12/05/2010 - Secretariat
of the Convention on Biological Diversity
/ United Nations Environment Programme -
Natural systems that support economies,
lives and livelihoods across the planet
are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse,
unless there is swift, radical and creative
action to conserve and sustainably use the
variety of life on Earth.
That is a principal
conclusion of a major new assessment of
the current state of biodiversity and the
implications of its continued loss for human
well-being.
The third edition of
Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3), produced
by the Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD), confirms that the world has failed
to meet its target to achieve a significant
reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss
by 2010.
The report is based
on scientific assessments, national reports
submitted by governments and a study on
future scenarios for biodiversity. Subject
to an extensive independent scientific review
process, publication of GBO-3 is one of
the principal milestones of the UN's International
Year of Biodiversity.
The Outlook will be
a key input into discussions by world leaders
and heads of state at a special high level
segment of the United Nations General Assembly
on 22 September. Its conclusions will also
be central to the negotiations by world
governments at the Nagoya Biodiversity Summit
in October.
The Outlook warns that
massive further loss of biodiversity is
becoming increasingly likely, and with it,
a severe reduction of many essential services
to human societies as several "tipping
points" are approached, in which ecosystems
shift to alternative, less productive states
from which it may be difficult or impossible
to recover.
Potential tipping points
analyzed for GBO-3 include:
- The dieback of large
areas of the Amazon forest, due to the interactions
of climate change, deforestation and fires,
with consequences for the global climate,
regional rainfall and widespread species
extinctions.
- The shift of many
freshwater lakes and other inland water
bodies to eutrophic or algae-dominated states,
caused by the buildup of nutrients and leading
to widespread fish kills and loss of recreational
amenities.
- Multiple collapses
of coral reef ecosystems, due to a combination
of ocean acidification, warmer water leading
to bleaching, overfishing and nutrient pollution;
and threatening the livelihoods of hundreds
of millions directly dependent on coral
reef resources.
The Outlook argues,
however, that such outcomes are avoidable
if effective and coordinated action is taken
to reduce the multiple pressures being imposed
on biodiversity. For example, urgent action
is needed to reduce land-based pollution
and destructive fishing practices that weaken
coral reefs, and make them more vulnerable
to the impacts of climate change and ocean
acidification.
The document notes that
the linked challenges of biodiversity loss
and climate change must be addressed by
policymakers with equal priority and in
close co-ordination, if the most severe
impacts of each are to be avoided. Conserving
biodiversity and the ecosystems it underpins
can help to store more carbon, reducing
further build-up of greenhouse gases; and
people will be better able to adapt to unavoidable
climate change if ecosystems are made more
resilient with the easing of other pressures.
The Outlook outlines
a possible new strategy for reducing biodiversity
loss, learning the lessons from the failure
to meet the 2010 target. It includes addressing
the underlying causes or indirect drivers
of biodiversity loss, such as patterns of
consumption, the impacts of increased trade
and demographic change. Ending harmful subsidies
would also be an important step.
GBO-3 concludes that
we can no longer see the continued loss
of biodiversity as an issue separate from
the core concerns of society. Realizing
objectives such as tackling poverty and
improving the health, wealth and security
of present and future generations will be
greatly strengthened if we finally give
biodiversity the priority it deserves.
The Outlook points out
that for a fraction of the money summoned
up instantly by the world's governments
in 2008-9 to avoid economic meltdown, we
can avoid a much more serious and fundamental
breakdown in the Earth's life support systems.
Biodiversity in 2010
GBO-3 uses multiple
lines of evidence to demonstrate that the
target set by world governments in 2002,
"to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction
of the current rate of biodiversity loss
at the global, regional and national level",
has not been met. Based on a special analysis
of biodiversity indicators carried out by
a panel of scientists, as well as peer-reviewed
scientific literature and reports from national
governments to the CBD, key findings include:
- None of the twenty-one
subsidiary targets accompanying the overall
2010 biodiversity target can be said definitively
to have been achieved globally, although
some have been partially or locally achieved.
Ten of fifteen headline indicators developed
by the CBD show trends unfavourable for
biodiversity.
- No government claims
to have completely met the 2010 biodiversity
target at the national level, and around
one-fifth state explicitly that it has not
been met.
