UK Biodiversity Indicators 2014 Christine Holleran, Defra Christine.holleran@defra.gsi.gov.uk With thanks to: James Williams, JNCC James.Williams@JNCC.gov.uk

UK Biodiversity Indicators Mandate through senior governance group representing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland Published annually since 2007 Report on progress with the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the 20 Aichi Targets within it Some measures still under development Compliant with Code of Practice for Official Statistics The UK biodiversity indicators were originally developed to measure progress towards the 2010 biodiversity target under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Following adoption of the global Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 we reviewed the indicators and identified improvements that could be made to some of the existing indicators and gaps that needed to be addressed. For the past couple of years we have been working to implement improvements and fill gaps. We hope to have filled most of the gaps by the time we publish again in October 2014. The indicators will contribute to the UK’s 5th National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity The individual indicators are official Government Statistics and are published as a National Statistics compendium – this means production is controlled through a code of conduct on how indicators are prepared and presented.

UK Biodiversity Indicators Latest publication 4 Dec 2014 24 indicators (47 measures) New measures were published in 2014 for awareness, understanding and support for conservation; integration of biodiversity considerations into business activity; priority species (frequency of occurrence); ecosystem services (pollinating insects and removal of greenhouse gas by forests); and NGO expenditure on UK biodiversity.

Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 Framework for all Conventions and stakeholders. Vision: Living in harmony with nature. By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.” Mission Take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life, and contributing to human well-being, and poverty eradication 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets under 5 Strategic Goals http://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/

Strategic Plan Goals & Targets A mainstreaming Targets on: awareness, values/accounting, incentives, mainstreaming sustainable use B pressures Targets on: habitat loss, fisheries, sustainable land use, pollution, invasive aliens, climate change impacts C safeguarding Targets on: protected areas, threatened species, domesticated species and wild relatives D benefits Targets on: ecosystem services, restoration, access to genetic resources E knowledge and capacity Targets on: NBSAPs, local communities, science base, resources http://www.cbd.int/sp/targets/ Strategic Goal A: Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society Strategic Goal B: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use Strategic Goal C: To improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity Strategic Goal D: Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services Strategic Goal E: Enhance implementation through participatory planning, knowledge management and capacity building You should I hope have details of the targets in your packs, and I don’t have time to read them all out, but they are listed in some back-up slides at the end of the presentation.

Underpinning Framework C1a/b. Protected Area extent B5b. Marine pollution What do we do about biodiversity loss? What are the implications of biodiversity loss? Why are we losing biodiversity? How is the status of biodiversity changing? C5d Seabirds The framework for the UK indicators is a development of the Pressure-State-Response framework. Benefits are the things we get from biodiversity, like food, clean air and water. The framework allows policy makers to ask questions from any starting point. To develop that, let’s look at example indicators for each of the parts of the framework: The Pressure from marine pollution is decreasing – this is an index based on 6 substances – 5 heavy metals and an organic compound (lindane). The State of biodiversity is represented by the wild bird indicator. Picking up on the seabirds, to continue the marine theme, shows an increase in the long term, followed by a decrease in the short term. This may in part be due to changing policy on discards, and also some species dispersing inland. Benefits is represented by the marine fish size classes indicator – which looks at the proportion of research vessel catches which are over 40cm in length. This has declined in the past, but is now improving. The proportion of large fish is a measure of the functioning of the ecosystem. Response is represented by expenditure. Over the long term that has increased, but short term has declined – showing more recent resource constraints. C5d. Seabirds D1c. Marine fish size classes

Indicator Fiches JNCC website http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4233 Tabbed layout Summary Indicator Description Relevance Background Goals and Targets Web Links Show All Includes access to data, technical background papers Summary section in booklet

Indicator Fiches JNCC website http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-4233 Tabbed layout Summary Indicator Description Relevance Background Goals and Targets Web Links Show All Includes access to data, technical background papers Summary section in booklet

Example indicator Biodiversity and ecosystem services Smoothed trend is assessed Raw data are quite variable D1a: Marine fish size classes To bring all that together We have a headline – biodiversity and ecosystem services (marine) We have a operational indicator – marine fish size We have a graph We have an assessment – over the long term and short term, plus a non-assessed note of change for the latest year of data Note that the raw data for the graph is quite variable So we assess using a smoothed trend if that is possible (it isn’t for all the indicators) Note too that the indicator could be a bar graph, pie charts, map, or other presentation – the key thing is that it helps to communicate the message within the data being portrayed. We try to provide more information in the Indicator Description and Background sections of the indicator fiche on the JNCC website to facilitate greater understanding of the indicator.

