How can we assess if policies aimed at protecting imperiled species and their habitats are achieving their intended goals? Many governments and private companies are increasingly promoting sustainability objectives, including for biodiversity. How can we measure if these goals are being achieved?
For example, the forestry sector has seen broad participation in several widely recognized sustainability standards, such as the Sustainable Foresty Initiative and the Forest Stewardship Council. Forestry practices that are certified as sustainable are supposed to conserve imperiled species and high conservation value ecosystems. NatureServe has been developing and testing a series of metrics of biodiversity conservation values to help understand and communicate how adherence to the certification standards might benefit threatened plants, animals, and ecosystems.