Bird Biodiversity Assessment Tool: Furman’s campus as a case study

PAC Gym

A majority of protected areas and assessment tools target ecosystems relative to their low human disturbance. These pristine ecosystems are undoubtedly critical to biodiversity, yet contain only a small amount of the Earth’s total landmass. An opportunity to implement conservation strategies in areas with moderate human influence biodiversity assessments is at the university extent. Furman University was utilized as a case study for a biodiversity assessment tool based on indicators from both human/social and natural systems. Indicator data sets were gathered by applying existing datasets and surveying existing institutional efforts. Comparison and discrepancy between indicators and targets for each indicator yielded a dataset of where biodiversity efforts could be strengthened. Indicators included percentage of natural habitat on campus, climate action plan’s inclusivity of plants and wildlife, and informal educational engagement opportunities. Approximately 49.6% of all the targets were being met across all indicators. Within human/social 56% was met while in natural systems 42% associated with biodiversity in this study. Additionally, using strategic planning, a plan to fulfill protected acreage, natural habitat, ornithology organizations, and informal educational goals, would increase the overall fulfillment of targets to 71.28%. Overall, this study affirms the need for the integration of biodiversity among current campus sustainability science assessment models. With the human population ever growing, it will be important for citizens to preserve and have a basic knowledge regarding the urban ecosystem they will continually interact with.