The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework needs headline indicators that can actually monitor forest integrity

Abstract

Abstract Intact native forests under negligible large-scale human pressures (i.e. high-integrity forests) are critical for biodiversity conservation. However, high-integrity forests are declining worldwide due to deforestation and forest degradation. Recognizing the importance of high-integrity ecosystems (including forests), the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) has directly included the maintenance and restoration of ecosystem integrity, in addition to ecosystem extent, in its goals and targets. Yet, the headline indicators identified to help nations monitor forest ecosystems and their integrity can currently track changes only in (1) forest cover or extent, and (2) the risk of ecosystem collapse using the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems (RLE). These headline indicators are unlikely to facilitate the monitoring of forest integrity for two reasons. First, focusing on forest cover not only misses the impacts of anthropogenic degradation on forests but can also fail to detect the effect of positive management actions in enhancing forest integrity. Second, the risk of ecosystem collapse as measured by the ordinal RLE index (from Least Concern to Critically Endangered) makes it unlikely that changes to the continuum of forest integrity over space and time would be reported by nations. Importantly, forest ecosystems in many biodiverse African and Asian nations remain unassessed with the RLE. As such, many nations will likely resort to monitoring forest cover alone and therefore inadequately report progress against forest integrity goals and targets. We concur that monitoring changes in forest cover and the risk of ecosystem collapse are indeed vital aspects of conservation monitoring. Yet, they are insufficient for the specific purpose of tracking progress against crucial ecosystem integrity components of the GBF’s goals. We discuss the pitfalls of merely monitoring forest cover, a likely outcome with the current headline indicators. Augmenting forest cover monitoring with indicators that capture change in absolute area along the continuum of forest integrity would help monitor progress toward achieving area-based targets related to both integrity and extent of global forests.