Natural Capital Indicators for OECD countries

This report on biodiversity indicators describes the methods used and results obtained during a short feasibility study carried out by UNEP-WCMC for the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in The Netherlands.

The objective of the project was to test further the possibility of using data already available and a consistent methodology in order to generate reliable high level indicators of change in biodiversity.

The report attempts to address change over time within the OECD area in ecosystem quantity and quality, these last being parameters of the Natural Capital Index framework developed by RIVM in the context of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Ecosystem quality is here represented by change in species populations, using a new method first developed by UNEP-WCMC for the WWF Living Planet Report 1998. Key elements from the present feasibility study have been incorporated in a document Biodiversity indicators for the OECD Environmental Outlook and Strategy soon to be published by RIVM.

The full version of the final report has now been made available in Adobe PDF format.