Overview of assessment of change for all indicators
Updated 15 October 2020
The table below summaries traffic light assessments for 24 indicators and their component measures. For each indicator, its number, title, and measures (where applicable) are shown. Indicators are numbered according to the Strategic Goal with which they most closely link.
The indicators
 Improving |
 Deteriorating |
 Little or no overall change |
 Insufficient or no comparable data |
The individual assessments for each measure can be combined to produce an overall picture of progress made. The charts below display the numbers of measures that have shown an improvement (green traffic light), deterioration (red traffic light), little or no overall change (amber traffic light), or that have insufficient data for an assessment to be made (white traffic light).
1 Long-term – an assessment of change since the earliest date for which data are available, although if the data run is for less than ten years a long-term assessment is not made.
2 Short-term – an assessment of change over the latest five years. For a very few indicators the short-term change is over a longer time-period as a result of the frequency of update of the data upon which the indicators are based. Indicators C3a and C3b have a six year short-term assessment.
The UK Government is a signatory to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and is committed to the biodiversity goals and targets agreed in 2010 and set out in the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020. The targets are known as 'Aichi Targets', after the province in Japan where they were agreed. The Strategic Plan has five goals (A–E), each with a number of targets (the focus of each goal is shown by the words in bold type below):
- Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society.
- Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use.
- Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity.
- Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystems.
- Enhance implementation through planning, knowledge management and capacity building.
As well as an overall summary, based on all measures in the indicator set, separate summaries for Strategic Goals B and C are shown, which are based on the indicators and measures linked to those goals (B1 to B7; C1 to C9). A number of indicators are under development for Strategic Goals A, D, and E, so they currently have very few measures; separate charts are therefore not shown.
Assessment of change: all measures.
The UK biodiversity indicators set comprises 24 indicators and 52 measures. Of these, eleven measures are not assessed in the long-term, and fourteen in the short term, as the measures are either under development, or analytical methods for short-term assessment need to be refined. In this 2020 publication, 24 indicators have been updated.
Twenty-three of the 41 measures assessed over the long term show an improvement, compared to 18 of the 38 measures that are assessed over the short term. Fourteen measures show a decline in the long term, and eight a decline in the short term. Measures that improved or deteriorated in the long term have not necessarily continued to improve or deteriorate respectively in the short term.
The 18 measures showing an improvement in the short term are:
A2. Taking action for nature: volunteer time spent in conservation
B1a. Area of land in agri-environment schemes
B2. Sustainable fisheries (2 measures)
B5. Pressure from pollution (3 measures)
C1b. Total area of protected sites: at sea
C8. Mammals of the wider countryside (Bats)
C9a. Animal genetic resources (3 measures)
C9b. Plant genetic resources
D1b. Greenhouse gas removals by forests
E1. Biodiversity data for decision making (2 measures)
E2. Expenditure on biodiversity (2 measures)
The 23 measures which have improved in the long term are:
A2. Taking action for nature: volunteer time spent in conservation
A5. Integration of biodiversity considerations into business activity
B1a. Area of land in agri-environment schemes
B1b. Area of forestry land certified as sustainably managed
B2. Sustainable fisheries (2 measures)
B5. Pressure from pollution (3 measures)
C1. Protected areas (3 measures)
C5e. Wintering water birds
C8. Mammals of the wider countryside (Bats)
C9a. Animal genetic resources (3 measures)
C9b. Plant genetic resources
D1b. Greenhouse gas removals by UK forests
E1. Biodiversity data for decision making (2 measures)
E2. Expenditure on biodiversity (2 measures)
The 8 measures showing a decline in the short term are:
A5. Integration of biodiversity considerations into business activity
C3. Status of threatened habitats and species
C5. Birds of the wider countryside and at sea (2 measures)
C9a. Animal genetic resources (pig breeds)
D1a. Fish size classes in the North Sea
E2a. Expenditure on UK biodiversity
The 14 measures showing long-term deterioration are:
B6. Pressure from invasive species (3 measures)
C3. Status of threatened habitats and species
C4. Status of UK Priority species (2 measures)
C5. Birds of the wider countryside and at sea (2 measures)
C6. Insects of the wider countryside (butterflies) (Semi-natural habitat specialists)
C9a. Animal genetic resources (2 measures)
D1. Biodiversity and ecosystem services
Key changes to the indicator set since the previous publication are:
i. Methodological changes to the Pressure from climate change (Spring Index) indicator (B4) to allow more data to be used.
ii. Methodological changes to the Insects of the Wider Countryside indicator (C6), to take account of colonisation by species of new sites.
iii. Publication of a new plant indicator (C7, comprising four measures) based on the National Plant Monitoring Scheme.
Assessment of change: Strategic Goals B and C
Goal B: Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use
The indicators under Strategic Goal B (seven indicators and 13 measures prefixed 'B' in the summary table) show long-term progress is being made to address the pressures on biodiversity (e.g. in the proportion of fisheries that are sustainable, in the area of land in agri-environment schemes, air and marine pollution). However, there has been a long-term increase in the prevalence of invasive species, reflecting a pattern of continuing or growing threat to biodiversity in the UK. In the short-term there is little or no overall change in the area of forestry land certified as sustainably managed, and in surface water status.
Goal C: Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
There were long-term declines for nine measures under Strategic Goal C (nine indicators and 26 measures prefixed 'C' in the summary table, covering status of biodiversity), reflecting the declines in many species populations seen in the 1970s and 1980s. There is some evidence that some of the previous declines have slowed, with some measures assessed as deteriorating in the long-term showing little or no overall change in the short-term (e.g. semi-natural habitat specialist butterflies and status of priority species – both the abundance and distribution measures). In total, six measures have shown improvement over the short term, including extent of protected areas at sea, and bats. These conclusions should be viewed with some caution as changes are more difficult to assess reliably over the short term.
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