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- In an effort to stem the sixth ongoing mass extinction and safeguard the world’s plants and animals, 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets were set in 2010. According to a recently released UN report, the global community has failed to deliver for completed one of the 20 biodiversity targets. .
- Little progress has been made in eliminating, eliminating or reforming subsidies and other potentially harmful incentives for biodiversity. An estimated $ 500 billion in government subsidies can cause environmental damage, according to the report.
- The establishment of the target area for marine and freshwater protected areas is almost complete. Some extinctions, including up to seven species of mammals and eighteen birds, have been averted through conservation efforts in the last decade.
- Looking ahead, the report describes eight transitions necessary to shift humanity from “business as usual” to “a society that lives in harmony with nature.” However, “action is needed now.”
As the planet plunges fully into its sixth human-caused mass extinction, biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate and efforts to address this crisis, through a series of specific targets, have failed. to a large degree.
In an effort to safeguard the world’s plants and animals and curb the trend toward extinction, the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets were established at a conference in Japan in 2010 under the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Biological Diversity (CBD). One hundred and seventy countries and regions joined the goals, creating their own local conservation strategies.
The Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5), just released by the CBD, offers a final report card on progress on the 20 global biodiversity targets by the 2020 deadline, lessons learned and better practices to get back on track.
According to the GBO-5 report card, the global community has failed to meet even one of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets in full, with only six “partially achieved” targets by the 2020 deadline. However, 89% of all national goals made at least some progress.
Of those 20 partially achieved goals, perhaps the most significant progress has been made toward Goal 11, the establishment of marine and freshwater protected areas. The objective of this goal was for countries to protect 17% of their surface and groundwater and inland water areas, as well as 10% of their coastal and marine areas. Although the goal may be met by the end of the year, critics say that protected areas are not necessarily in high priority conservation areas (those with high levels of biodiversity or endemism) but rather those areas easier for governments to assign a target. protected status.
Other partially achieved goals fall into the categories of preventing and controlling the spread of invasive species, creating strategies and action plans for biodiversity, sharing information and knowledge, and mobilizing resources from many sectors and sources.
Some goals have seen little progress, including Goal 3: Eliminate, phase out or reform subsidies and other incentives potentially harmful to biodiversity. An estimated $ 500 billion in government subsidies potentially causes environmental damage, the report states. However, few countries have worked to identify these incentives, and “harmful subsidies far outweigh positive incentives in areas such as fisheries and deforestation control,” the report says.
“Progress has been made, but it has not been sufficient to address the underlying factors of [biodiversity] loss: climate change and exploitation, which are driven by broader consumption patterns ”, David Cooper, deputy executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity and author of the new GBO-5, it said in a statement.
Recent reports of biodiversity extinction and decline are worrying. A A new study indicates that in the Neotropics, human activities such as overhunting, habitat destruction, and fires have contributed to a 56% decline in mammal species since 16.th century.
More than 500 species of vertebrates are on the brink of extinction, with populations of less than a thousand individuals remaining, and WWF’s Living Planet Report, released this month, finds an average decline of 68% in populations of mammals, birds, amphibians. and reptiles. and fish in the past 50 years, further highlighting the need for urgent action.
And amid these reports, a wave of denial of extinction has emerged among many of the factions that also deny climate change. Scientists say this phenomenon may increase among these groups in response to the GBO-5 report.
“From COVID-19 to massive wildfires, floods, melting glaciers and unprecedented heat, our failure to meet the Aichi Goals, to protect our home, has very real consequences,” said Inger Andersen. , UN Under-Secretary General and UN Executive Director. Environment Program. “We can no longer afford to put nature aside. Now is the time to take a big step forward … If we don’t, biodiversity will continue to weaken. “
This, Andersen says, “will further harm human health, economies and societies, with particularly severe impacts on indigenous communities.”
However, there are also many notable success stories at GBO-5, with both global and national successes highlighted for each objective. Globally, for example, some extinctions, including up to seven species of mammals and eighteen species of birds, have been prevented through conservation efforts in the last decade, and the rate of deforestation has been reduced globally by about a third in compared to the previous decade.
For fisheries, although the overall trends are not good, in areas with good scientific stock assessments there have been improvements in fish stocks. “If the measures are put in place, they work,” Cooper said.
The report describes eight transitions necessary to change humanity from “business as usual” to “a society that lives in harmony with nature.” These transitions include the ways we use and protect land and forests; manage cities and infrastructure; manage fisheries and protect the oceans; use fresh water; organize our agricultural and food supply systems; and addressing climate change.
“We know what needs to be done, what works and how we can achieve good results,” said Andersen. “By building on what has already been achieved and putting biodiversity at the center of all our policies and decisions, including in COVID-19 recovery packages, we can ensure a better future for our societies and the planet.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought international awareness of the connections between animals and human health and has underscored the need for an integrated approach to managing human health, wildlife health, and livestock health. But, Cooper says, we must consider not just infectious diseases, but all determinants of health, including how biodiversity supports people’s health through nutrition; and the psychological, physical, physiological and even immunological benefits of green spaces.
Three key messages from the report, according to Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General and CBD Executive Secretary, are that the government needs to expand national ambitions in support of the new Global Biodiversity Framework and mobilize all necessary resources, countries. will have to do more to “bring biodiversity into the mainstream of decision-making”, GBO-5 offers a positive perspective and presents a foundation on which it can be built.
The Convention on Biological Diversity is working on its Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework, which will be adopted in Kunming, China, in May 2021. Proponents say they hope that the biodiversity targets set by this new framework will be based on the successes and remedy the Failures of Aichi’s goals, changing course while there is still time.
“Going forward, it is possible to reduce and even reverse the loss of biodiversity and by 2030 be on a recovery path towards that vision of 2050,” Cooper said, “but only with strong action across the board. And just as we have this window of a few years or this decade for action on climate change, so does biodiversity and, in fact, it is also necessary to reduce the risk of future pandemics and improve health and well-being. “
Citation:
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2020). Global Biodiversity Outlook 5. Montreal.
Banner image of an owl monkey by Rhett A. Butler.
Liz kimbrough is a staff writer for Mongabay. Find her on Twitter @lizkimbrough
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