Abstract
As we enter the next phase of international policy commitments to halt biodiversity loss (e.g. Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework), biodiversity indicators will play an important role forming the robust basis upon which targeted, and time sensitive conservation actions are developed. Population trend indicators are perhaps the most powerful tool in biodiversity monitoring due to their responsiveness to changes over short timescales and their ability to aggregate species trends from global down to at a sub-national or even local scale. We consider how the project behind the foremost population level indicator - the Living Planet Index - has evolved over the last 25 years, its value to the field of biodiversity monitoring, and how its components have portrayed a compelling account of the changing status of global biodiversity through its application at policy, research and practice levels. We explore ways the project can develop to enhance our understanding of the state of biodiversity and share lessons learned to inform indicator development and mobilise action.
Box 1. The Living Planet Index Project
The Living Planet Index project (the index, methodology, and database) and its secondary outputs (methods papers and R code, database and website, global index, and subset indices) have had wide-ranging applications within the fields of biodiversity monitoring and research, as well as across policy, education, and outreach.
The Living Planet Index (LPI) is a biodiversity indicator which tracks trends in the relative abundance of wild vertebrate populations (where population is defined as to a single species in a defined location rather than the biological definition). Relative abundance captures how populations are changing over time on average in comparison to a reference point, or “baseline” (the LPI uses 1970). It is often described as analogous to a stock market index for species. The index is comprised of thousands of population time-series for vertebrate species from locations around the world; the trends from these populations are averaged to produce terrestrial, freshwater, and marine indices, which are further aggregated to a global LPI. The latest global LPI shows a decline of 68% between 1970 and 2016 globally 1. This is an average trend based on time-series data from 20,811 populations of 4,392 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
The LPI database (LPD) can include population data for any species for which time-series population data could be found, regardless of threat status, or whether they show increasing or declining trends. These population time-series are sourced from scientific papers, online databases, government, and expert led published reports. They can be searched and downloaded from the project website (www.livingplanetindex.org). More technical information is available on the LPI stats website (http://stats.livingplanetindex.org/).
Competing Interest Statement
SL, LM, RF, KSG, VM, MF and SD are employed by ZSL (which hosts the LPD and partners with WWF to deliver the global LPI) and work directly on the management of the LPD and global LPI. MG, RA, LY and JC are employed by WWF offices (the umbrella organisation of which founded the LPI). MG and RA are Editors of the Living Planet Report. WWF-UK and WWF-NL have provided funding for project and research support and supported the research in kind.
Footnotes
Added the competing interests section; updated author list and affiliation; minor edits to main text and supplementary materials.
