Assessing ecosystems

Assessing ecosystems is essential component of priority setting, action and monitoring, and helps to understand ecosystem trends, showcase its importance to society, and prioritize action.

Indeed, ecosystems are critically important components of Earth’s biological diversity and as the natural capital that sustains human life and livelihoods. Ecosystem degradation has consequences for species habitat, genetic diversity, ecosystem services, sustainable development and human well-being.

Publication | 2018

Tools for measuring, modelling, and valuing ecosystem services

Increasing interest in measuring, modelling and valuing ecosystem services (ES), the benefits that ecosystems provide to people, has resulted in the development of an array of ES …

Conservation Tool

��ϲʿ��¼�� Red List of Ecosystems

The ��ϲʿ��¼�� Red List of Ecosystems is a tool to assess the conservation status of ecosystems. It is based on scientific criteria for performing evidence-based analyses of the risk of ecosystem collapse,…

Conservation Tool

��ϲʿ��¼�� Global Ecosystem Typology

The ��ϲʿ��¼�� Global Ecosystem Typology is a comprehensive classification framework for Earth’s ecosystems that integrates their functional and compositional features. This new typology helps…

��ϲʿ��¼��'s contribution

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4000+

Risk assessments

have been completed and are accessible on the website of the ��ϲʿ��¼�� Red List of Ecosystems

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110

Ecosystem Functional Groups

help classify Earth’s ecosystems and provide a comprehensive framework for assessments in order to identify most critical conservation needs.

More on the ��ϲʿ��¼�� Global Ecosystem Typology

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Ways to assess ecosystems

The science of assessing ecosystems has evolved to provide accurate analysis and we can differentiate two different ecosystem assessments: ecosystem accounting and ecosystem risk assessment.

Ecosystem accounting

This assessment measures ecosystem stock and flows of services. Different methodologies exist, but the , an ongoing initiative by the United Nations, remains the most accepted framework.

Ecosystem Risk

This assessment measures the risk of ecosystem collapse by evaluating trends in extent, condition, and likelihood of collapse. The ��ϲʿ��¼�� Red list of Ecosystems is the reference framework for assessing risk of collapse.

��ϲʿ��¼�� Red list of Ecosystems

Policy work

Mainstreaming ecosystems' assessments

��ϲʿ��¼�� Members and partners gathered in Marseille to discuss best ways to mainstream ecosystems accounting and risk management.

Strengthening ecosystem typology

In the ��ϲʿ��¼�� Congress 2020 in Marseille, ��ϲʿ��¼�� Members voted for the reinforcement of partnerships and further development of a Global Ecosystem Typology.

Story

Finland Publishes the Most Comprehensive Red List of Ecosystems in the World

The results of the extensive assessment for the Red List of all of Finland’s terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems were published in December 2018. The threat status of ecosystem or habitat types in Finland was now evaluated for the second time,…

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Story | 12 Jan, 2021

Critical carbon-trapping coastal ecosystems fall mainly outside of protected…

Mangroves, salt marshes and seagrasses of international importance in Mozambique and Tanzania are currently not subject to the level of protection needed to ensure their long-term functioning. …

Story | 17 Jan, 2019

The first continental Red List of Ecosystems assessment completed for the…

According to the first continental ecosystem risk assessment of temperate and tropical forests of the Americas, more than 80% of these forest ecosystems in the Americas are threatened.

Press release | 10 Nov, 2016

Climate change dramatically disrupting nature from genes to ecosystems – study

Gland, Switzerland, 10 November, 2016 (��ϲʿ��¼��) – Global changes in temperature have already impacted every aspect of life on Earth from genes to entire ecosystems, with increasingly worrying…

Publication | 2021

The state of biodiversity in Kuwait

This report is based on extensive literature search to reveal the elements of animal and plan biodiversity in the State of Kuwait, and points out missing information on other little-known groups…