REPORT TRACKS PROGRESS AND DRAWS ATTENTION TO IMPLICATIONS ON
BROADER SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT THIS CENTURY
PyeongChang/Montreal, 6 October 2014 – Bold and
innovative action is urgently required if governments are to meet the
globally-agreed Strategic Plan for Biodiversity and its Aichi Targets by 2020, says
a United Nations progress report on the state of global biodiversity.
Launched today one year before the halfway point of the Strategic
Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, Global
Biodiversity Outlook 4 shows that there has been significant progress
towards meeting some components of the majority of the Aichi Biodiversity
Targets. However, in most cases, additional action is required to keep the
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011– 2020 on course.
The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020, and its 20 Aichi
Biodiversity Targets, were agreed by the international community in 2010 in
Nagoya, Japan, and have since been re-affirmed by the United Nations General
Assembly and at the Rio + 20 summit in 2012.
Meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets would contribute
significantly to broader global priorities addressed by the post-2015
development agenda; namely, reducing hunger and poverty, improving human
health, and ensuring a sustainable supply of energy, food and clean water.
Incorporating biodiversity into the sustainable development goals, currently
under discussion, provides an opportunity to bring biodiversity into the
mainstream of decision-making.
However, reaching these joint objectives requires changes in
society, including much more efficient use of land, water, energy and
materials, rethinking our consumption habits and, in particular, major transformations
of food production systems.
Ban Ki-moon, United Nations Secretary-General, underlined the
linkage between biodiversity and sustainable development: “I urge Member States
and stakeholders everywhere to take GBO4’s conclusions into account in their
planning, recognize that biodiversity contributes to solving the sustainable
development challenges we face, and redouble efforts to achieve our shared
goals,” he said. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive
Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said, "The
responsible management of our planet's biodiversity is motivated not only by a
shared sense of responsibility to future generations. The factors prompting
policy makers to safeguard biodiversity are increasingly economic in nature.
Without healthy biodiversity, livelihoods, ecosystem services, habitats and
food security will be compromised."
Page 2 of 6 "Actions to reduce biodiversity loss will inevitably support
a broad range of societal benefits and lay the groundwork for the socio-economic
transition to a more sustainable and inclusive model of development," he
added.
“The good news is that Parties are making progress and concrete
commitments to implement the Aichi Biodiversity Targets.” said Braulio Ferreira
de Souza Dias, UN Assistant-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the
Convention on Biological Diversity. “However, the report also shows us that
efforts need to be significantly scaled-up if the Strategic Plan for
Biodiversity 2011–2020 is to be implemented and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets
achieved.”
“Our efforts can and must be strengthened by combining actions
that address multiple drivers of biodiversity loss and multiple targets. The
world increasingly understands the critical links between biodiversity and sustainable
development. Measures required to achieve the Aichi Biodiversity Targets also
support the goals of greater food security, healthier populations and improved
access to clean water for all,” he said. With the progress achieved to date,
plausible pathways exist for realising an end to biodiversity loss, along with
achieving global goals related to addressing climate change, land degradation
and sustainable development.
ON TRACK:
In the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity
2011-2020, progress is reported in the following areas:
Protected Areas – Target 11
The terrestrial area of the planet protected for biodiversity is
increasing steadily, and designation of marine protected areas is accelerating.
Nearly a quarter of countries have already passed the target of protecting 17
per cent of their land area. At the current rate of growth, the percentage
targets would be met for terrestrial areas by 2020. Existing commitments to
designate additional terrestrial protected areas reinforce this outcome.
However, achieving the marine component of Target 11 requires
additional efforts. Progress is higher in coastal areas, while open ocean and
deep sea areas, including the high seas, are much less covered. Further efforts
will be needed if the other elements of Target 11, such as those related to
management effectiveness and ecological representation of protected areas, are
to be met. For example, while the protected area network is becoming more
representative of the world’s diverse ecological regions, around one-quarter of terrestrial regions, and more than half of
marine regions have less than five per cent of their area protected.
