Biodiversity policy evaluations: the importance of indicators
The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) performs assessments on biodiversity to evaluate policy and to explore policy options. For these assessments PBL develops indicators and models to determine the past, current and future state of biodiversity and its causes.
Biodiversity indicators
One of the most important issues to support policy makers is the development of a small number of simple and feasible biodiversity indicators that adequately express biodiversity and biodiversity loss: the homogenization process. Such indicators are also needed for the implementation of the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In The Hague 2002, the member states agreed to significantly reduce the rate of loss by 2010 at the global, regional and national level. Shortly afterwards the European Union and pan-Europe agreed upon a halt of the loss of biodiversity by 2010 ("ministerial process Environment for Europe", Kiev, 2003). In 2004 a global agreement was achieved on a small number of indicators for immediate testing in order to review the progress towards the 2010-target and guide policy makers in finding effective measures. Four global indicators have been selected on the state of biodiversity to evaluate the progress towards the 2010-target, for immediate testing:
- Trends in extent of selected biomes, ecosystems and habitats
- Trends in abundance and distribution of selected species
- Change in status of threatened species
- Trends in genetic diversity of domesticated animals, cultivated plants, and fish species of major socio-economic importance.
See the following documents at the Convention on Biological Diversity site:
Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators
In May 2004 the 'Message of Malahide' listed a first set of European Biodiversity Headline indicators to evaluate the progress towards the 2010-target at the European level similar to the above listed CBD indicators. The European Council urged the European Commission to develop, test and finalise this set by 2006. This lead to the establishment of the Streamlining European Biodiversity Indicators program (SEBI-2010). The report ‘Halting the loss of biodiversity by 2010: proposal for a first set of indicators to monitor progress in Europe’ was published in 2007.
Biodiversity indicators for the Netherlands
At the national level, PBL, in conjunction with the Central Bureau for Statistics in the Netherlands (CBS) and various NGOs implement the first three indicators. The indicator on the abundance of selected species is based on a wide range of species in an extensive national monitoring program (NEM). To provide overviews on the state and trends at the species and the ecosystem level, composite indicators have been developed and are reported in the Nature Outlook 2 and Nature Balance 2004. They consist of the Species Assemblage Trends Index (STI), the Red List Index (RLI) and the Natural Capital Index (NCI). These indicators are complementary, from which the latter provides an overall picture of the homogenisation process as a result of habitat loss and loss of quality within the remaining ecosystems. The NCI is calculated for natural and man-made ecosystems separately. The above composite indicators are also discussed in the CBD and recommended for adoption.
The Natural Capital Index (NCI) and Mean Species Abundance (MSA)
The Natural Capital Index (NCI) was originaly developed for the Netherlands, but has also been useful in European and global integrated environmental outlooks. To solve the problem of lack of data on species abundance at these levels the NCI has been estimated on the bases of pressures, the so-called NCI-pressure based. This indicator was renamed to Mean Species Abundance (MSA) and is calculated by the GLOBIO model. It has been applied in various assessments:
- OECD environmental outlook 2008
- GEO4
- Cross-Roads of Life on Earth: Exploring means to meet the 2010 Biodiversity Target
- The fall of the water
The results from the baseline of the OECD study can be viewed with Google Earth after unpacking this file. You need to have Google Earth installed first.
Contributions of PBL to indicator development
Since 1995 PBL has actively contributed to these consistent global, regional and national indicator development in the CBD, OECD, Europe, various partner countries and The Netherlands. The following publications have been made:
- Biodiversity indicators for the OECD Environmental Outlook and Strategy
- Technical Report on Biodiversity in Europe: an integrated economic and environmental assessment
- Biodiversity indicators for national reporting: experiences from five countries (external link at CBD)
- Ecology: the convention on biological diversity's 2010 target
- Biodiversity trends in Europe: development and testing of a species trend indicator for evaluating progress towards the 2010 target
- Biodiversity Trends and Threats in Europe; development and test of a species trend indicator
The following report provides an overview of indicator development:
An overview of the current International Biodiversity program of PBL:
National nature policy review: the Nature Balance
PBL also reviews the Dutch national policies on biodiversity and nature in the yearly Nature Balance. This annual report presents facts and figures on and evaluations of nature policy effectiveness in the social and economic context. It summarizes trends and signals received from the national network on ecological monitoring, and offers options for nature management strategies. The report is further based on dozens of individual studies on selected subjects in which interactions between environmental, land-use and water management policies are analysed.
- Read more on the publication pages about the balances
