Overall development

The overall development of each indicator has been illustrated by a symbol consisting of a white arrow on a coloured background. This symbol depicts the development of the indicator on two levels.The symbol's background colour relates to the historical impact or development of the indicator in the 20th century before year 1990. The direction of the arrow indicates trends after 1990.

Pressure and response indicators

The interpretation of the symbol varies slightly depending on the type of indicator. In the case of pressure (P) and response (R) indicators, the background colour of the symbol relates to the historical impact of the human action in question.

  

Table A: Interpretation of the arrow symbols in the case of pressure (P) and response (R) indicators.
Impact in the 20th century before 1990
   Trend since 1990
Strong positive impact on biodiversity
Affecting >50% of the species and/or total area of the habitat
   Strong increasing trend
>1.5% annual increase or more than 35% in 20 years
Moderate positive impact on biodiversity
Affecting 50-20% of the species and/or total area of the habitat
   Moderate increasing trend
>0.5-1.5% annual increase or more 10-35% in 20 years
Weak positive impact on biodiversity
Affecting <20% of the species and/or total area of the habitat
   Weak increasing trend
<0.5% annual increase or less than 10% in 20 years
No clear impact on biodiversity,
or the phenomenon has been unknown,
or has not existed before 1990
   No discernible trend
Weak negative impact on biodiversity
Affecting <20% of the species and/or total area of the habitat
   Weak decreasing trend
<0.5% annual decrease or less than 10% in 20 years
Moderate negative impact on biodiversity
Affecting 50-20% of the species and/or total area of the habitat
   Moderate decreasing trend
>0.5-1.5% annual decrease or more 10-35% in 20 years
Strong negative impact on biodiversity
Affecting >50% of the species and/or total area of the habitat
   Strong decreasing trend
>1.5% annual decrease or more than 35% in 20 years


State indicators

In the case of state (S) indicators, the coloured background refers to real observed trends in the 20th century before 1990. However, monitoring data often limit the period for which this evaluation can be given. Often data series do not cover the whole 20th century, but begin in the 1950s or 1970s, for example. In these cases, the symbols are based on a shorter time span.

  

Table B: Interpretation of the arrow symbols in the case of state (S) indicators.
Development in the 20th century before 1990
   Trend since 1990
Strong increase
Equaling >100% increase between 1900 and 1990
(>0.8% per year)
   Strong increasing trend
>1.5% annual increase or more than 35% in 20 years
Moderate increase
Equaling 20-100% increase between 1900 and 1990
(0.8-0.2% per year)
   Moderate increasing trend
>0.5-1.5% annual increase or more 10-35% in 20 years
Weak increase
Equaling <20% increase between 1900 and 1990
(<0.2% per year)
   Weak increasing trend
<0.5% annual increase or less than 10% in 20 years
No change
or the development is unknown
   No discernible trend
Weak decrease
Equaling <20% decrease between 1900 and 1990
(<0.2% per year)
   Weak decreasing trend
<0.5% annual decrease or less than 10% in 20 years
Moderate decrease
Equaling 20-50% decrease between 1900 and 1990
(0.8-0.2% per year)
   Moderate decreasing trend
>0.5-1.5% annual decrease or more 10-35% in 20 years
Strong decrease
Equaling >50% decrease between 1900 and 1990
(>0.8% per year)
   Strong decreasing trend
>1.5% annual decrease or more than 35% in 20 years

 

All of the criteria listed above are meant as indicative and not definitive. They should give a rough idea of the volume of change that the symbols correspond to. All overall assessments contain an element of expert judgement. The interpretation of impact (I) indicators is based on criteria for state indicators (Table B) but only very roughly for the want of relevant monitoring data. They include the greatest amount of expert judgement.

Milestone at year 1990

Year 1990 has been chosen as a milestone for biodiversity conservation. The concept biodiversity first broke into the international scientific and political arena in the late 1980s. In 1992 the signing of the Convention on Biological Diversity at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro made the conservation of biodiversity a priority issue for each contracting party, Finland included. Therefore we may assume that the impacts of purposeful biodiversity policies should become visible soon after 1990.

The arrow symbols have been developed based on the corresponding symbols used in the Millennium Ecosystem Analysis (2005). The approach of the MEA has been extended and made more precise in terms of time spans, class definitions and trend criteria.

The symbols help in summarising and comparing indicators. They are based on quantitative data as far as possible, but always also contain an element expert judgment. Although the symbols aim at making very different variable more commensurate, they never quite achieve this.

  
   

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Updated (14.10.2014)