Following an extensive global consultation involving the various IUCN Members, the United Nations and local governments, an updated version of the Singapore Index on Cities’ Biodiversity has been published. IUCN Urban Alliance’s Eline van Remortel explains.
Measuring change
Historically, biodiversity indicators tended to be designed for application at the national level. Of the indicators used by city governments, biodiversity rarely featured prominently. (Chan et al., 2021). To address this shortcoming, the Singapore Index on Cities’ Biodiversity (CBI) emerged in 2008 as a self-assessment tool.
The first edition of the CBI comprised 23 indicators nested across three categories: i) native biodiversity in the city; ii) ecosystem services provided by biodiversity; iii) and governance and management of biodiversity.
The CBI allows cities to accomplish their biodiversity goals in multiple ways. First, cities need to undertake a baseline measurement of the current state of biodiversity, gathering knowledge and building expertise in the process. Second, it provides cities with a method for raising awareness of biodiversity conservation efforts. Third, it acts as an inter-governmental and intersectoral platform for different parties to communicate about biodiversity status, alignment of goals and progress. This fosters understanding, co-operation and implementation of policy measures (Chan et al., 2021).
The Singapore Index 2.0
While the original CBI has been successfully implemented in many cities across the world, enabling the setting of goals and priorities for conservation and restoration actions, a need emerged to further develop the index to mitigate the increasing effects of urbanisation, climate change and biodiversity loss. Singapore’s Minister for National Development, Desmond Lee, noted:
“In recent years, climate change has accelerated the rate of biodiversity loss across the globe. Conservation of protected areas alone is insufficient to counter this. We need to complement these efforts by restoring ecosystems, enhancing ecological connectivity, and greening our infrastructure. We also need to intensify the use of innovative nature-based solutions, which are anchored in science.”
In September 2021, following extensive consultation of local governments, international organisations and experts, a revised version of the CBI was published. It includes a broader range of indicators – some 28 in total.
Indicators pertaining to habitat restoration, health and well-being, food security resilience and responses to climate change, management and policy implementation are now included in the index, providing a more comprehensive assessment of the benefits nature can bring to people.
The revised CBI also simplifies the measurement and evaluation methods by exploiting modern technologies such as satellite imagery and spatial analysis software (Chan et al., 2021). Cities adopting the revised CBI should now be able to accelerate their biodiversity efforts in a more accurate, efficient and inclusive way.
Given the close alignment of the CBI with the emerging post-2020 global biodiversity framework (Chan et al., 2021), they will also be able to disclose their contributions to international biodiversity goals.
How does it relate to the IUCN Urban Nature Index?
IUCN contributed to the development of the CBI while the Singapore National Parks Board contributed to the development of the IUCN Urban Nature Index. By cooperating in this manner, they ensured that the two knowledge products are sufficiently different. For an overview of their complementarity, we suggest reading this article co-authored by Singapore National Parks Board Senior Director Lena Chan and IUCN Urban Alliance Chair Jonny Hughes.
References
Bertram, C., & Rehdanz, K. (2015). The role of urban green space for human well-being. Ecological Economics, 120, 139-152.
Chan, L., Calcaterra, E., Elmqvist, T., Hillel, O., Holman, N., Mader, A., & Werner, P. (2010). User’s Manual for the City Biodiversity Index.
Chan, L., Hillel, O., Werner, P., Holman, N., Coetzee, I., Galt, R., and Elmqvist, T. (2021). Handbook on the Singapore Index on Cities’ Biodiversity (also known as the City Biodiversity Index). Montreal: Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and Singapore: National Parks Board, Singapore. 70 Pages .