Table Of Content

Features Convention of Biological Diversity, Biodiversity Indicators, and SSC Donat Aaosti TheoutcomeoftheUnitedNation'sJune 1997 implementation of Article 7, indicators are Special Session of the General Assembly to demanded that ideally should have a similar review and appraise the implementation of function and appeal as the Dow Jones Index, Agenda 21 during the first five years afterthe being attractive and understandable to politi- Rio Earth Summit was sobering. But has cians and their constituencies. Interestingly reallysolittlehappenedsinceRio? Duringand enough, SBSTTA recommended to the COP, after the Rio process, it became very obvious withinacoresetofindicators,onlyoneindica- that actions have to happen at the local level. tor that covers the species or gene level, in- From this perspective, some spots ofbrighter volving the changes in numbers ofthreatened light are detectable, for example the growing and extinct species. As lUCN's Red List is numberofSSC members, theiractivities, and mentioned for its usefulness for definitions the implementation ofaction plans. anditsprovisionofanimportantsetofspecies, Whereas UNGASS dealt with the imple- SSCaskeydelivererofthisinformationmight mentation ofAgenda21, a non-bindingdocu- beanactiveproviderofthisinformationthein ment, the Conference ofthe Parties (COP) is future. dealing with the implementation ofthe Con- Whatwouldthatmean? SBSTTA'srecom- ventionofBiologicalDiversity(CBD),abind- mendationstothe ConferenceofthePartiesis ing document for the parties (nations). quite clearon what matters thedesignofindi- Therefore, there is at least on paper a legally catorsatthenationallevel(wheretheConven- bindinginstrumentavailabletoconservebiodi- tion operates) have to address: versity. Decisions of the COP furthermore refine activities to be taken by the parties; the • the way indicators relate to management questions Global EnvironmentFund(GEE)isproviding afinancial mechanism forits implementation; • the ability to show trends and the SBSTTA (Subsidiary BodyforScien- tific, Technical and Technological Advice) is • the ability to distinguish between natural thescientificandtechnological adviserforthe and human-induced change COP. SBSTTA has turned intoaforumthatis • the ability to provide reliable results (i.e., considerably more focused than at its begin- throughtheestablishmentofstandardmeth- ning,andNGOsareallowedasobservers. The odologies) lastmeetingofSBSTTA (itsthird)washeldin Montreal, in September 1997. • thedegreetowhichindicatorsareamenable One item on the agenda, and recurring in to straightforward interpretation various others, was the implementationofAr- • the question ofbaseline for measurement ticle 7 ofthe CBD, which requests the parties todevelopnecessarymechanismstoinventory It seems that individual Specialists Groups and monitorbiodiversity from gene tospecies couldaddressmostofthosequestionsfortheir to ecosystem levels, and those that are of animals or plants, and the Biodiversity Con- relevance for economic, health, or scientific servation Information System (BCIS) might reasons(i.e.,noteverythingshouldbeinvento- ried). To summarize and communicate the ^/2CCv"oo 2.T ; Z3- Zv- ( )'^1l) Species 23 be of great help. But there are also some theintervalsatwhichdatashouldbecollected, caveats. Thebiodiversityindicatorshavetobe andmost importantly, to buildupthecapacity robustand reliable in orderto be able tocom- to survey periodically. pete with other national indicators and policy The development ofsuch collecting proto- plans. Therefore,standardprotocolsareneeded cols will depend, on the one hand, on really notonly to analyze existing data, butratherto collected(observed)data,buttoalargerextent include everything from datacollection tothe onpredictivemodelsfordistributionandstrati- definitionofindicators. Thatthisisnotaneasy fiedsampling. Whereasthecollectingdataare task is probably best illustrated by the ex- species-specific, the simulation models are tremelylownumberofexistingsetsofnational generally based on data, such as topography, biodiversity indicators, ortheexceptionallow- rainfall distribution, or land cover classifica- number oftaxa for which reliable population tion, whicharethe same forallthegroups. As counts exist (e.g., the African elephant). The personalcomputersgetmoreandmorepower- implementationofsuchasystemwilltaketime ful globaldatasetsare longerandmoreacces- andisquitecostly,butneverthelessnecessary, sible, and some predictive models on the if figures on endangered species should be distribution ofplants and animals already ex- taken seriously in the context of the ist, it might be achallenge forSSCtodevelop undisputedly rapidly developing pressures on those tools fortheirown need(i.e.,forthe use the global environment. oftheir Specialist Group). The challenge to the SSC is then todeliver The involvement ofthe SSC has a further such systems. Besides its ongoing activities, advantage. Though above mentioned indica- the SSC mightdevelopacomplementary pro- tors are used at the national level, the global gram that aims at developing standard tech- network of SSC has the unique chance to niques to produce the necessary data for the provide the globalperspectiveonthestatusof proposed indicator on the number of threat- the endangered species. ened species. This would mean thatforsome Finally,suchaninstrumentwouldallowfor groups, an effort should be made to develop thefirst-timeapplicationoflUCN'scriteriaof standardized collecting techniques, to define threat to geo-referenced data, collected in a standardized way. Only such atool, complex as it is, will have an impact onpoliticians and theirconstituency inthe longterm. Indicators as part of the legally binding Convention of Biological Diversity seem to be an important tool tomonitorits implementation,andwith it to conserve the environment. DonatAgosti, Chair SocialInsects Specialist Group 24 Species