UK Biodiversity Indicators

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 extremely valuable, but the sheer volume of data available can make it difficult to interpret. For this reason, and to communicate the importance of biodiversity as we move towards implementing the concepts of sustainable development, it is essential to use subsets of information to provide 'indications' of what is happening to the whole. Indicators are one of the means use to we 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.

 

A range of indicators at different geographic scales is necessary but has the potential to confuse. This needs to be carefully managed. Progress towards achieving sustainable development must be communicated and understood at all levels, making best use of available information and subject matter that resonates with the intended audience. This can only be achieved if flexibility exists in the specific indicators chosen. Frameworks under which these various levels of indicator can sit, common guidance, and readily available examples of good practice are all appropriate tools for managing the proliferation of indicators.

 

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 UK has developed a set of indicators to help measure progress towards the 2010 target - see Biodiversity in Your Pocket for the results of this work, and the UK Biodiversity Indicators Forum for details of a series of meetings which have hleped inform its development.

 

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.