Multinational evaluation of genetic diversity indicators for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework

Under the recently adopted Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework,
196 Parties committed to report the status of genetic diversity for all
species. To facilitate reporting, three genetic diversity indicators were
developed, two of which focus on processes contributing to genetic
diversity conservation: maintaining genetically distinct populations and
ensuring populations are large enough to maintain genetic diversity. The
major advantage of these indicators is that they can be estimated with or
without DNA-based data. However, demonstrating their feasibility requires
addressing the methodological challenges of using data gathered from
diverse sources, across diverse taxonomic groups, and for countries of
varying socioeconomic status and biodiversity levels. Here, we assess the
genetic indicators for 919 taxa, representing 5,271 populations across
nine countries, including megadiverse countries and developing economies.
Eighty-three percent of taxa assessed had data available to calculate at
least one indicator. Our results show that although the majority of
species maintain most populations, 58% of species have populations too
small to maintain genetic diversity. Moreover, genetic indicator values
suggest that IUCN Red List status and other initiatives fail to assess
genetic status, highlighting the critical importance of genetic
indicators.