Multinational evaluation of genetic diversity indicators for the Kunming‐Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
Alicia Mastretta‐Yanes, Jessica M. da Silva, Catherine E. Grueber, Luis Castillo‐Reina, Viktoria Köppä, Brenna R. Forester, W. Chris Funk, Myriam Heuertz, Fumiko Ishihama, Rebecca Jordan, Joachim Mergeay, Ivan Paz‐Vinas, Víctor J. Rincón-Parra, Maria Rodriguez‐Morales, Libertad Arredondo‐Amezcua, Gaëlle Brahy, Matt DeSaix, Lily F. Durkee, Ashley Hamilton, Margaret E. Hunter, Austin Koontz, Iris Lang, María Camila Latorre‐Cárdenas, Tanya Latty, Alexander Llanes‐Quevedo, Anna J. MacDonald, Meg Mahoney, Caitlin V. Miller, Juan Francisco Ornelas, Santiago Ramírez‐Barahona, Erica Robertson, Isa‐Rita M. Russo, Metztli Arcila Santiago, Robyn E. Shaw, Glenn M. Shea, Per Sjögren‐Gulve, Emma Spence, Taylor Stack, Sofía Suárez, A. Takénaka, Henrik Thurfjell, Sheela P. Turbek, Marlien van der Merwe, Fleur Visser, Ana Wegier, Georgina Wood, Eugenia Zarza, Linda Laikre, Sean Hoban
Abstract
Under the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, 196 Parties committed to reporting the status of genetic diversity for all species. To facilitate reporting, three genetic diversity indicators were developed, two of which focus on processes contributing to genetic diversity conservation: maintaining genetically distinct populations and ensuring populations are large enough to maintain genetic diversity. The major advantage of these indicators is that they can be estimated with or without DNA-based data. However, demonstrating their feasibility requires addressing the methodological challenges of using data gathered from diverse sources, across diverse taxonomic groups, and for countries of varying socio-economic status and biodiversity levels. Here, we assess the genetic indicators for 919 taxa, representing 5271 populations across nine countries, including megadiverse countries and developing economies. Eighty-three percent of the taxa assessed had data available to calculate at least one indicator. Our results show that although the majority of species maintain most populations, 58% of species have populations too small to maintain genetic diversity. Moreover, genetic indicator values suggest that IUCN Red List status and other initiatives fail to assess genetic status, highlighting the critical importance of genetic indicators.