Is There an Environmental Kuznets Curve for the Risk of Biodiversity Loss?

We investigate the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) hypothesis for the cross-country relationship between per capita income and the overall risk of biodiversity loss. Relative to several recent EKC studies on biodiversity, use of a multivariate index that considers species, genetic and ecosystem diversity is a better indicator of biodiversity risk than simply the number or percentage change of any particular species category (e.g. plants, birds and mammals). Using several variants of the multivariate National Biodiversity Risk Assessment Index (NBRAI), we find no evidence in support of an EKC relationship.