Genetic diversity targets and indicators in the CBD post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework must be improved

The 196 parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will soon agree to a post-2020 global framework for conserving the three elements of biodiversity (genetic, species, and ecosystem diversity) while ensuring sustainable development and benefit sharing. As the most significant global conservation policy mechanism, the new CBD framework has far-reaching consequences- it will guide conservation actions and reporting for each member country until 2050. In previous CBD strategies, as well as other major conservation policy mechanisms, targets and indicators for genetic diversity (variation at the DNA level within species, which facilitates species adaptation and ecosystem function) were undeveloped and focused on species of agricultural relevance. We assert that, to meet global conservation goals, genetic diversity within all species, not just domesticated species and their wild relatives, must be conserved and monitored using appropriate metrics. Building on suggestions in a recent Letter in Science (Laikre et al., 2020) we expand argumentation for three new, pragmatic genetic indicators and modifications to two current indicators for maintaining genetic diversity and adaptive capacity of all species, and provide guidance on their practical use. The indicators are: 1) the number of populations with effective population size above versus below 500, 2) the proportion of populations maintained within species, 3) the number of species and populations in which genetic diversity is monitored using DNA-based methods. We also present and discuss Goals and Action Targets for post-2020 biodiversity conservation which are connected to these indicators and underlying data. These pragmatic indicators and goals have utility beyond the CBD; they should benefit conservation and monitoring of genetic diversity via national and global policy for decades to come. Previous article in issu

An address delivered at the Beeson Institute series, (1998, October 9)

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/atsconferences/2213/thumbnail.jp

Complex cattle exchange in the Scandinavian Funnel Beaker Culture. The case of Falbygden, Sweden

In this contribution, we highlight some of the results from analyses of cattle management at two Neolithic settlement sites in Falbygden, western Sweden. The two sites are located close to each other in the parish of Karleby in central Falbygden. Both were excavated 2012–2017 and yielded abundant animal bones, due to the calcareous bedrock. 14C datings indicate that they were both inhabited continuously during the period c. 3200–2900 BC, i.e. the Middle Neolithic Funnel Beaker (TRB) culture.Bulk and laser ablation strontium isotope ratios in cattle teeth from these settlements suggest a complex and wide-ranging system of animal exchange in the Scandinavian Middle Neolithic. More than half of the cattle found in the Karleby settlements were born outside the Falbygden region, and laser ablation suggests variable and individual trajectories through the landscape, in some cases involving areas in eastern Sweden. Further, origins of cattle at the two settlements are only partly overlapping, suggesting independent contact networks.We suggest an ongoing system of exchanges between settlement groups/social groups throughout Sweden to be behind this variability, rather than transhumance. This may in turn be motivated by a number of factors including biological herd viability, as well as social and economic factors