The UK is fortunate in having lots of information about its
biodiversity, collected across a broad spread of species and
habitats by both professionals and amateurs. These data are
essential sources of evidence; for developing and reporting
policies and actions to conserve biodiversity; for reporting; and
for developing indicators.
Indicators are one of the means the UK can communicate the
results of monitoring and surveillance. The audience for
indicators is extremely broad, from the general public to all parts
of the private and public sectors
The
Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) agreed, at the seventh Conference of Parties (COP VII),
guidance for the selection of national biodiversity indicators.
This contains many principles generic to all indicators. At the
same meeting the CBD also agreed a framework of indicators for
assessing progress towards the World Summit on Sustainable
Development (WSSD) target to "
significantly reduce the current
rate of biodiversity loss by 2010."
The idea of a headline suite of indicators, easily understood
and communicated to all, supported by a lower tier to aid
interpretation and provide more detail, has proved to be a robust
model and the most effective solution for communicating such a
difficult subject to such a wide audience. The UK approach to
sustainable development indicators has been well received
internationally and has helped to place the UK at the forefront of
international work on this subject.