The Biodiversity Indicators Partnership, a unique alliance to help track progress towards global biodiversity targets, completes pioneering project to fill gaps in the available suite of indicators.

Biodiversity underpins the services that nature provides us, as recognised in not only the Sustainable Development Goals related to biodiversity – such as Life on Land and Life under Water – but also on poverty reduction, climate change and wellbeing.

Biodiversity indicators are essential to measure progress towards meeting many of the Sustainable Development Goal targets and the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the UN Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. Since 2015, the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (BIP), with funding from the European Commission, has been working to fill indicator gaps in the available indicators for these targets.

As a result of this exciting project, 30 more indicators have been welcomed into the BIP - there are now over 60 indicators brought together in the Partnership. Thirteen of these are official Sustainable Development Goal indicators, including the Red List Index of trends in the conservation status of species, protected area coverage of important areas for biodiversity, and the Wetland Extent Trends Index. Most of the other indicators are also relevant to one more of the Sustainable Development Goal targets.

To help users identify synergies between indicators for Sustainable Development Goals and Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the Biodiversity Indicators Partnership has also created a mapping table. This resource allows users to identify indicators that are suitable for use at the national scale, which can help them with reporting processes such as their 6th National Reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and their Voluntary National Reviews to the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

For more information visit www.bipindicators.net