While progress made towards reducing forest cover loss can help to safeguard some facets of biodiversity, changes in the forest canopy do not always directly correlate with impacts on species living in these ecosystems. Monitoring shifts in species populations offers an important and complementary measure of forest biodiversity.  
The Forest Specialists Index tracks changes in forest vertebrate populations (i.e., the many species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians that only live in forest habitats), and most recent data indicates a significant decline in these populations – roughly 79% between 1970 and 2018. The decline showed no sign of stopping in recent years – between 2010 and 2018, populations of forest specialist species decreased from 28% of the 1970 value to just 21%. Habitat loss and habitat degradation were the most frequently reported drivers of this decline, followed by overexploitation.

While progress made towards reducing forest cover loss can help to safeguard some facets of biodiversity, changes in the forest canopy do not always directly correlate with impacts on species living in these ecosystems. Monitoring shifts in species populations offers an important and complementary measure of forest biodiversity.  
The Forest Specialists Index tracks changes in forest vertebrate populations (i.e., the many species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians that only live in forest habitats), and most recent data indicates a significant decline in these populations – roughly 79% between 1970 and 2018. The decline showed no sign of stopping in recent years – between 2010 and 2018, populations of forest specialist species decreased from 28% of the 1970 value to just 21%. Habitat loss and habitat degradation were the most frequently reported drivers of this decline, followed by overexploitation.