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Relating characteristics of global biodiversity targets to reported progress

Green, EJ; Buchanan, GM; Butchart, SHM; Chandler, GM; Burgess, ND; Hill, SLL; Gregory, RD; (2019) Relating characteristics of global biodiversity targets to reported progress. Conservation Biology , 33 (6) pp. 1360-1369. 10.1111/cobi.13322. Green open access

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Abstract

To inform governmental discussions on the nature of a revised Strategic Plan for Biodiversity of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we reviewed the relevant literature and assessed the framing of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets in the current strategic plan. We asked international experts from nongovernmental organizations, academia, government agencies, international organizations, research institutes, and the CBD to score the Aichi Targets and their constituent elements against a set of specific, measurable, ambitious, realistic, unambiguous, scalable, and comprehensive criteria (SMART based, excluding time bound because all targets are bound to 2015 or 2020). We then investigated the relationship between these expert scores and reported progress toward the target elements by using the findings from 2 global progress assessments (Global Biodiversity Outlook and the Intergovernmental Science‐Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). We analyzed the data with ordinal logistic regressions. We found significant positive relationships (p < 0.05) between progress and the extent to which the target elements were perceived to be measurable, realistic, unambiguous, and scalable. There was some evidence of a relationship between progress and specificity of the target elements, but no relationship between progress and ambition. We are the first to show associations between progress and the extent to which the Aichi Targets meet certain SMART criteria. As negotiations around the post‐2020 biodiversity framework proceed, decision makers should strive to ensure that new or revised targets are effectively structured and clearly worded to allow the translation of targets into actionable policies that can be successfully implemented nationally, regionally, and globally.

Type: Article
Title: Relating characteristics of global biodiversity targets to reported progress
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/cobi.13322
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.13322
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Conservation Biology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Aichi Biodiversity Targets, Convention on Biological Diversity, expert assessment, post‐2020, SMART framework, Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, Convenio sobre la Diversidad, Biológica evaluación por expertos, marco de trabajo, SMART Plan Estratégico para la Biodiversidad, post‐2020, Objetivos de Biodiversidad de Aichi
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > Div of Biosciences > Genetics, Evolution and Environment
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10089287
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