ID: 39
Presenting Author: Thaís Dória
Status: pending
A total of 14 biodiversity metrics were identified and recommended to form a toolbox for assessing losses and gains, providing support for biodiversity management in the private sector.
The accelerating biodiversity crisis has heightened the demand for robust and comparable tools to assess human impacts on nature and to guide effective biodiversity offsetting strategies. Achieving no net loss (NNL) or net positive impact (NPI) outcomes require metrics that can measure biodiversity changes across multiple ecological dimensions with scientific rigor and transparency. However, the proliferation of metrics in literature has created uncertainty about which are most appropriate for different contexts. To address this gap, we conducted a systematic review and critical analysis of biodiversity metrics developed worldwide for terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems. Forty metrics were identified and evaluated for conceptual robustness, scalability, and complementarity in terms of the different dimensions of biodiversity (i.e., attributes of composition, structure, function, and risk, besides the organization levels of landscape, communities/ecosystems and species/population). Based on this assessment, using a multi-criteria approach, we selected a subset of 14 metrics that together capture key dimensions of biodiversity. Rather than proposing a single metric, this “Biodiversity Metrics Toolbox” enables users to select a tailored combination of metrics that best represent the ecological and operational context of their assessments. The toolbox thus provides a practical and scientifically grounded opportunity to select metrics that will improve consistency, transparency, and ecological relevance of biodiversity offset evaluations.
PhD in ecology and Sustainability Analyst at the International Institute for Sustainability (IIS), with expertise in biodiversity metrics and scientific support in decision-making.
Coauthor 1: Fernando Resende
Coauthor 2: Stella Manes
Coauthor 3: Renato Fernandes
Coauthor 4: Luiz Fernando Martins
Coauthor 5: Bruna Pavani