Dr Stuart Butchart FRS

I am Chief Scientist at BirdLife International, where I have worked since 2002.

I lead BirdLife’s global Science Division, which develops BirdLife’s global scientific datasets, research and priority-setting that underpins the Conservation Programmes implemented by the BirdLife Partnership of nearly 120 national biodiversity conservation organisations around the world, and that provides a sound scientific basis for BirdLife’s policy, advocacy and communication work.

This includes identifying which bird species worldwide are closest to extinction - by regularly assessing all 11,000 bird species for the IUCN Red List (in our role as Red List Authority for birds for IUCN). It also includes supporting BirdLife Partners to identify some of the most important sites for biodiversity: Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas, which are part of a wider network of Key Biodiversity Areas.

We also undertake a wide range of collaborative research to understand better the state of the world’ birds and the sites and habitats they depend upon, the threats to them, and the conservation solutions required. In addition, we undertake research on how can data from birds be used to track global environmental trends, and on quantifying the impact of conservation efforts.

Key publications

Bolam, F. C., Mair, L., Angelico, M., Brooks, T. M., Burgman, M., Hermes, C., Hoffmann, M., Martin, R. W., McGowan, P. J. K., Rodrigues, A. S. L., Rondinini, C., Wheatley, H., Bedolla-Guzmán, Y., Calzada, J., Child, M. F., Cranswick, P. A., Dickman, C. R., Fessl, B., Fisher, D. O., Garnett, S. T., Groombridge, J. J., Johnson, C. N., Kennerley, R. J., King, S. R. B., Lamoreux, J. F., Lees, A. C.,  Lens, L., Mahood, S. P., Mallon, D. P., Meijaard, E., Méndez-Sánchez, F., Percequillo, A. R., Regan, T. J., Renjifo, L. M., Rivers. M. C., Roach, N. S., Roxburgh, L., Safford, R. J., Salaman, P., Squires, T., Vázquez-Domínguez, E., Visconti, P., Westrip, J. R. S., Woinarski, J. C. Z., Young, R. P. and Butchart, S. H. M. (2020) How many bird and mammal extinctions has recent conservation action prevented? Conserv. Letters. 14: e12762.

Butchart, S. H. M., Stattersfield, A. J., Baillie, J. E. M., Bennun, L. A., Stuart, S. N., Akçakaya, H. R., Hilton-Taylor, C. and Mace, G. M. (2004) Measuring global trends in the status of biodiversity: Red List Indices for birds. PLoS. Biol. 2: 2294–2304.

Butchart, S. H. M., Walpole, M., Collen, B., van Strien, A.,  Scharlemann, J. P. W., Almond, R. E. E.,  Baillie, J. E. M., Bomhard, B., Brown, C., Bruno, J., Carpenter, K. E., Carr, G. M.,  Chanson, J., Chenery, A. M.,  Csirke, J., Davidson, N. C., Dentener, F.,  Foster, M., Galli, A., Galloway, J. N., Genovesi, P., Gregory, R. D., Hockings, M., Kapos, V., Lamarque, J.-F., Leverington, F., Loh, J., McGeoch, M. A., McRae, L., Minasyan, A., Morcillo, M. H., Oldfield, T. E. E., Pauly, D., Quader, S., Revenga, C., Sauer, J. R., Skolnik, B., Spear, D., Stanwell-Smith, D., Stuart, S. N., Symes, A., Tierney, M., Tyrrell, T. D., Vié, J. C. and Watson, R. (2010) Global biodiversity: indicators of recent declines. Science 328: 1164-1168.

Butchart, S. H. M., Clarke, M., Smith, B., Sykes, R., Scharlemann, J. P. W., Harfoot, M., Buchanan, G., Angulo, A., Balmford, A., Bertzky, B., Brooks, T. M., Carpenter, K. E., Comeros, M., Cornell, J.,  Ficetola, G. F., Fishpool, L. D. C.,  Harwell, H., Hilton-Taylor, C., Hoffmann, M., Joolia, A., Joppa, L., Kingston, N., May, I., Milam, A., Polidoro, B., Ralph, G., Richman, N., Rondinini, C.,  Skolnik, B., Spalding, M., Stuart, S. N., Symes, A., Taylor, J., Visconti, P. Watson, J. E. M. and Burgess, N. D. (2015) Shortfalls and solutions for meeting national and global protected area targets. Conserv. Lett. 8: 329–337.