- Species that have
been assessed for extinction risk are on
average moving closer to extinction, with
amphibians facing the greatest risk and
coral species deteriorating most rapidly
in status.
- The abundance of vertebrate
species, based on assessed populations,
fell by nearly one-third on average between
1970 and 2006, and continues to fall globally,
with especially severe declines in the tropics
and among freshwater species.
- Natural habitats in
most parts of the world continue to decline
in extent and integrity, notably freshwater
wetlands, sea ice habitats, salt marshes,
coral reefs, seagrass beds and shellfish
reefs; although there has been significant
progress in slowing the rate of loss of
tropical forests and mangroves, in some
regions.
- Crop and livestock
genetic diversity continues to decline in
agricultural systems. For example, more
than sixty breeds of livestock are reported
to have become extinct since 2000.
- The five principal
pressures directly driving biodiversity
loss (habitat change, overexploitation,
pollution, invasive alien species and climate
change) are either constant or increasing
in intensity.
- There has been significant
progress in the increase of protected areas
both on land and in coastal waters. However,
44% of terrestrial eco-regions (areas with
a large proportion of shared species and
habitat types), and 82% of marine ecoregions,
fall below the target of 10% protection.
The majority of sites judged to be of special
importance to biodiversity also fall outside
protected areas.
Biodiversity Futures
for the 21st Century
Scientists from a wide
range of disciplines came together as part
of the preparation of GBO-3 to identify
possible future outcomes for biodiversity
during the current century, based on observed
trends, models and experiments. Their principal
conclusions include:
- Projections of the
impact of global change on biodiversity
show continuing and often accelerating species
extinctions, loss of natural habitat, and
changes in the distribution and abundance
of species, species groups and biomes over
the 21st century.
- There is a high risk
of dramatic biodiversity loss and accompanying
degradation of a broad range of ecosystem
services if the Earth system is pushed beyond
certain thresholds or tipping points.
- Earlier assessments
have underestimated the potential severity
of biodiversity loss based on plausible
scenarios, because the impacts of passing
tipping points or thresholds of ecosystem
change have not previously been taken into
account.
- There are greater
opportunities than identified in earlier
assessments to address the biodiversity
crisis while contributing to other social
objectives; for example, by reducing the
scale of climate change without large-scale
deployment of biofuels and accompanying
loss of natural habitats.
- Biodiversity and ecosystem
changes could be prevented, significantly
reduced or even reversed if strong action
is applied urgently, comprehensively and
appropriately, at international, national
and local levels.
Towards a strategy for
reducing biodiversity loss
GBO-3 sets out a number
of elements that could be considered in
a future strategy to reduce biodiversity
loss, and avoid the worst impacts of the
scenarios analyzed in the Outlook. It is
likely to form the basis of discussion of
the strategic plan currently being considered
for the next decade of the Convention on
Biological Diversity, and due to be agreed
at the 10th meeting of the Conference of
Parties to the CBD in Nagoya, Japan in October
2010. The elements include:
- Continued and intensified
direct intervention to reduce loss of biodiversity,
for example through expanding and strengthening
protected areas, and programmes targeted
at vulnerable species and habitats
- Continued and intensified
measures to reduce the direct pressures
on biodiversity, such as preventing nutrient
pollution, cutting off the pathways for
introduction alien invasive species, and
introducing more sustainable practices in
fisheries, forestry and agriculture.
- Much greater efficiency
in the use of land, energy, fresh water
and materials to meet growing demand from
a rising and more prosperous population.
- Use of market incentives,
and avoidance of perverse subsidies, to
minimize unsustainable resource use and
wasteful consumption.
- Strategic planning
to reconcile development with the conservation
of biodiversity and the maintenance of the
multiple services provided by the ecosystems
it underpins.
- Restoration of ecosystems
to safeguard essential services to human
societies, while recognizing that protecting
existing ecosystems is generally much more
cost-effective than allowing them to degrade
in the first place.
- Ensuring that the
benefits arising from use of and access
to genetic resources and associated traditional
knowledge, for example through the development
of drugs and cosmetics, are equitably shared
with the countries and cultures from which
they are obtained.
- Communication, education
and awareness-raising to ensure that as
far as possible, everyone understands the
value of biodiversity and what steps they
can take to protect it, including through
changes in personal consumption and behaviour.
For further information, visit: http://www.cbd.int/
