Bridging the data gap in freshwater biodiversity conservation monitoring: global indicators and online data systems

PJ Stephenson , Nazli Demirel , Lars Dinesen, Megan Eldred, Alice C. Hughes , Catherine A Sayer, Andrew Szopa-Comley, Arnout van Soesbergen, Stuart Butchart, Flore Lafaye de Micheaux, Yaa Ntiamoa-Baidu, Andrew Rodrigues, Neil Burgess

Freshwater ecosystems are among the most threatened on Earth. Global efforts to conserve biodiversity through multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) explicitly include goals contributing to freshwater ecosystems, but monitoring their impact is often constrained by issues around data availability and access, affecting countries’ ability to plan conservation responses and apply adaptive management. Although online data systems and associated metrics and indicators are proliferating, there has been no assessment of data availability against user needs in the context of global conservation commitments for freshwater biodiversity. Therefore, this study set out to determine what indicators are being used to monitor delivery of MEA goals and targets relating to freshwater biodiversity, and to what extent these needs are met by existing online data systems.

The conventions on Biological Diversity, Migratory Species and Wetlands have between them adopted, recommended or listed 149 indicators that are relevant to freshwater biodiversity . We identified 68 metrics and 95 online data systems of potential use in monitoring these indicators. Existing data allow us to determine trends in some elements of freshwater biodiversity. However, several challenges exist. Data on pressures to freshwater biodiversity are patchy, and data for the state of biodiversity at the species level tend to be biased towards vertebrates and terrestrial species compared with aquatic taxa. Response indicator data focus on protected and conserved areas, but are weak on measures of the extent and quality of ecosystem restoration. Data on species management focus almost exclusively on the coverage of different assessments or databases, rather than actions and policies to conserve and restore species. The broad suite of benefits provided by freshwater ecosystem services are not well captured in either the MEA indicator frameworks or the available data sets. One of the biggest challenges in using existing data included aligning distribution data with specific biomes or ecosystem functional groups. We discuss the implications and the action needed to improve data coverage for freshwater indicators for MEAs. However, given the perilous decline in wetland habitats and species, we cannot wait for all the data issues to be resolved before we tackle the pressures on freshwater biodiversity.