The Global Life Observatory – Vigilife initiated in 2018 thanks to a support from the French government (Programmes d’Investissement d’Avenir – ADEME & FASEP – DG Trésor, Office Français de la Biodiversité) and several national and international partners (Agence de l’eau Rhône Méditerranée Corse, Monaco Explorations, etc.) has reached a new stage of worldwide implementation and deployment to enhance the knowledge and conservation of life on Earth.
Vigilife is an international science-based alliance of public and private stakeholders working for the benefits of the territories. This initiative is the result of over 10 years of development of environmental DNA (eDNA) technologies by several scientific and engineering partners. These eDNA methods allow the monitoring of organisms from their DNA present in environmental samples (e.g. water or soil). Vigilife eDNA standards have been endorsed by the scientific community through more than 50 scientific articles, and tested on a large scale during numerous scientific expeditions.
The Global Life Observatory – Vigilife has the following fundamental operating principles:
- To support the development of scientific, technological and applied cooperation for long term monitoring of biodiversity, enhancing knowledge on species interrelations with their natural environment, studying life evolution in a context of global change, and the remediation efforts to protect local biodiversity;
- To promote the highest standards of quality in technological innovation and internationally recognized by the scientific community;
- To encourage the transfer of technologies and expertise closer to the territories for the benefits of local and national actors, and contribute to the implementation of efficient environmental territorial policy.
Initially scheduled for June, 2020, the Global Life Observatory – Vigilife has already been partially presented in 2021 on three occasions: the publication of the first issue of the Vigilife Magazine (February, 2021), a public communication during the international congress on eDNA organized by IFREMER, EMBL and the Tara Ocean Foundation (April, 2021), as well as information releases on several social networks (Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram). The Global Life Observatory – Vigilife will be officially presented during the IUCN World Congress which will be held from 3 to 11 September in Marseille (France).
VIGILIFE – IUCN CONGRESS SPONSOR
Beyond a “science based/action platform” for the knowledge, monitoring and protection of biodiversity, Vigilife is also based on a redistributive model through which the members of the alliance commit to invest financial and technical resources in favor of biodiversity. Vigilife promotes the principle of “solidarity” between territories through partnerships between its members. Following this principle, Vigilife has decided to support the IUCN World Congress as a Bronze Sponsor thus contributing financially to the dynamics of exchanges and the emergence of partnerships between the biodiversity actors present at this congress.
VIGILIFE DURING IUCN WORLD CONGRESS
Vigilife and its partners will be present at the IUCN Congress in several occasions:
- Stand F10 & F11 from September 3 to 11 as part of the Forum.
- Three thematic sessions during the Forum:
“How to improve biodiversity monitoring and conservation using DNA technologies, from genes to communities” – September 6, 4pm, room H8 – 1 Perche, hybrid – Click here to participate in the online session.
“Vigilife, a parnership initiative based on ADNe to rivers and streams inventories, monitoring and conservation” – September 7, 2h30 pm, room RéImagine, Pavillon France.
“Vigilife, a parnership initiative based on ADNe to coastal and marine ecosystems inventories, monitoring and conservation” September 4, 6pm, room H8-1 Perche. Click here to participate in the online session.
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