Wahlenbergia; Credit: natur musée

The Off Limits biodiversity weekend, organised by Luxembourg's National Museum of Natural History from 13 to 14 June 2020, saw the identification of more than 1,100 species.

The aim of Off Limits was to find more than 1,000 different species across Luxembourg within 48 hours. The Natural History Museum's scientific staff and a large number of interested nature observers surpassed this goal by identifying more than 1,100 species.

In total, more than 100 nature enthusiasts took part in the project. The species identified were documented using the online platform iNaturalist.org and in the museum's data.mnhn.lu data portal. A special highlight was the rediscovery of the very rare Wahlenbergia in the north of the country.
 
The Natural History Museum together with the PRO-SUD trade union and the Nature and Forest Agency had initially planned Biodiversity Weekend 2020 in the area of ​​the biosphere reserve project "Minett UNESCO Biosphere". With the support of PRO-SUD, the museum wanted to increase the visibility of the biodiversity weekend among the inhabitants of the region and promote public participation during the workshops and guided tours on the Sunday. However, due to the health crisis, the event was postponed in the PRO-SUD communities until next year.

As an alternative, the Natural History Museum asked its scientific staff to organise the Off Limits biodiversity weekend that same weekend (13-14 June), with the aim of finding more than 1,000 species within 48 hours in Luxembourg. In this way, the scientific staff were able to record biodiversity at a location of their choice whilst taking the appropriate precautionary measures into account.