title: A biodiversity indicators dashboard: addressing challenges to monitoring progress towards the Aichi biodiversity targets using disaggregated global data.
abstract: Recognizing the imperiled status of biodiversity and its benefit to human well-being, the world's governments committed in 2010 to take effective and urgent action to halt biodiversity loss through the Convention on Biological Diversity's "Aichi Targets". These targets, and many conservation programs, require monitoring to assess progress toward specific goals. However, comprehensive and easily understood information on biodiversity trends at appropriate spatial scales is often not available to the policy makers, managers, and scientists who require it. We surveyed conservation stakeholders in three geographically diverse regions of critical biodiversity concern (the Tropical Andes, the African Great Lakes, and the Greater Mekong) and found high demand for biodiversity indicator information but uneven availability. To begin to address this need, we present a biodiversity "dashboard"--a visualization of biodiversity indicators designed to enable tracking of biodiversity and conservation performance data in a clear, user-friendly format. This builds on previous, more conceptual, indicator work to create an operationalized online interface communicating multiple indicators at multiple spatial scales. We structured this dashboard around the Pressure-State-Response-Benefit framework, selecting four indicators to measure pressure on biodiversity (deforestation rate), state of species (Red List Index), conservation response (protection of key biodiversity areas), and benefits to human populations (freshwater provision). Disaggregating global data, we present dashboard maps and graphics for the three regions surveyed and their component countries. These visualizations provide charts showing regional and national trends and lay the foundation for a web-enabled, interactive biodiversity indicators dashboard. This new tool can help track progress toward the Aichi Targets, support national monitoring and reporting, and inform outcome-based policy-making for the protection of natural resources.
authors.affiliation: NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America; Department of Environmental Science and Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Xuemei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Regan L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Smyth
authors.affiliation: NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Bruce E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Young
authors.affiliation: NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America; International Union for Conservation of Nature, Gland, Switzerland; World Agroforestry Center, International Center for Research in Agroforestry, University of Philippines, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines; School of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Brooks
authors.affiliation: NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sánchez de Lozada
authors.affiliation: United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bubb
authors.affiliation: BirdLife International, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Stuart H M
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Butchart
authors.affiliation: European Environment Agency, Copenhagen, Denmark; Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Frank W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Larsen
authors.affiliation: NatureServe, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Healy
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hamilton
authors.affiliation: Department of Geographical Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Hansen
authors.affiliation: Conservation International, Arlington, Virginia, United States of America.
authors.forename: Will R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Turner
mesh_terms: D044822:Biodiversity; D003628:Database Management Systems; D064308:Ecological Parameter Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D007391:International Cooperation; D011157:Population Dynamics