For promoting biodiversity conservation and sustainable use there are many issues and levels of detail for decision making. Indicators can help to understand the current and past status of biodiversity and why it may be changing. However, indicators by themselves provide little understanding of an issue and they always need some analysis and interpretation of what they are indicating. Indicators with their interpretative text can then be part of the definition of targets or objectives.

One of the common uses of biodiversity indicators is to track progress towards global and national targets. These targets range from action plans at a local level to National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSPAs), to the decisions of international agreements such as the CBD. The use and the international profile of biodiversity indicators has increased considerably since the Parties to the CBD committed themselves in 2002 to “achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global regional and national level as a contribution to poverty alleviation and to the benefit of all life on Earth.

At the national and regional scales, the requirement to report on progress in meeting the 2010 Biodiversity Target has been a major force in promoting the development of biodiversity indicators. In some cases countries have adapted existing data and indicators to the CBD framework of goals, targets, focal areas and global indicators for their reports to the CBD.

Decision-making regarding biodiversity is not just the setting of targets and objectives, but also the design of policies and actions to achieve these aims. Indicators therefore provide an important interface between policy and biodiversity-related science. Indicators can help to raise awareness and understanding of a subject by policy makers, with graphs, maps and interpretative text summarising often complex and detailed information. The perspective provided by an indicator or suite of indicators can then help to decide upon the most appropriate goals, policies and actions to address the issue. In some cases biodiversity objectives and policies are set as a result of scientific research which identifies new and emerging issues, such as climate change or the impacts of invasive alien species. Indicators can therefore play a central role in the communication of these new concepts and increase the effectiveness of responses to mitigate changes. Indicators are also a central part of adaptive management. They can provide measures of the progress and success of policies and form part of an ‘early warning system’ to detect the emergence of problems.