Le domaine d’application de l’indice de biodiversité potentielle (IBP)

The Potential Biodiversity index (PBI) is an indirect and composite indicator of taxonomic diversity. It combines ten key factors for which the relationships with forest taxa are established. The PBI is a simple tool for forest managers who wish to integrate ordinary taxonomic biodiversity in everyday management, on the stand scale. It is also an educational tool which contributes to changing forestry diagnosis and practices. To answer recurring questions and also to prevent the PBI from being used outside of its field of application, we detail in this paper the relevance and originality of the PBI and the points that distinguish it from a predictive model for biodiversity, an indicator of correct functioning of forest ecosystems, and from an indicator of “naturalness”, or a management standard.