Zoology Department Seminar: Quantifying the contribution of actions to reduce species extinction risk using ‘STAR’

Speaker: Dr Louise Mair, Newcastle University

Title: Quantifying the contribution of actions to reduce species extinction risk using ‘STAR’

Abstract: Meeting global species conservation targets requires tools and metrics that allow actors from across society to identify their potential contributions to species conservation, set science-based targets, and measure progress towards those targets. To meet this need, I worked with IUCN and a large team of international scientists to develop the Species Threat Abatement and Restoration (STAR) metric. STAR quantifies the contributions that abating threats and restoring habitat in specific places offer towards reducing species extinction risk. STAR is spatially explicit, scalable and comparable across sites, and is now available to businesses and policy makers for use in decision making. In this presentation, I will introduce the STAR conceptual framework, and provide diverse examples of how STAR has been applied in scientific and practical contexts. I will share current development of the metric as we work towards achieving uptake and impact, to ultimately support delivery of global conservation targets.

Our Departmental Seminars run weekly on Thursdays during term time. They cover recent research on a wide variety of topics from evolutionary genetics through behavioural ecology to ecology and natural history.  

Everyone in Zoology is invited, and Part II undergraduate zoologists are particularly encouraged to attend. Please click here for a list of all of this term's seminars.