Genetic diversity targets and indicators in the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework must be improved

By Sean M. Hoban, M. W. Bruford, J. D. Jackson, Margarida Lopes-Fernandes, M. Heuertz, Paul A Hohenlohe, I. Paz‐Vinas, P. Sjögren‐Gulve, Gernot Segelbacher, C. Vernesi and 21 more. Biological Conservation, 2020

460 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract The 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will soon agree to a post-2020 global framework for conserving the three elements of biodiversity (genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity) while ensuring sustainable development and benefit sharing. As the most significant global conservation policy mechanism, the new CBD framework has far-reaching consequences- it will guide conservation actions and reporting for each member country until 2050. In previous CBD strategies, as well as other major conservation policy mechanisms, targets and indicators for genetic diversity (variation at the DNA level within species, which facilitates species adaptation and ecosystem function) were undeveloped and focused on species of agricultural relevance. We assert that, to meet global conservation goals, genetic diversity within all species, not just domesticated species and their wild relatives, must be conserved and monitored using appropriate metrics. Building on suggestions in a recent Letter in Science (Laikre et al., 2020) we expand argumentation for three new, pragmatic genetic indicators and modifications to two current indicators for maintaining genetic diversity and adaptive capacity of all species, and provide guidance on their practical use. The indicators are: 1) the number of populations with effective population size above versus below 500, 2) the proportion of populations maintained within species, 3) the number of species and populations in which genetic diversity is monitored using DNA-based methods. We also present and discuss Goals and Action Targets for post-2020 biodiversity conservation which are connected to these indicators and underlying data. These pragmatic indicators and goals have utility beyond the CBD; they should benefit conservation and monitoring of genetic diversity via national and global policy for decades to come.

Subfields: Genetics, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/735c736ef27abc627fcc09d4b5ca537dbd6e48d5

Citations in the corpus

• Genetic diversity is considered important but interpreted narrowly in country reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity: Current actions and indicators are insufficient (2021, unknown): “…paucity of reliable indicators of genetic diversity emphasizes that the scientific community needs to develop affordable, standardized indicators that clearly track genetic change (Hoban et al., 2020a; Hoban et al., 2021a; Laikre et al., 2020; Lef ` evre et al., 2020) (see below, Recommendation 4).”