Importantly, today’s protected areas will not be adequate to conserve many species
whose distributions will shift in the future due to climate change.
Access and Benefit Sharing of Genetic Resources – Target 16
The Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair
and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization enters
into force on 12 October 2014 following its ratification by 51 Parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity, in advance of the deadline of 2015.
Page 3 of 6 This opens up new opportunities for the
fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of
genetic resources. However, further ratifications of the Nagoya Protocol, as
well as ensuring that all Parties to the Protocol put in place, by 2015,
legislative, administrative or policy measures and institutional structures for
implementing the Nagoya Protocol are needed to increase its operationalization.
Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans – Target 17
179 of the 194 Parties to the Convention have developed National
Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs), at least 57 of which are
still current. Parties are currently updating their NBSAPs in line with the
Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020. Twenty-six had done so by August 1,
2014. For other Parties for which information is available, more than 40 per
cent are expected to have completed their NBSAP by October 2014, and about 90
per cent by the end of 2015. The degree to which countries are implementing
their updated strategies and action plans is variable however.
WHERE MORE EFFORT IS REQUIRED:
For the majority of the targets, additional efforts are required
to ensure that they are achieved by 2020. For example:
Halving the Rate of Loss of All Natural Habitats, including
Forests – Target 5
While global rates of deforestation are declining, they remain
alarmingly high. The total area of land remaining in natural or semi-natural
conditions has shown a downward trend in recent decades and would decline
further by 2020 if recent trends continue.
Reduction of Pollution, including from Excess Nutrients – Target 8
Nitrogen and phosphorus pollution continues to pose a very
significant threat to biodiversity, and ecosystem services globally. While more
than sixty per cent of the national reports analysed for GBO-4 indicate that
countries are making progress towards achieving this target, the overall
evaluation is that current trends are moving us further away from the target of
bringing excess nutrients to levels not detrimental to ecosystem function and
biodiversity. It was not possible to evaluate overall trends regarding other
forms of pollutants, due to limited information.
Reduction of Multiple Pressures on Ecosystems Vulnerable to
Climate Change and Ocean Acidification, such as Coral Reefs - Target 10
Pressures from both land-based and marine activities continue to
increase. This makes it unrealistic to believe that the target will be met by
2015, as agreed. The percentage of reefs rated as threatened increased by
nearly one-third (30 per cent) in the decade to 2007. Overfishing and
destructive fishing methods are the most pervasive threats, affecting around 55
per cent of reefs. One-quarter of reefs are affected by coastal development and
pollution from land, including nutrients from farming and sewage.
Around one-tenth suffer from marine-based pollution. Local
pressures are most severe in Southeast Asia, where nearly 95 per cent of coral
reefs are threatened. Large marine protected areas (MPAs) already in place, or
pending establishment, offer opportunities for better protection of coral
reefs. Furthermore, a Page 4 of 6 recent study of the Caribbean
suggests that effective action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, combined
with management of local threats such as overfishing and poor water quality,
would create favourable conditions for coral reefs to regenerate by the end of
this century, and survive the impacts of ocean acidification.
Seeking to Prevent Extinction of Known Threatened Species and
Improve Their Conservation Status -
Target 12
The protection of those species most in decline is not on track to
be achieved. Despite individual success stories, the average risk of extinction
for birds, mammals, amphibians and corals shows no sign of decreasing.
Nevertheless, dedicated conservation efforts have demonstrably prevented the
extinction of several species, and further action might prevent some
extinctions that would otherwise occur by 2020. The rate of increase in
observed extinctions of birds and mammals has apparently slowed over the past 50
years, although lags in reporting time may lead to an underestimate of recent
extinctions. For some groups such as freshwater fish, the number of observed
extinctions has continued unabated for the past century. Short-term future
projections of the extinction risk of species as a result of projected habitat loss
generally predict a worsening situation. However, under some scenarios in which
natural habitats are protected and restored, and greenhouse gas emissions are
reduced, extinctions both globally and locally may be significantly reduced in
the longer-term.
