Measuring biodiversity

Abstract The aim of this article is to equip legal professionals with an understanding of what biodiversity is and how it is measured, explaining which monitoring approaches are typically used to collect information in which contexts, and linking this to how biodiversity metrics and indicators are generated. This contribution adopts the Convention on Biological Diversity’s definition of biodiversity, namely ‘the variability among living organisms from all sources including, inter alia, terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part; this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems’, and considers six organizational dimensions of biodiversity: genetic structure and composition; species’ populations; species traits; ecosystem extent and structure; ecosystem composition; and ecosystem functions. Through this lens, the article discusses the diversity of methods used to derive information on biodiversity, focusing on the most common approaches. Readers will gain the context needed to navigate common biodiversity indicators and metrics effectively, equipping them to better understand biodiversity-related arguments.