The Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric is a global tool designed to inform and guide governments, businesses and other organisations towards nature positive actions. The metric was developed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and involved scientific input from over 50 global organisations.
The tool measures the impact of conservation (threat abatement) and restoration activities (habitat restoration) in specific places by determining extinction risks and benefits. It does this by drawing on IUCN Red List of Threatened Species data for over 5000 species to calculate the number of threatened species, the level of threat to them and the proportion of all threatened species’ habitat areas in a given region to calculate the potential risks and benefits throughout a product or service’s value chain, including all the direct, upstream and downstream operations needed to create or produce the product or service.
Current methods used by companies to measure their conservation impacts can vary, as they often operate across a variety of different geographies and timescales. By standardising this measurement, the STAR metric can be used by Nature Positive to set targets and monitor and measure progress towards these targets. This is particularly useful for sectors that rely heavily on nature across a large variety of geographic regions to source materials, such as the fashion or mining industries.
For Nature Positive, this is an important additional tool for us to use to help companies create targeted actions to give the greatest benefits to biodiversity with the best value. If you would like further information on Nature Positive’s services, please get in touch.
Nature Positive article authors: Kelsey Monteith and Luka Brown
Banner photo by Paul Summers on Unsplash