The nations of the world have set themselves a target of reducing the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Here, we propose a biodiversity intactness index (BII) for assessing progress towards this target that is simple and practical - but sensitive to important factors that influence biodiversity status - and which satisfies the criteria for policy relevance set by the Convention on Biological Diversity. Application of the BII is demonstrated on a large region (4 3 10 6 km 2) of southern Africa. The BII score in the year 2000 is about 84%: in other words, averaged across all plant and vertebrate species in the region, populations have declined to 84% of their presumed pre-modern levels. The taxonomic group with the greatest loss is mammals, at 71% of pre-modern levels, and the ecosystem type with the greatest loss is grassland, with 74% of its former populations remaining. During the 1990s, a population decline of 0.8% is estimated to have occurred.
Reference:
Scholes, RJ and Biggs, R. 2005. Biodiversity intactness index. Nature, vol. 434(7029), pp 45-49
Scholes, R., & Biggs, R. (2005). Biodiversity intactness index. http://hdl.handle.net/10204/2026
Scholes, RJ, and R Biggs "Biodiversity intactness index." (2005) http://hdl.handle.net/10204/2026
Scholes R, Biggs R. Biodiversity intactness index. 2005; http://hdl.handle.net/10204/2026.
