We illustrate the TSX with Australia's currently imperiled birds. We demonstrate how to overcome some of the challenges associated with collating and incorporating data on trends that are often raw, unpublished and from many sources, into an index that is informed by the best available high-quality time series. Here, we present an approach for developing a national Threatened Species Index (TSX), building on the established trend aggregation methods of the Living Planet Index (LPI) (Collen et al., 2009 Loh et al., 2005 McRae et al., 2017). Many countries carry out monitoring of threatened species, but few have frameworks that integrate collected data into a tool for national and regional reporting. ( 2015), for reporting on conservation progress (e.g., ), a consolidated index reporting on trends for currently imperiled species can also be an effective tool to catalyze and justify management resourcing, inform policy, increase political engagement with threatened species research, and stimulate a targeted response to environmental problems (Jones et al., 2011 Nicholson et al., 2012). A notable exception, and precedent for the current study, is the Priority Species Indicator developed for threatened species in the United Kingdom (Eaton et al., 2015).Īs evident in the uptake by the UK government of the Priority Species Indicator described by Eaton et al. While existing integrated metrics are effective tools for communication about biodiversity, most of them were not designed to monitor trends in threatened species and thus do not specifically report on their persistence and recovery. Others focus on groups of common species (e.g., the UK Wild Bird Indicator ) or the Living Planet Index (Collen et al., 2009 Loh et al., 2005 McRae, Deinet, & Freeman, 2017)). Many available annual metrics track changes in individual species (e.g., the North American Breeding Bird Survey Regional Trend Analysis Link & Sauer, 2002) or their proxies (Garnett et al., 2018). Reporting against this target requires metrics that provide an integrated overview of population trends for threatened species. These metrics are necessary not only to support accountability against global targets, but also to inform management and policy at different spatial scales (Geijzendorffer et al., 2016 Pereira et al., 2013 Turak et al., 2017).Īichi Biodiversity Target 12 states: “By 2020, the extinction of known threatened species has been prevented and their conservation status, particularly of those most in decline, has been improved and sustained” (CBD, 2010). One reason for poor quantification is that decision-makers currently lack timely, nuanced metrics and indicators for tracking change in threatened biodiversity. However, few Aichi Targets are quantified (Tittensor et al., 2014), hampering efforts to report on the effectiveness of policies and actions aiming to recover species (Bjerke & Renger, 2017). Mechanisms such as the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) parties' UN Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets are designed to address biodiversity declines (CBD, 2010). The index provides a potential means for measuring performance against the Convention on Biological Diversity's Aichi Target 12, enabling governments, agencies and the public to observe changes in threatened species.īiodiversity continues to decline (Butchart et al., 2010 Tittensor et al., 2014) despite global agreements to preserve it. Decreases seem most severe for shorebirds and terrestrial birds and least severe for seabirds. Based on the Living Planet Index method and containing more than 17,000 time series for 65 bird taxa surveyed systematically, the index at its second iteration shows an average reduction of 59% between 19, and 44% between 20. Here we develop a Threatened Species Index as a dynamic tool for tracking annual changes in Australia's imperiled birds. Many global indicators are slow in response and report on common species, not on those at greatest risk of extinction. Quantifying species population trends is crucial for monitoring progress towards global conservation targets, justifying investments, planning targeted responses and raising awareness about threatened species.
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