Strategic Goal A mainstreaming Targets on: awareness, values/accounting, incentives, mainstreaming sustainable use Under development A3: Value of biodiversity integrated into decision making A4: Global impact A2: Conservation volunteering A5: Integration of biodiversity into decision making A1: Awareness, understanding & support

Strategic Goal B pressures Targets on: habitat loss, fisheries, sustainable land use, pollution, invasive aliens, climate change B2 Sustainable fisheries Under development B3: Climate change adaptation B1a:Agri-environment Schemes B1b: Sustainable forestry

Strategic Goal B pressures Targets on: habitat loss, fisheries, sustainable land use, pollution, invasive aliens, climate change B5a: Air pollution B4: Spring Index B6: Invasive species B7: Surface water status B5b: Marine pollution

Strategic Goal C safeguarding Targets on: protected areas, threatened species, domesticated species and wild relatives Under development C2: Habitat connectivity C1: Protected areas

Strategic Goal C safeguarding Targets on: protected areas, threatened species, domesticated species and wild relatives C3b: European species C3a: European habitats C4a: Priority species - abundance C4b: Priority species - frequency of occurance

Strategic Goal C safeguarding Targets on: protected areas, threatened species, domesticated species and wild relatives C5: Birds

Strategic Goal C safeguarding Targets on: protected areas, threatened species, domesticated species and wild relatives C9b: Plant genetic resources C9a: Animal genetic resources C6: Butterflies Under development C7: Plants C8: Bats

Strategic Goal D benefits Targets on: ecosystem services, restoration, access to genetic resources D1c: Status of pollinators D1a: Marine fish size classes D1b: Removals of greenhouse gases

Strategic Goal E knowledge and capacity Targets on: NBSAPs, local communities, science base, resources E1: Biodiversity data for decision making E2: Biodiversity Expenditure

Mapping the UK biodiversity indicators to the Aichi Targets Comparison of UK indicators with global-level indicators developed by the CBD demonstrates a fairly good fit. At present, no indicators have been identified for Targets 16, 17 and 18. Target 16 is about the Nagoya protocol on access and benefits sharing – it would be premature to develop an indicator until how this is going to work is resolved Target 17 is about National Biodiversity Strategy and Action P;lan (NBSAP) – effectively this is a yes/no response at a national level, so is suitable for a global indicator, but not a national one Target 18 is about indigenous communities – less relevant for UK

Traffic Light Assessments Two assessment periods for each indicator Assessment of trend, not distance to target Long-term# – assessment of change since the earliest date for which data are available Short-term* - assessment of change in the last 5 years # Provided there are at least 10 years of data * C3a, C3b, C9a have 6 year short term assessments due to the data available Improving Little or no overall change Deteriorating Insufficient or no comparable data

Assessment of change 2014 Long-term – an assessment of change since the earliest date for which data are available, although if the data run is for less than ten years a long-term assessment is not made. Short-term – an assessment of change over the latest five years. For a very few indicators the short term change is over a longer time period as a result of the frequency of update of the data upon which the indicators are based. Indicators C3a, C3b, and C9a have a six year short-term assessment.

Assessment of change 2014 All Measures Strategic Goal: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use Strategic Goal: Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity

Challenges / Next Steps Filling Gaps – e.g. A3, A4, B3, C2, C7, – improve presentation and/or assessment of others – e.g. D1b, D1c Expressing confidence – H/M/L depending on indicator characteristics Evidence Statements - Defra project let to CEH Synoptic presentation of evidence – National Capital Committee request – but can ‘everything lumped together’ be interpreted Expanding use of the data Creative visualisation of big-data

Bookmark/share this page: Combining indicator trends NB: Dummy data Combine the assessment of the indicators (e.g. getting better / worse) rather than the actual data Bookmark/share this page:       One World - Nations Online .:. let's care for this planet Made to improve cross-cultural understanding and global awareness. Site Map | Information Sources | Advertise with OWNO | Disclaimer: Privacy Policy, etc. Contact: info@nationsonline.org | Copyright © 1998-2013 :: nationsonline.org Home Maps World Map World Map (3000px) ___ Political Map of the World Political Map of the World showing independent states, dependencies or areas of special sovereignty, islands and island groups as well as the national capitals and major cities. One World - Nations Online the countries of the world   NB this figure uses DUMMY DATA – to illustrate a conceptual point. If different countries are implementing a process in slightly different ways, or are using different indicators to measure their progress, we can still combine results without necessarily having to use exactly the same data everywhere. If results are presented as a increasing / decreasing result then these can be combined as the number that are improving or declining – either year by year, or in the long or short term. What if differences in implementation in different countries, or different indicators in different countries Take a hypothetical example Year x Year y

Thank you, any questions? Christine Holleran, Defra Christine.holleran@defra.gsi.gov.uk With thanks to: James Williams, JNCC James.Williams@JNCC.gov.uk