Butchart, S. H. M, Lowe, S., Martin, R. M., Symes, A., Westrip, J. R. S. and Wheatley, H. (2018) Which bird species have gone extinct? A novel quantitative classification approach. Biol. Conserv. 227: 9–18.

Butchart, S. H. M., Miloslavich, P., Reyers, B., Subramanian, S. M., Adams, C., Bennett, E., Czúcz, B., Galetto, L., Galvin, K., Reyes-García, V., Gerber, L. R., Gode, T. B., Jetz, W., Kosamu, I. B. M., Palomo, M. G., Panahi, M., Selig, E. R., Singh, G. S., Tarkhnishvili, D., Xu, H., Lynch, A. J., Mwampamba, T. H., and Samakov. A. (2019) Assessing progress towards meeting major international objectives related to nature and nature’s contributions to people. Chapter 3 In Brondízio, E. S., Díaz, D. and Settele, J., eds, Global Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Germany: Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Butchart, S. H. M., Akçakaya, H. R., Berryman, A. J., Brooks, T. M., Burfield, I. J., Chanson, J., Dias, M. P., Donaldson, J. S., Hermes, C., Hilton-Taylor, C., Hoffmann, M., Luedtke, J. A., Martin, R., McDougall, A., Neam, K., Polidoro, B., Raimondo, D., Rodrigues, A. S. L., Rondinini, C., Rutherford, C., Scott, T., Simkins, A. T., Stuart, S. N. and Vine, J. (2025) Measuring trends in extinction risk: a review of two decades of development and application of the Red List Index. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. B. 380: 20230206.

Butchart, S.H.M., Crowe, O., Scott, T., Plumptre,A.J., Eldred, M., McKee, E., Waliczky, Z., Al Hasani, Aspiroz, A., Baisero, D., Barassa, F., Beresford, A. E., Bezeng, S., Boyd, C., Brooks, T. M., Buchanan, G., Bunting, G., Capellan, S., Cox, N., Davenport, T., Davies, T., Della Togna, G., Elliot, W., Foster, M., Gilbert, J., Handley, J., Juffe Bignoli, D., Jones, V. J., Kingston, N., Kivono, J., Lamoreux, J., Langhammer, P., Lewis, J., Liggit, B., Marnewick, D., Matiku, P., McCreless, E., Neugarten, R., Numa, C., O’Brien, M., Rao, M., Raudsepp-Hearne, C., Ray, J., Rijal, S, Rodriguez, J.-P., Sapijanskas, J., Sechrest, W., Sneary, M., Snyder, A., Spiliopoulou, K., Starnes, T., Suarez, C. T., Surya, G., Tognelli, M., Tordoff, J., Toscano, M. G., Trisurat, Y. and Upgren, A (2026) Extent, characteristics, and policy applications of Key Biodiversity Areas. Biol. Reviews. http://doi.org/10.1002/brv.70144.

Díaz, D., Settele, J., Brondízio, E. S., Ngo, H. T., Agard, J., Arneth, A., Balvanera, P., Brauman, K. A., Butchart, S. H. M., Chan, K. M. A, Garibaldi, L. A., Ichii, K., Liu, J., Subramanian, S. M., Midgley, G. F., Miloslavich, P., Molnár, Z., Obura, D., Pfaff, A., Polasky, S., Purvis, A., Razzaque, J., Reyers, B., Chowdhury, R. R., Shin, Y.-J., Visseren-Hamakers, I., Willis, K. and Zayas, C. N. (2019) Pervasive human-driven decline of life on Earth points to the need for profound change. Science 366: eaax3100.

McCarthy, D., Donald, P. F., Scharleman, J. P. W., Buchanan, G. M., Balmford, A. P., Green, J. M. H., Bennun, L. A., Burgess, N., Fishpool, L. D. C., Garnett, S. T., Leonard, D. L., Maloney, R. F., Morling, P., Schaeffer, H. M., Symes, A., Wiedenfeld, D. A. and Butchart, S. H. M. (2012) Financial costs of meeting global biodiversity conservation targets: current spending and unmet needs. Science 338: 946-949.

Full list of publications: ‪Stuart Butchart‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