Guidelines for the rapid ecological assessment of biodiversity in inland water, coastal and marine areas

Abstract

These guidelines have been produced through an extensive consultation process involving inputs from a large number of specialists. They are prepared in response to requests of the Conference of the Parties to both the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Ramsar Convention. They are designed as a suite of optional tools to assist those with urgent need and/or limited capacity and resources to undertake, where necessary, rapid inventories, assessment and monitoring of the biological diversity of inland water, coastal and near-shore marine ecosystems. They focus largely at species level considerations (i.e., assessments of taxa) but also include some tools relevant for assessment at the habitat/ecosystem level. Guidelines to assess the socioeconomic and cultural aspects of the value of biodiversity in these ecosystems are being developed to complement the current methods and will be published separately. The guidelines should be seen as additional means of obtaining information to that already held through existing and local knowledge which should be assessed, and used, as the first step in any survey.