Biodiversity Loss and Climate Change

We are facing two interrelated crises: the loss of global biodiversity and rapid, human-caused climate changes. Extinction rates are estimated to be 1000 times the background rate and in the future, these rates could be 10,000 times higher. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released a report showing that around 1 million species are facing extinction because of human actions. The climate crisis not only threatens humanity and but also the viability of many species and ecosystems and exacerbates pressures nature is already facing.

Biodiversity loss is being driven primarily by habitat loss and fragmentation, and over-harvest.  At the same time, the 2019 International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on Climate and Land concluded human land use (including deforestation, destruction of carbon-sequestering ecosystems, and livestock) accounts for 23% of green-house gas emissions.

In the face of these global problems, the countries of the world have come together to act under two UN conventions: The United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), with the Paris Agreement, and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), with the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and its Aichi Targets for 2010-2020.

Protected and conserved areas are the key solution to preventing biodiversity loss and can help us mitigate our carbon emissions. Under the CBD, countries have currently agreed through Aichi Target 11 to protect a minimum of 17% terrestrial and inland waters, and 10% marine and coastal areas by 2020 in protected and conserved areas, especially areas of particular importance for biodiversity and ecosystem services, and to ensure they are effectively and equitably managed, ecologically representative, well-connected systems of protected areas and integrated into the wider landscape and seascape. But despite this treaty pledge, biodiversity continues to decline. In order to create an equitable, nature-positive, carbon-neutral world, we must work together and act now.

The Aichi Target was an interim target, based on perceptions of political acceptability rather than a scientific assessment of what is required. So what does the science say about what do we need to do beyond 2020 for nature to not only survive, but thrive?  And how can big global conservation targets be implemented in a crowded world of 7.6 billion people?