Validating application of the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric in meeting national biodiversity conservation targets

Abstract

The Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric was developed to quantify the contributions that abating threats (STAR-T) and restoring habitats (STAR-R) offer towards reducing global species extinction risk. Currently, global level estimated STAR score is calculated for 5,359 vertebrate species spanning 195 countries, using global level data. Although the STAR metric is scalable across species, threats and geographies, disaggregating the global STAR scores down to national level may be prone to error due to spatial variations in species and threats presence. Thus, validation based on national level data is needed. Yet it may not always be possible to conduct validation due to lack of data in developing countries. Here, we used two simple validation approaches to show how to overcome such setbacks and ensure application of the metric and underlying data at national scale for Ethiopia. We revised the species and threats lists included in the global level estimated STAR, (re)calculated nationally validated STAR scores, and ranked the threats according to their STAR scores. Then, we compared consistency of this threat ranking with threat ranking based on national biodiversity experts’ opinions. Our total nationally validated STAR-T and STAR-R scores for Ethiopia were 12,504.65 and 5360.53, respectively, suggesting an increase by 6% but a decrease by 97% relative to the original estimated scores. Crop and livestock productions appeared to be the most impactful threats to the species. We found strong correlation in threat ranks between the STAR score and experts’ opinion. We conclude that simple validation processes can ensure the application of the STAR metric at national level to support conservation actions and achieve science-based objectives.

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