Monitoring biodiversity loss with primary species-occurrence data: toward national-level indicators for the 2010 target of the convention on biological diversity.

Development of effective indicators is indispensable for countries and societies to monitor effects of their actions on biodiversity, as is recognized in decision VI/26 of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Good indicators would ideally be scalable, at least for the different scales that characterize biodiversity patterns and process. Existing indicators are mostly global in scope, and often based on secondary information, such as classifications of endangered species, rather than on primary data. We propose a complementary approach, based on the increased availability of raw data about occurrences of species, cutting-edge modeling techniques for estimating distributional areas, and land-use information based on remotely sensed data to allow estimation of rates of range loss for species affected by land-use conversion. This method can be implemented by developing countries, given increasing availability of data and the open and well-documented nature of the techniques required.