Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII)

Natural History Museum

The PREDICTS (Projecting Responses to Ecological Diversity in Changing Terrestrial Systems) project, led by Natural History Museum scientists, has created the most comprehensive and representative database of how biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems worldwide is affected by human activities, particularly those related to land use change and intensification.   

The PREDICTS team in NHM’s Biodiversity Futures Lab has developed the Biodiversity Intactness Index (BII) – a cutting-edge indicator of ecosystem integrity that estimates how much of an ecosystem’s natural biodiversity still remains despite human impacts.

Although produced by complex statistical machinery, BII is a very simple number that indicates nature’s “health,” on a scale from 100% (the naturally-present biodiversity remains intact) down to 0% (when none of the species remaining in the location were naturally found there). A simple figure that can provide transparent and evidence-based data and assessments of biodiversity.