Scientific foundations for an ecosystem goal, milestones and indicators for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework

Nicholson, Emily; Watermeyer, Kate E.; Rowland, Jessica A.; Sato, Chloe F.; Stevenson, Simone L.; Andrade, A. G. de; Brooks, Thomas M.; Burgess, Neil D.; Cheng, Su-Ting; Grantham, Hedley S.; Hill, Samantha L. L.; Keith, David A.; Maron, Martine; Metzke, D.; Murray, Nicholas J.; Nelson, Cara R.; Obura, David; Plumptre, A.J; Skowno, Andrew; Watson, James

doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01538-5

Cited by 118 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 162 publications

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“…Restoration will be key to achieving this. 67 The United Nations System for Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA) -Ecosystem Accounting (EA) framework provides an opportunity to integrate ecosystems into Natural Capital Accounting at a national level (Box 15). Red List of Ecosystems data provides a means of monitoring changes in ecosystems, through indicators that aggregate and summarise changes in area, integrity and collapse risk through time.…”

Section: Reporting To Global Goals and Agreementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using ecosystem risk assessment science in ecosystem restoration: a guide to applying the Red List of Ecosystems to ecosystem restoration

Valderrabano¹,

Nelson²,

Nicholson³

et al. 2021

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Recent global initiatives in ecosystem restoration offer an unprecedented opportunity to improve biodiversity conservation and human health and well-being. Ecosystems form a core component of biodiversity. They provide humans with multiple benefits – a stable climate and breathable air; water, food and materials; and protection from disaster and disease. Ecosystem restoration, as defined by the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, includes a range of management interventions that aim to reduce impacts on and assist in the recovery of ecosystems that have been damaged, degraded or destroyed. This Guide promotes the application of the science of ecosystem risk assessment, which involves measuring the risk of ecosystem collapse, in ecosystem restoration. It explores how the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems and ecosystem restoration can be jointly deployed to reduce risk of ecosystem collapse.

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Section: Reporting To Global Goals and Agreementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using ecosystem risk assessment science in ecosystem restoration: a guide to applying the Red List of Ecosystems to ecosystem restoration

Valderrabano¹,

Nelson²,

Nicholson³

et al. 2021

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“…In addition to providing a strong platform for conservation action, the RLE process can unlock national level reporting linked to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Convention's Global Biodiversity Framework includes ecosystem targets, which draw on the same foundational information as the RLE [1,32].…”

Section: Lessons and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ecosystem level indicators have emerged as an important element of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework of the Conventional on Biological Diversity [1]. The associated monitoring framework requires parties to report on various aspects of ecosystem extent and integrity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

South Africa’s Red List of Terrestrial Ecosystems (RLEs)

Skowno

Monyeki

2021

Land

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Ecosystem level indicators are emerging as important pillars of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity; at the same time, the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems (RLEs) is experiencing rapid global uptake. We applied a systematic RLE assessment to 456 terrestrial ecosystems in South Africa between 2017 and 2021. What sets South Africa apart in this endeavour is that an independently formulated ecosystem threat status indicator was developed between 2004 and 2008 and the list of threatened ecosystems (effectively a proto RLE) was integrated into the national environmental regulatory framework in 2011. Through this, Critically Endangered and Endangered types were afforded a form of statutory protection through increased regulation of land-use change activities. We describe the transition to the IUCN RLE framework and focus on both the technical steps of incorporating the best available data into a credible assessment, and the unique social and legal processes to ensure that the biodiversity conservation sector in South Africa understood and supported the proposed replacement of the existing list of threatened ecosystems (2011) with the RLE (2021). We discuss the policy development steps required in South Africa, and the pros and cons of maintaining a legislative link for RLE implementation.

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“…The leading international framework for developing environmental economic accounts is the System of Environmental Economic Accounting -Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) which has been adopted by the UN Statistical Commission and many countries (United Nations 2021). While ecosystem extent indicators have been widely studied, there has been limited testing of how effectively condition indicators in SEEA-EA (Farrell et al 2021), and biodiversity indicators more generally (Watermeyer et al 2021;Nicholson et al 2021), can inform management decisions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, it is imperative that we quantify the sensitivity of condition indicators to human influences so we know if -and how quickly -such indicators can detect changes in cross-catchment processes. In particular, as SEEA EA is becoming a dominant framework for environmental economic accounts, tests of how well condition indicators in this framework can capture changes in cross-system interactions are needed (Watermeyer et al 2021;Nicholson et al 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecosystem services in connected catchment to coast ecosystems: monitoring to detect emerging trends

Brown

Ange

Connolly

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Environmental Economic Accounts track the supply and use of interconnected ecosystem services, to inform environmental decision makers about the past and current status of ecosystem services. Ecosystem services are underpinned by the extent and condition of ecosystems, both of which are tracked in accounts with indicators. Policy makers need to know if indicators lead or lag environmental change, so that indicators are interpreted appropriately. Here we test the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting-Ecosystem Accounting (SEEA-EA) framework for ecological condition to ask whether interconnected indicators lead or lag long-term change in ecosystem condition. We chose a case-study with high variability, which likely confounds our ability to track long-term change- a catchment in Northern Australia with high year-to-year variation in river flow that leads to high natural variation in ecological condition. We first quantified covariation among ecological indicators for pasture biomass, vegetation greenness and barramundi catch per unit effort. Covariation in the indicators was driven by river flow, with higher values of all indicators occurring in years with greater river flow. Barramundi catch per unit effort was most sensitive to changes in river flow, followed by a vegetation greenness and pasture biomass. We then defined reference bounds for each indicator that accounted for natural variation in river flow. We predicted the emergence times for each indicator, the time taken for each indicator to emerge from the background of natural variation. Emergence times were >10 years in all cases. Detecting change was more difficult where there were gaps in data. Ecosystem accounts can be used to compare ecological condition against performance objectives, but should consider natural variation in the system. National accounts are often used by decision makers to directly inform near-term actions, because economic indicators respond rapidly to new policies and the prevailing economic conditions. We found that ecological condition indicators in highly variable ecosystems are lagging indicators of change, and as such should be used to assess historical performance, not as leading indicators of future change.

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Scientific foundations for an ecosystem goal, milestones and indicators for the post-2020 global biodiversity framework

Cited by 118 publications

References 162 publications

Using ecosystem risk assessment science in ecosystem restoration: a guide to applying the Red List of Ecosystems to ecosystem restoration

Using ecosystem risk assessment science in ecosystem restoration: a guide to applying the Red List of Ecosystems to ecosystem restoration

South Africa’s Red List of Terrestrial Ecosystems (RLEs)

Ecosystem services in connected catchment to coast ecosystems: monitoring to detect emerging trends

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