A bilateral IPBES capacity-building workshop took place in Sofia, Bulgaria from 12-14 March 2024, gathering experts from Bulgaria and Romania. Participants had the opportunity to present practices, projects and national frameworks relevant to invasive alien species and transformative change.

The workshop was organised by Axel Paulsch from the Institute of Biodiversity Network (ibn), funded by Umweltbundesamt - the German Environment Agency, and administered by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. Local organising partners included the Bulgarian Ministry of Environment and Water through the Bulgarian National focal point of IPBES, along with researchers from the SELINA partner team at the National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy, and Geography (NIGGG-BAS).

Participants at the event included members from the SELINA consortium (NIGGG-BAS, denkstatt, Pensoft Publishers, University of Bucharest) and SELINA's Communities of Practice in Bulgaria and Romania, as well as several IPBES experts who shared experiences and emphasised the importance of IPBES products. Notably, Prof. Mihaela Antofie, a member of the IPBES Multidisciplinary Expert Panel (MEP), and three IPBES experts (Editor and Lead authors) from Bulgaria were among the participants.

At the workshop, SELINA was showcased with a dedicated presentation by Hristina Prodanova from NIGGG-BAS, highlighting the project objectives, activities, and expected outcomes, and their relevance to the IPBES goals. The concept of the Bulgarian Community of Practice was also introduced and deliberated.

Other projects were also presented at the event, including Restore4Life, BioAgora, COOP4CBD, and RESPIN.