Biodiversity monitoring for decision-making

Biodiversity monitoring provides guidelines for decisions on how to manage biological diversity in terms of production and conservation. Monitoring de termines the status of biological diversity at one or more ecological level s and assesses changes over time and space. Monitoring at the global level is needed to compare trends caused by the increasing homogenisation of the world's landscapes. Bioindicators are routinely used, but each indicator's potential to determine changes in the overall biodiversity should be rigoro usly tested. Monitoring is a vital feedback link between human actions and the environment, but incorporation of monitoring results into decision maki ng is hampered by poor communication between ecologists and decision-makers . A global network for assessing biodiversity changes (GLOBENET) is describ ed as an example of an initiative that attempts to address the above issues by using a simple field protocol with the aim to develop tools for assessm ent and prediction of the ecological effects of human-caused changes in the landscape.