A user's guide to biodiversity indicators
EASAC policy report
The user's guide to biodiversity indicators is intended to give policy-makers the tools to engage with debates about biodiversity. There is a wide consensus that biodiversity is important and that its protection should be an urgent priority for policy-makers. But that consensus cannot effectively be translated into policy unless there are ways of measuring biodiversity. Only then is it possible to monitor the impact of attempts to protect it. The bulk of the report consists of a systematic description of 17 different indicators related to particular aspects of biodiversity and an analysis of their current and potential utility.
EASAC - the European Academics Science Advisory Council - is formed by the national science Academies of the EU Member States to enable them to collaborate with each other in providing advice to European policy-makers. It thus provides a means for the collective voice of European science to be heard.