Global Biodiversity Indicators for the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Submitting Institution
Institute of Zoology, LondonUnit of Assessment
Earth Systems and Environmental SciencesSummary Impact Type
EnvironmentalResearch Subject Area(s)
Environmental Sciences: Environmental Science and Management
Biological Sciences: Ecology
Summary of the impact
Scientists at the Institute of Zoology (IOZ) led the development of the
IUCN Red List, the foremost tool for assessing species extinction risk. We
further developed systems to evaluate the status of biodiversity at the
national level (National Red Lists), quantify population changes (Living
Planet Index) and robustly measure changing biodiversity (Sampled Red List
Index), and global indicators of the status of biodiversity for the
Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). These are used to drive
conservation policy and public engagement by Inter-Governmental and
Non-Governmental Organisations, and national governments, and underpin
measurement of adherence to CBD Targets for 2010 and 2020.
Underpinning research
In 2002, a meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity Conference
of the Parties led to the adoption, by almost all nations, of the target
of `reducing the rate of biodiversity loss' by the year 2010. This target
required indicators to quantify changes in biodiversity. Two main avenues
of research were pursued at IOZ to address this need.
The first avenue built on work by Professor Georgina Mace (then a
postdoctoral researcher) to develop the International Union for
Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, which was formalised in 1994 [1].
Mace continued to refine the IUCN criteria and categorisation process
until 2006 (during which time she became Director of IOZ) [2]. The IUCN
Red List provides a quantitative means of assessing the relative
extinction risk of species, is widely recognised as the most comprehensive
and rigorous approach for evaluating the global conservation status of
species, and has become the key information resource for fighting the
current extinction crisis.
This tool was subsequently developed between 2006 and 2010 by Professor
Jonathan Baillie and Dr Ben Collen to track changes in extinction risk
over time, and to generate wider taxonomic coverage (in 2006, most
extinction risk classifications concerned just birds, mammals and species
of commercial interest) to answer questions about changing biodiversity
with greater generality. At the start of this period, Baillie and Collen
were both members of IOZ's postdoctoral staff, although Baillie later
became Director of Conservation Programmes at ZSL and Collen subsequently
led this work as a Research Fellow. The underpinning research involved
developing a new sampled approach to extinction risk assessment, the
Sampled Red List Index (SRLI). The SRLI assesses a representative set of
species from a broader set of groups (including invertebrates and plants)
in a time and cost effective manner [3, 4]. As a result, the IUCN
Red List has grown in size and complexity (from 40,000 species assessed in
2007 to 70,000 species in 2013) and plays an increasingly prominent role
in guiding conservation activities of governments, NGOs and scientific
institutions.
The second avenue, developed by Collen and Baillie over the same period,
is based on an aggregated indicator of abundance trends: the Living Planet
Index [5]. The research demonstrated how population abundance
trend data could be brought together to evaluate whether CBD targets have
been achieved.
These two avenues of research were drawn together in several
publications, culminating in a paper in Sciencem [6],
which has become the leading article cited to show that the CBD 2010
Target was not met.
Collaborations are an integral part of the work on biodiversity
indicators. For the Red Listing work, IUCN, BirdLife International and the
Royal Botanic Gardens Kew are key collaborators on the projects mentioned.
For the work on abundance trends, WWF International are central to the
developments outlined in this case study. UNEP-WCMC are key proponents of
global biodiversity indicators, housing the secretariat for the
Biodiversity Indicators Partnership and dealing with much of the liaison
with the Convention on Biological Diversity.
References to the research
[2] Mace GM, Collar NJ, Gaston KJ, et al. Quantification of extinction
risk: IUCN's system for classifying threatened species. Conservation
Biology. 2008;22:1424-42.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01044.x.
Already cited >160 times on Web of Science
[5] Collen B, Loh J, Holbrook S, McRae L, Amin R, et al. (2009)
Monitoring change in vertebrate abundance: the Living Planet Index.
Conservation Biology 23: 317-327.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2008.01117.x.
The underpinning science for the Living Planet Index, and cited 42 times
on Web of Science
[6] Butchart SHM, Walpole M, Collen B, van Strien A, Scharleman JPW, et
al. (2010) Global biodiversity: indicators of recent declines. Science
328: 1164-1168.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.118751.
Already cited >260 times on Web of Science
Grants
Rufford Foundation: Delivering the IUCN Red List of threatened species
and global biodiversity indicators. July 2006 (and yearly since that
date). Total £617,400
GEF 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership: development and delivery of
the Living Planet Index and IUCN Red List Index. January 2007. £108,800
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation: Defining the status of the world's
lesser-known species. January 2008. £291,950
Details of the impact
Understanding changing patterns of biodiversity and the ramifications
those changes have for economies, resource infrastructure, ecosystem
services, social development and human well-being is central to
environmental policy. There is growing recognition that biological
diversity is a global asset of tremendous value to present and future
generations, and consequently the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
has been established as an international legal instrument for the
conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. All bar six
nations are signatory to this convention. Research undertaken at IOZ has
achieved significant impact through its unique contribution to the
development of environmental and biodiversity policy, particularly under
the auspices of the CBD, by developing the IUCN Red List and Living Planet
Index biodiversity indicators that enable better quantified and more
effective measures to be included in evaluations of biodiversity change [a].
