluation will consider over 60 completed or advanced projects using interviews and document analysis. Numerous other interviews are taking place at the level of operational and strategic programme management to identify opportunities for optimisation. The key aspects of this comprehensive evaluation will be made available to the public in a summary report.