Comprehensiveness of conservation of socioeconomically as well as culturally valuable species [BIP]

Comprehensiveness of conservation of socioeconomically as well as culturally valuable species [BIP]
Indicator description
The indicator measures the comprehensiveness of the conservation (i.e., the “maintained” referred to in Aichi Target 13) of socio-economically as well as culturally valuable species. Conservation is measured both with regard to ex situ (in genebanks and other conservation repositories) as well as in situ (in designated protected areas). The indicator covers a global list of socio-economically as well as culturally valuable wild plant species, of which crop wild relatives (also referred to in Target 13) are a part. Future expansions of the indicator will be designed to include cultivated/domesticated plants as well, methodologies for which are under development.
The indicator measures the comprehensiveness of the conservation of species using eco-geographic methods as proxy for genetic diversity, since direct measures of genetic diversity of such species are not feasible due to the lack of sufficient genetic data for virtually all relevant species. The indicator uses open-source species occurrence information in combination with climatic, altitude, and other eco-geographic data to produce species distribution models which depict the geographic and ecological range of each species.
In order to assess the comprehensiveness of conservation of these species ex situ (i.e. in genebanks and other conservation repositories), the locations from which ex situ collections have been made (i.e., ‘site of collection’ locations) are compared to the species distribution models, enabling an understanding of how complete previous collecting efforts have been with regard to the full geographic and ecological ranges of the species. Prioritizations of geographic and ecological areas for further collecting of these species can then be made based on these results.
In order to assess the comprehensiveness of conservation of these species in situ (i.e. in designated protected areas), a global spatial dataset of such protected areas (World Database on Protected Areas, 2019) is compared to the species distribution models, enabling an understanding of how well conserved the species are in protected areas with regard to the full geographic and ecological ranges of the species. Future efforts to protect species in situ (i.e., by establishing new or by expanding existing protected areas) can then be organized based on these results.
Species level data is combined for all species native to each country or region to produce the national and regional level indicator, and all species worldwide are combined to produce the global indicator. The indicator is measured on a scale from 0-100, with 0 = no existing conservation and 100 = complete (comprehensive) conservation. The indicator is calculated as the proportion of species determined to be relatively well conserved (i.e., categorized as either sufficiently conserved or as low priority for further conservation action) out of all assessed species, producing a percentage, converted to a number between 0-100.
The indicator is measured periodically (at least every five years). An upward trend (moving from 0 to 100) indicates an improvement in the comprehensiveness of conservation of socioeconomically as well as culturally valuable species, due to a greater number of unique collections of socioeconomically as well as culturally valuable species being reported as conserved in ex situ conservation repositories, and/or by a larger proportion of the potential native distributions of these species being conserved in designated protected areas. Reaching a score of 100 implies full conservation, meaning that Target 13 has been met.