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  Linking Biodiversity Conservation and Poverty Alleviation: A State of Knowledge Review »

  Over recent decades, biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction have both become international societal and political goals. There is recognition of the links between these two goals both within the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Millennium Development Goals. However, the causal relationships are not so simple either that one can say poverty causes biodiversity loss, or improvements in biodiversity reduce poverty. This suggests a need to be more specific in defining what types of poverty and biodiversity issues are being assessed.

  Two “state of knowledge” reviews were commissioned to explore the evidence base for two common assumptions about the link between biodiversity conservation and poverty reduction: 1) that the poor depend on biodiversity; and 2) that biodiversity conservation can be a mechanism for poverty reduction. These attempt to tease apart the issues of what type of poverty and what type of biodiversity are being assessed.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Migratory bird species as indicators for the state of the environment »

  The potential for web-based GIS analyses of monitoring data is discussed. Once tested for the Arctic region the same can be applied to other major flyways systems and regions, such as the African-Eurasian region, identified for waterbirds. The most obvious challenge lies in the analysis of biodiversity trend data, both in itself and in relation to factors such as climate change. The Arctic region and its biota seem certain to experience pronounced changes in climate in the coming years and the proposed GIS based portal could provide the integration of essential data sets and allow analysis of the relative importance of different parameters.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Wild Bird Index: Guidance for national and regional use »

  This guidance document is one of a series produced with the support of the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010 BIP) to assist Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) to track their progress towards the 2010 Biodiversity Targets. The Wild Bird Index has been selected as one of the indicators suitable for assessing progress towards and communicating the 2010 target at the global level. The aim of this document is to provide guidance to support the calculation and interpretation of the Wild Bird Index at the national and regional scales.

   

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Progress towards international targets for protected area coverage in mountains »

  Through the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the world’s governments recently adopted a target to protect at least 17% of the global land area by 2020. This paper evaluates current levels of protection for mountains at multiple scales. It shows that the CBD’s 17% target has already been almost met at a global scale: 16.9% of the world’s mountain areas outside Antarctica fall within protected areas. However, protection of mountain areas at finer scales remains uneven and is largely insufficient, with 63% (125) of countries, 57% (4) of realms, 67% (8) of biomes, 61% (437) of ecoregions and 53% (100) of Global 200 priority ecoregions falling short of the target. The CBD target also calls for protected areas to be focussed “especially [at] areas of particular importance for biodiversity”. Important Bird Areas and Alliance for Zero Extinction sites represent existing global networks of such sites. It is therefore of major concern that 39% and 45% respectively of these sites in mountain areas remain entirely unprotected. Achievement of the CBD target in mountain regions will require more focused expansion of the protected area network in addition to enhanced management of individual sites and the wider countryside in order to ensure long term conservation of montane biodiversity and the other ecosystem services it provides.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers
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  Commercialization of non-timber forest products. Factors influencing success. Lessons learned from Mexico and Bolivia and policy implications for decision- makers »

  Non-timber forest products (NTFPs) have been widely promoted as a potential solution to high rates of tropical deforestation, by increasing the value of forest resources to local people. The content of this book is based around findings from a DFID/FRP funded international research project that has examined why commercialisation of NTFPs does not consistently contribute to poverty alleviation, gender equality and sustainable resource management.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Sourcebook on Remote Sensing and Biodiversity Indicators »

  There are several things environmental managers need to know for a practical understanding. For instance:
  What exactly does the information from a particular satellite sensor represent?
  How can this information be translated into a useful indicator?
  What are the common indicators associated with each major biome?
  What range of accuracy might one expect from a particular remotely sensed indicator, and what
  conditions affect this accuracy?

  We address these and other questions while presenting the overall role that remote sensing can play for developing and monitoring biodiversity indicators relevant to various strategic components of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Biodiversity Indicators & the 2010 Biodiversity Target: Outputs, experiences and lessons learnt from the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership »

  Th is report summarises the experiences and lessons learnt from the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (2010 BIP), as well as providing details of 27 global indicators developed in support of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)’s 2010 Biodiversity Target.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  UK National Ecosystem Assessment (UK NEA) – Progress and Steps Towards Delivery »

  The findings of the MA not only demonstrated the importance of ecosystem services to human well-being, but also showed that at global scales, many key services are being degraded and lost. As a result, in 2007 the House of Commons Environmental Audit recommended that the Government should conduct a full MA-type assessment for the UK to enable the identification and development of effective policy responses to ecosystem service degradation (House of Commons Environmental Audit 2007).
   

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Biodiversity Scenarios: Projections of 21st century change in biodiversity and associated ecosystem services »

  This synthesis focuses on estimates of biodiversity change as projected for the 21st century by models or extrapolations based on experiments and observed trends. The term “biodiversity” is used in a broad sense as it is defined in the Convention on Biological Diversity to mean the abundance and distributions of and interactions between genotypes, species, communities, ecosystems and biomes. This synthesis pays particular attention to the interactions between biodiversity and ecosystem services and to critical “tipping points” that could lead to large, rapid and potentially irreversible changes. Comparisons between models are used to estimate the range of projections and to identify sources of uncertainty. Experiments and observed trends are used to check the plausibility of these projections. In addition we have identified possible actions at the local, national and international levels that can be taken to conserve biodiversity. We have called on a wide range of scientists to participate in this synthesis, with the objective to provide decision makers with messages that reflect the consensus of the scientific community and that will aid in the development of policy and management strategies that are ambitious, forward looking and proactive.

  Resource Type: Reports
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  Protecting important sites for biodiversity contributes to meeting global conservation targets »

  Protected areas (PAs) are a cornerstone of conservation efforts and now cover nearly 13% of the world's land surface, with the world's governments committed to expand this to 17%. However, as biodiversity continues to decline, the effectiveness of PAs in reducing the extinction risk of species remains largely untested. This paper analyzes PA coverage and trends in species' extinction risk at globally significant sites for conserving birds (10,993 Important Bird Areas, IBAs) and highly threatened vertebrates and conifers (588 Alliance for Zero Extinction sites, AZEs) (referred to collectively as ‘important sites’). Species occurring in important sites with greater PA coverage experienced smaller increases in extinction risk over recent decades: the increase was half as large for bird species with>50% of the IBAs at which they occur completely covered by PAs, and a third lower for birds, mammals and amphibians restricted to protected AZEs (compared with unprotected or partially protected sites). Globally, half of the important sites for biodiversity conservation remain unprotected (49% of IBAs, 51% of AZEs). While PA coverage of important sites has increased over time, the proportion of PA area covering important sites, as opposed to less important land, has declined (by 0.45–1.14% annually since 1950 for IBAs and 0.79–1.49% annually for AZEs). Thus, while appropriately located PAs may slow the rate at which species are driven towards extinction, recent PA network expansion has under-represented important sites. The paper concludes that better targeted expansion of PA networks would help to improve biodiversity trends.

  Resource Type: Journal Papers