Ecosystem Restoration and Development of Resilience - Target 15
Substantial efforts are required if the goal of restoration of at
least 15 per cent of ecosystems is to be met. A number of countries have set
targets related to ecosystem restoration. For example; Belgium, Belarus,
Brazil, Dominica, Japan, Malta, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland and the European Union, have set targets to restore at least
15 per cent of degraded lands. About three-quarters of the national reports
assessed for GBO-4 suggest that some progress is being made towards the
attainment of this target. The combined initiatives currently underway, or
planned, may put the world on track to restore 15 per cent of degraded
ecosystems, but it is hard to assess and, on the current trajectory, is not a
likely outcome. Despite restoration and conservation efforts, there is still a
net loss of forests - a major global carbon stock.
THE WAY FORWARD:
The challenge of achievement of many of these targets stem from
the reality that based on current trends, pressures on biodiversity will continue to increase at
least until 2020 and that the status of biodiversity will continue to decline. This is despite the fact
that society’s responses to the loss of biodiversity are increasing
dramatically, and national plans and commitments are expected to continue to
increase for the remainder of this decade.
This may be partly due to time lags between taking positive
actions and discernable positive outcomes. But it is more likely because responses are insufficient relative
to pressures, such that they may not overcome
the growing impacts of the drivers of biodiversity loss, suggesting that work
to address these drivers will be a priority.
Page 5 of 6 Each of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets
cannot be tackled in isolation. Actions towards certain targets will have an
especially strong influence on the achievement of the rest. In particular,
there are targets related to addressing the underlying causes of biodiversity
loss (generally those targets under Strategic Goal A), developing national
frameworks for implementing the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (Target 17), and mobilizing
financial resources (Target 20). A good example of this is Brazil’s successes
in combating deforestation. With the use of a broad range of actions,
corresponding to the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and Strategic Goals,
deforestation rates in the Brazilian Amazon and Atlantic Rainforest have been
greatly reduced.
Interrelated public and private policy initiatives in Brazil,
coordinated through the Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of
Deforestation, were launched in 2004. The action plan was a cross-ministry initiative,
coordinated by the President’s office. It includes a range of activities that
relate to a number of Aichi Biodiversity Targets across all of the Strategic
Goals, such as:
•• Monitoring of land-cover (Target 19), both near real-time
coarse resolution and annual high
resolution satellite monitoring, made publicly available;
•• Enforcement campaigns by Brazil’s environmental agency and the
federal police to crack down on illegal deforestation and logging, with
interventions informed by near real-time monitoring. Businesses and stakeholders
have also implemented plans to reduce deforestation to within safe limits;
•• Incentive measures (Target 3), including restricting credit for
rural landowners with the highest rates of deforestation;
•• Expansion of protected areas and demarcation of indigenous
lands(Targets 11, 18). Approximately 40 per cent of natural vegetation is
legally protected by parks and indigenous reserves. From 2002 to 2009, the
Brazilian Amazon Protected Area network expanded by 60 per cent; a large part
of these new areas were created in regions of intense land conflict to act as
green barriers against deforestation, establishing a new protected area
paradigm.
In addition, as people have become more aware of the values of
biodiversity (Target 1), NGO and business initiatives have implemented
moratoria on soya and meat produced on recently cleared land.
Public prosecutors have also installed industry requirements to
exclude deforesters from their supply chains (Target 4).
Plausible pathways exist for achieving the 2050 vision for an end
to biodiversity loss, in conjunction with key human development goals, limiting
climate change to 2oC warming and combating desertification and land
degradation. However, reaching these joint objectives requires changes in society,
including much more efficient use of land, water, energy and materials,
rethinking our consumption habits and in particular major transformations of
food production systems.
To download the report, please visit www.cbd.int/gbo4
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