IUCN SSC SPECIES MONITORING SPECIALIST GROUP
Biodiversity data for conservation
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© PJ Stephenson

Rationale

Species are monitored for a range of different reasons by a range of different people, such as:
  • conservation project managers to demonstrate and adapt the changes they bring about in biodiversity
  • donors to understand the impact of their funding and return on investment
  • scientists and NGOs to identify threatened species and plan conservation action
  • local communities to manage their natural resources
  • governments to track delivery of national biodiversity strategies and their contribution to the goals of multi-lateral environmental agreements (MEAs such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Ramsar Convention) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • businesses to monitor their sustainability or environmental impacts.
 
Recent scientific literature demonstrates that:
  • There are a suite of methods, indicators and databases available to meet many monitoring needs.
  • Many challenges exist in the collection of data and its use in monitoring and related decision-making, including inadequate or unharmonized methods, tools and technology, inadequate capacity or resources, weak indicators and monitoring plans, gaps in existing databases, and blockages to data access and sharing.
  • There is urgent need for increased capacity building in national agencies and NGOs, enhanced collection of data by conservation and research projects, improved harmonization of indicators and methods, and greater sharing of data in formats of use to conservation practitioners, policymakers and decision-makers.
 
As the world’s largest body of scientific expertise on species with more than 10,000 members, the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) is already playing an active role in species monitoring, with available data being used to define and track the conservation status of species in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Many specialist groups (e.g. many of those concerned with birds and large mammals) collate and share data of use in Red List assessments and in monitoring local and global conservation targets. However, many other groups are struggling (e.g. the Afrotheria Specialist Group has no accurate population data for its 80 target species of African mammals and limited data on distribution, habitats and threats). Even when data are available, they are not always up to date, harmonized or relevant to decision-makers.
 
During a workshop (Species Monitoring: Overcoming the challenges to collecting, sharing and using data) at the IUCN SSC Leaders’ Meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 17 September 2015, 62 SSC members (representing 55 organizations) confirmed the main challenges facing specialist groups with data collection and Red List assessments and proposed a set of key recommendations to enhance species monitoring. The main recommendation was the creation of a Species Monitoring Specialist Group (SG).

Strategic approach
The Group’s strategic approach is to:
  1. enhance monitoring of species for the benefit of threatened species conservation as well as the conservation of ecosystems and the services they provide for people
  2. monitor common species where they are appropriate indicators of broader environmental health and there is an identified need for the data
  3. focus on improving the quality and volume of data for Red List assessments and the monitoring of important conservation sites (i.e. protected areas, key Biodiversity Areas, Ramsar sites, World Heritage sites, Alliance for Zero Extinction sites), in the knowledge this will also enhance biodiversity planning and reporting at local, national and global levels for governments, NGOs, donors and multilateral environmental agreements such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Ramsar Convention
  4. fill the gap that exists for a neutral body of experts to provide guidance and the “gold standards” on methods and tools for species data collection and management
  5. provide a platform for convening and converging different actors and different systems, complementing and building on the work of others while avoiding reinvention or duplication
  6. work and lobby to make existing tools and data freely and openly available to the people who need them so that informed decisions can be made to improve conservation; where tools don't exist, the Group will try to fill the gaps
  7. act as a hub for innovation on conservation measures and tools, building on innovative new ways to monitor species that are emerging from the increased access to, and declining costs of, technology
  8. be outcome focused and driven by user needs, bringing about measurable change using pragmatic, practical methods to enhance the flow of species data
  9. be science-based and conduct and encourage the research needed to fill gaps in species data and monitoring capacity
  10. ensure taxonomic specialist groups retain leadership in the Red Listing process and the conservation of their target species.

Our History

After the Abu Dhabi workshop, a report was produced by all participants and a proposal submitted to the SSC to act on the main recommendation and establish a Species Monitoring Specialist Group as a new SSC disciplinary group.

The Group was approved by the IUCN SSC Steering Committee in April 2016 and by the end of that month Simon Stuart (SSC Chair) appointed PJ Stephenson as chair. PJ started inviting relevant experts to join the group soon afterwards, and the recruitment process is ongoing.

Membership is drawn from experts on an array of key monitoring issues such as methods, tools, databases, indicators, applications, capacity building and data use. The membership includes data users as well as technical experts so as to ground the Group’s outputs in reality and the needs of decision-makers. The Group also aims to reflect a suitable diversity of institution types (governmental, intergovernmental, academia, civil society, donors, MEA secretariats), geographies, taxa and biomes, as well as being gender balanced. We  need monitoring generalists and taxonomic specialists.

For an update on what we've achieved since the start of the Group, see Stephenson 2018 and a summary of progress up to June 2021.
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© PJ Stephenson