On the potential policy use of some selected biodiversity indicators : limitations and recommendations for improvements

In order to facilitate the use of biodiversity indicators in policy making at the country level, a few and well-established indices should be suggested. Promising candidates include biodiversity-related indices of the Convention on Biological Diversity; their current use and performance are evaluated through a Hungarian case study. Especially indices of the ecosystem level have already been in use, but they are not necessarily useful measures of the state of biodiversity in their current form. For example, ecosystems suggested globally for monitoring (forests and marine habitats) are not present in all the countries, thus the way of ecosystem selection should be standardized, not the actual ecosystem types. Besides the information on the extent of some selected habitats, the original cover should also be considered to evaluate the present situation. Recommendations are demonstrated in the case study. With the use of existing data, the applicability of certain indices can be improved, but in the long run, ecosystem-based indices of the natural capital should be favoured