Mcrae, Louise;
Cornford, Richard;
Marconi, Valentina;
Puleston, Hannah;
Ledger, Sophie EH;
Deinet, Stefanie;
Oppenheimer, Philippa;
... Freeman, Robin; + view all
(2025)
The utility of the Living Planet Index as a policy tool and for measuring nature recovery.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
, 380
(1917)
, Article 20230207. 10.1098/rstb.2023.0207.
Preview |
PDF
The utility of the Living Planet Index as a policy tool and for measuring nature recovery.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
The Living Planet Index (LPI) is a leading global biodiversity indicator based on vertebrate population time series. Since it was first developed over 25 years ago, the LPI has been widely used to indicate trends in biodiversity globally, primarily reported every two years in the Living Planet Report. Based on relative abundance, a sensitive metric of biodiversity change, the LPI has also been applied as a tool for informing policy and used in assessments for several multilateral conventions and agreements, including the Convention on Biological Diversity 2010 Biodiversity Target and Aichi targets. Here, we outline all current and some potential uses of the LPI as a policy tool and explore the use of the LPI in policy documents to assess the reach of the LPI geographically and over time. We present limitations to the use of this indicator in policy, primarily relating to the development of the index at the national level, and suggest clear pathways to broaden the utility of the LPI and the underlying database for temporal and spatial predictions of biodiversity change. We also provide evidence that the LPI can detect recoveries in biodiversity and suggest its suitability for measuring progress towards the goal of biodiversity recovery by 2050. This article is part of the discussion meeting issue ‘Bending the curve towards nature recovery: building on Georgina Mace's legacy for a biodiverse future’.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The utility of the Living Planet Index as a policy tool and for measuring nature recovery |
| Location: | England |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1098/rstb.2023.0207 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2023.0207 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. |
| Keywords: | Living Planet Index, biodiversity indicators, Convention on Biological Diversity, biodiversity policy, biodiversity recovery |
| 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/10205132 |
Loading...
Loading...Loading...Loading...Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
