April 8, 2021
Newcastle University (UK) Research Associate Louise Mair, PhD, published a paper titled “A metric for spatially explicit contributions to science-based species targets” in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
According to the publication, sustainable crop and timber production could prevent 40% of the extinction of terrestrial wildlife – amphibians, birds and mammals. Scientists generated these results using a new metric by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) called the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) Metric.
STAR provides a framework for quantifying the potential contribution of the action targets within the proposed IUCN Species Survival Commission’s Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.
One of the benefits of this tool is that it allows the corporate, governmental, NGOs and civil sectors to implement it at a local, regional or global scale to reduce species loss. We can also use it to determine institution-specific and sector-specific targets.
This publication results from a collaboration among close to 90 scientists from 54 institutions in 21 countries worldwide, including ASU Center for Biodiversity Outcomes Founding Director Leah Gerber and Associate Center Director Beth Polidoro.
In October 2020, our center hosted a presentation by Mair on the STAR Metric.
Access the IUCN press release.