Biodiversity Challenge unites 50 educational institutions to record biodiversity
The first nationwide Biodiversity Challenge in the Netherlands has come to a successful close. For two months, students and staff from more than 50 educational institutions - from vocational education to universities - recorded wild plants and animals on their campuses and school grounds. Together, they spotted around 4,500 species, representing some 10% of all plant and animal species known in the Netherlands.
The Biodiversity Challenge is Wageningen University & Research's annual ‘bioblitz’, first launched in 2021. Throughout May and June, students, staff and visitors work together to record as many wild species as possible on Wageningen Campus and other locations. This year, the Wageningen initiative expanded into a nationwide bioblitz for the first time, with more than 50 educational institutions taking part - ranging from a secondary school in Hoofddorp to the University of Groningen and Yuverta vocational college in the southern part of the Netherlands.
The response was overwhelming. Never before had so many students and staff - collectively called 'observers' - from secondary education, vocational education, universities of applied sciences and research universities simultaneously explored biodiversity in the places where they study and work. In total, 4,072 observers, including the Dutch Minister of Education, recorded more than 62,400 plants and animals, representing 4,491 different species. The observations were submitted via the Waarneming.nl platform, enabling participants to compare the biodiversity of their own campus or school with other institutions.
Lawrence Jones-Walters
A common blue butterfly and a plant bug on flowering grass. One observation, several species! Photo: Lawrence Jones-Walters
Liesje Mommer, founder of the Wageningen Biodiversity Initiative, said: “If you had told me during the very first Biodiversity Challenge that, five years later, we would have identified some 4,500 species together with more than 50 educational institutions across the Netherlands, I would have said: ‘Dream on.’ But that is exactly what has happened.” She continues: “Biodiversity in the Netherlands is under pressure. But more and more people care deeply about it. Every observation brings us one step closer to action, including in education. So now I say: ‘Dream on! It can be done.’”
A diverse programme and a joint celebration
As in previous years, the Biodiversity Challenge offered a wide range of activities. Alongside species recording, visitors could join botanical illustration workshops, early morning bird spotting walks, beetle identification sessions and student-organised lunchtime lectures. Wageningen Campus also welcomed the outdoor exhibition Ever Changing Biodiversity, featuring photographs by Jan-Freerk Kloen. Through images of eighteen animal species, he illustrates how human activities can both benefit and threaten biodiversity. The exhibition can be visited on Wageningen Campus until the end of 2026.
The 2026 Biodiversity Challenge concluded in early July with a joint closing event at Utrecht University. Participants looked back on the results of this first nationwide edition and celebrated two months of exploring biodiversity in their own surroundings.
Rien Komen, Chair of the Executive Board of Aeres and Chair of the Green Table (Groene Tafel), said: “As biodiversity declines, so do our prospects for the future. Education has a responsibility to teach students to observe, to understand the bigger picture, and to experience nature. That is how they come to see themselves as part of it. We must embed biodiversity throughout education at every level.” And that is precisely what the Biodiversity Challenge aims to achieve.
Mieke de Wit, one of the organisers from the very beginning of the Biodiversity Challenges, presenting the results during the closing event
Schoolyard Safari
Alongside the bioblitz, primary school pupils also explored biodiversity in their own school grounds. During the Schoolyard Safari, a citizen science project organised by the Dutch network of science hubs (Wetenschapsknooppunten), more than 11,000 pupils from 300 primary schools went in search of the plants and animals living in their schoolyards. They recorded a wide variety of species, ranging from slugs and woodlice to a grass snake. The results also showed that greener schoolyards support higher biodiversity, demonstrating that measures to enhance nature on school grounds really do make a difference.
The 2026 Biodiversity Challenge was organised by Wageningen University & Research, Aeres University of Applied Sciences, Yuverta vocational college and Utrecht University. The initiative was funded by Dutch Research Agenda (NWA) Green Route and supported by GroenPact. The bioblitz was supported by the Waarneming.nl observation platform.