The IUCN Red List Index and the Living Planet Index were adopted by the
CBD in 2005 to help measure progress towards the target of `reducing the
rate of biodiversity loss' by the year 2010 [b], and 193 nations
are signatory to this globally binding legislation. IOZ research has had
direct impact in evaluating whether and how the biodiversity target was
met, linking science directly to global biodiversity policy, and in
informing countries about how national biodiversity is faring. The
indicators developed by IOZ underpinned the main CBD report published in
2010, Global Biodiversity Outlook 3 [c], which evaluated whether
or not the 2010 target had been reached. They also formed the basis of
subsequent publications such as the Global Environmental Outlook 5
(published by United Nations Environment Programme in 2012), of which
Collen is a co-author, and which has the specific aim of informing
environmental decision-making and facilitating the interaction between
science and policy [d].
Our collaborators at IUCN, through their press releases, reports and
updates of the IUCN Red List, and WWF International, through the biennial
publication of the Living Planet Report (e.g. in 2008, 2010, 2012),
provide evidence of further impact and outreach by raising public
awareness of the on-going biodiversity crisis affecting the planet. The
Living Planet Index forms a central part of the Living Planet report,
which is published biennially, translated into 13 languages, and has a
print run of 70,000 copies. Free downloads of the PDF number in the
hundreds of thousands [e].
As a result of the expertise we have developed through the underpinning
research described above, and our collaborative work with IUCN and others,
we have been commissioned to undertake further work on biodiversity
indicators, with associated impact. For example, the Arctic Council, a
high-level intergovernmental forum to promote cooperation, coordination
and interaction among the 10 Arctic nations for the protection of Arctic
wildlife, commissioned IOZ to evaluate trends in Arctic wildlife,
culminating in the Arctic biodiversity report produced by IOZ in 2008 in
collaboration with the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring Program. This
report used LPI data and methodology to assess trends in Arctic
biodiversity over a 34-year period, and was endorsed by Senior Officials
of the Arctic Council [f].
The abundance and extinction risk monitoring tools developed by IOZ
researchers are now being used by the UN Convention on Migratory Species
(CMS), an intergovernmental treaty that aims to conserve terrestrial,
aquatic and avian migratory species throughout their range. Migratory
species threatened with extinction are listed on Appendix I of the
Convention. CMS Parties strive towards strictly protecting these animals,
conserving or restoring the places where they live, mitigating obstacles
to migration and controlling other factors that might endanger them. Our
tools are used to track trends in species listed on the CMS, a vital part
of their remit and key to measuring the success or otherwise of the policy
decisions taken under the CMS [g].
We have been centrally involved in the development of Red Lists at
national levels. IOZ was involved in the 2009 workshop on the development
National Red Lists (held at ZSL), and developed the National Red List
website (the first centralised source of national-level biodiversity data,
launched in 2010 [h]. IOZ scientists have also worked with
countries around the world advising on the development of National Red
Lists (e.g. Nepal 2011, Tajikistan 2010). In Mongolia, National Red List
data feeds into a tool used for all Environmental Impact Assessments, and
the resulting website has been adopted by the Ministry of Environment and
Green Development [i]. National Red Lists have also been included
in the CBD Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological
Advice (SBSTTA) 17 draft recommendations [j].
Sources to corroborate the impact
[a] The Head of Science, Economics, Policy and Partnerships at UNEP-WCMC
can corroborate the role that IOZ has played in the development of global
and national biodiversity indicators and the links that they have to the
Biodiversity Indicators Partnership.
[b] http://www.iucnredlist.org/about/red-list-overview#biodiversity_indicator
[c] Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2010) Global
Biodiversity Outlook 3. Montréal, 94 pages. http://www.cbd.int/doc/publications/gbo/gbo3-final-en.pdf
[d] Armenteras D, Finlayson M, Rosser A, Walpole M, Agard J, Butchart
S.H.M, Carino J, Collen B, Firbank L, Galli A, Gokhale Y, Hocking
M, Hoft R, Kitzes J, Prip C, Redford K.H, McGeoch M, Oldfield T. &
Toivonen H. (2012) Biodiversity. In Global Environmental Outlook 5
(ed GEO 5), United Nations Environment Programme.
[e] Living Planet Reports (2008, 2010, 2012) WWF, Gland, Switzerland: For
2012 report see http://awsassets.panda.org/downloads/1_lpr_2012_online_full_size_single_pages_final_120516.pdf
The Editor of the Living Planet Report and the Director, Footprint, both
at WWF International, can corroborate the role the IOZ play in developing
the Living Planet Index, and the type of impact the Living Planet report
has worldwide.
[f] Email from the Chair2028 of the Circumpolar Biodiversity Monitoring
Program, corroborates endorsement by Senior Arctic Officials of the Arctic
Council. Copy available on request.
[g] Latham J, Collen B, McRae L, Loh J. (2008) The Living Planet
Index for Migratory Species: an index of change in population abundance. A
report for the Convention on Migratory Species, United Nations Environment
Programme.
[h] http://www.nationalredlist.org
[i] Website of the Ministry of Environment and Green Development Mongolia
(www.zuil.mn). Note that the
site is in development but is not live as of 6th November 2013.
[j] UNEP/CBD/SBSTTA/17/L.2 Paragraph 61 under Aichi Target 12: The IUCN
Red List of Threatened Species, and assessment of threatened species at
the national level, can be used to trigger conservation action,
particularly where they are aligned with existing initiatives on species
conservation including those under CITES. National Red Lists, or
comparable assessments, can also assist with land use planning and
responsible impact assessments.