Aiming higher to bend the curve of biodiversity loss

Abstract

The development of the post 2020 strategic plan for the Convention on Biological Diversity provides a vital window of opportunity to set out an ambitious plan of action to restore global biodiversity. The components of such a plan, including its goal, targets and some metrics already exist and provide a roadmap to 2050.-The UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) outlines an ambitious vision: "By 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people". In November 2018 the 196 countries that are parties to the CBD will meet to start work on a new strategic plan for the period after 2020. These deliberations come in the wake of the well-publicised failure to meet the 2010 target to significantly reduce biodiversity loss, and evidence that the ambition of the plan for 2020 (the Aichi Targets) will also not be achieved 1. Far from it: biodiversity continues to decline steeply. Without a substantial change in approach and ambition, these successive failures will almost certainly be repeated. This declining trend must not only be halted but also reversed if the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to be achieved. Nature has a critical role to play in mitigating climate change 6 , adapting to climate impacts 7 , maintaining the quality of soil, air and water, and supporting a

Dynamic contributions of intermittent and perennial streams to fish beta diversity in dryland rivers

“…The global biodiversity crisis is characterized by non‐systematic losses and gains of species (Dornelas et al, ; Thomas, ). Effective conservation and management, needed to bend the curve of future biodiversity loss (sensu Mace et al, ), is increasingly reliant on understanding the environmental context by which communities change through time (Bush et al, ; Socolar, Gilroy, Kunin, & Edwards, ). Acquiring this knowledge is challenged by the fact that community dynamics are often asynchronous among species (Gotelli et al, ; Hillebrand et al, ), especially among native and non‐native species (McGill, Dornelas, Gotelli, & Magurran, ; Olden, Poff, Douglas, Douglas, & Fausch, ).…”

Relating characteristics of global biodiversity targets to reported progress

“…; Hagerman & Pelai ; Mace et al. ). We recognize that the target‐setting process is influenced by political practicalities and conflict resolution between diverse stakeholders (Larsen et al.…”

Designing a global mechanism for intergovernmental biodiversity financing

“…Recent contributions also argue that humanity needs to protect half the Earth in order to safeguard biodiversity (Wilson, ). Also others have already called for more ambitious future targets (Mace et al., ). We would thus expect that Aichi target 11 will be increased for the post 2020 biodiversity targets.…”

“…Most of the associated indicators show some but insufficient progress to reach the Aichi targets by 2020; some show no significant overall progress, some show movement away from the target, and very few target elements show sufficient progress (CBD, ). Additional, more ambitious effort beyond the current Aichi targets is required to bend the curve of biodiversity loss (Mace et al., ).…”