Photo: Dall Sheep, Brooks Range, Alaska National Wildlife Refuge. © 2004 Delena Norris-Tull
UN Global Assessment Report
on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Excerpted by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, Professor Emerita of Science Education, University of Montana Western
In its May 6, 2019 Summary for policymakers makers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services reported the following Key Messages:
“A. Nature and it’s vital contributions to people, which together embody biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are deteriorating worldwide.
A1. Nature is essential for human existence and good quality of life. Most of nature’s contributions to people are not fully replaceable, and some are irreplaceable.
A2. Nature’s contributions to people are often distributed unequally across space and time and among different segments of society. There are often trade-offs in the production and use of nature’s contributions.
A3. Since 1970, trends in agricultural production, fish harvest, bioenergy production and harvest of materials have increased, but 14 of the 18 categories of contributions of nature that were assessed, mostly regulating and non-material contributions, have declined.
A4. Nature across most of the globe has now been significantly altered by multiple human drivers, with the great majority of indicators of ecosystems and biodiversity showing rapid decline.
A5. Human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before.
A6. Globally, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are disappearing. This loss of diversity, including genetic diversity, poses a serious risk to global food security by undermining the resilience of many agricultural systems to threats such as pests, pathogens and climate change.
A7. Biological communities are becoming more similar to each other in both managed and unmanaged systems within and across regions.
A8. Human-induced changes are creating conditions for fast biological evolution - so rapid that its effects can be seen in only a few years or even more quickly. The consequences can be positive or negative for biodiversity and ecosystems, but can create uncertainty about the sustainability of species, ecosystem functions and the delivery of nature’s contributions to people.”
[Note: one example of this is the rapid evolution of invasive plant species in reaction to herbicides, resulting in plant’s becoming herbicide resistant.]
“B. Direct and indirect drivers of change have accelerated during the past 50 years.
B1. For terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, land-use change has had the largest relative negative impact on nature since 1970, followed by the direct exploitation, in particular overexploitation, of animals, plants and other organisms mainly via harvesting, logging, hunting and fishing. In marine ecosystems, direct exploitation of organisms (mainly fishing) has had the largest relative impact, followed by land/sea-use change.
B2. Climate change is a direct driver that is increasingly exacerbating the impact of other drivers on nature and human well-being.
B3. Many types of pollution, as well as invasive alien species, are increasing, with negative impacts for nature.
B4. In the past 50 years, the human population has doubled, the global economy has grown nearly 4-fold and global trade has grown 10-fold, together driving up the demands for energy and materials.” [Note: one example is the rapid increase in private automobile ownership in China.]
“B5. Economic incentives generally have favoured expanding economic activity, and often environmental harm, over conservation or restoration. Incorporating the consideration of the multiple values of ecosystem functions and of nature’s contribution to people into economic incentives has, in the economy, been shown to permit better ecological, economic and social outcomes.
B6. Nature managed by indigenous peoples and local communities is under increasing pressure. Nature is generally declining less rapidly in indigenous peoples’ land than in other lands, but is nevertheless declining, as is the knowledge of how to manage it. At least a quarter of the global land area is traditionally own, managed, used or occupied by indigenous peoples.
”C. Goals for conserving and sustainably using nature and achieving sustainability cannot be met by current trajectories, and goals for 2030 and beyond may only be achieved through transformative changes across economic, social, political and technological factors.
C1. implementation of policy responses and actions to conserve nature and manage it more sustainably has progressed, yielding positive outcomes relative to scenarios of no intervention, but not sufficiently to stem the direct and indirect drivers of nature deterioration. It is therefore likely that most of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020 will be missed.
C2. Nature is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. However, taking into consideration that the Sustainable Development Goals are integrated and indivisible, as well as implemented nationally, current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems will undermine progress toward 80 percent (35 out of 44) of the assessed targets of goals related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and land.
C3. Areas of the world projected to experience significant negative effects from global changes in climate, biodiversity, ecosystem functions and nature’s contributions to people are also home to large concentrations of indigenous peoples and many of the world’s poorest communities.
C4. Except in scenarios that include transformative change, negative trends in nature, ecosystem functions and in many of nature’s contributions to people are projected to continue to 2050 and beyond, due to the projected impacts of increasing land/sea-use change, exploitation of organisms and climate change.
C5. Climate change is projected to become increasingly important as a direct driver of changes in nature and its contributions to people in the next decades. Scenarios show that meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity depends on taking into account climate change impacts in the definition of future goals and objectives.
”D. Nature can be conserved, restored and used sustainably while simultaneously meeting other global societal goals through urgent and concerted efforts fostering transformative change.
D1. The global environment can be safeguarded through enhanced international cooperation and linked locally relevant measures. The review and renewal of agreed environment-related international goals and targets based on the best available scientific knowledge and the widespread adoption and funding of conservation, ecological restoration and sustainable use actions but all actors, including individuals, are key to this safeguarding.
D2. Five main interventions (‘levers’) can generate transformative change by tackling the underlying indirect drivers of nature deterioration: (1) incentives and capacity-building; (2) cross-sectoral cooperation; (3) pre-emptive action; (4) decision-making in the context of resilience and uncertainty; and (5) environmental law and implementation.
D3. Transformations towards sustainability are more likely when efforts are directed at the following key leverage points, where efforts yield exceptionally large effects: (1j visions of a good life; (2) [lowering] total consumption and waste; (3j values and action; (4) addressing inequalities; (5j justice and inclusion in conservation; (6) externalities and telecouplings (distances); (7j technology, innovation and investment; and (8) education and knowledge generation and sharing.
D4. The character and trajectories of transformation will vary across contexts, with challenges and needs differing, among others, in developing and developed countries. Risks related to inevitable uncertainties and complexities in transformations towards sustainability can be reduced through governance approaches that are integrative, inclusive, informed and adaptive.
D5. Recognizing the knowledge, innovations and practices, institutions and values of indigenous peoples and local communities and their inclusion and participation in environmental governance often enhances their quality of life, as well as nature conservation, restoration and sustainable use, which is relevant to broader society. Governance, including customary institutions and management systems, and co-management regimes involving indigenous peoples and local communities, can be an effective way to safeguard nature and its contributions to people, incorporating locally attuned management systems and indigenous and local knowledge.
D6. Feeding humanity and enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of nature are complementary and closely interdependent goals that could be advanced through sustainable agricultural, aquacultural and livestock systems, the safeguarding of native species, varieties, breeds and habitats, and ecological restoration.
D7. Sustaining and conserving fisheries and marine species and ecosystems can be achieved through a coordinated mix of interventions on land, in freshwater and in the oceans, including multilevel coordination across stakeholders on the use of open oceans.
D8. Land-based climate change mitigation activities can be effective and support conservation goals. However, the large-scale deployment of bioenergy plantations and afforestation of non-forest ecosystems can come with negative side effects for biodiversity and ecosystem functions. D9. Nature-based solutions can be cost-effective for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in cities, which are crucial for global sustainability.
D10. A key constituent of sustainable pathways is the evolution of global financial and economic systems to build a global sustainable economy, steering away from the current limited paradigm of economic growth.”
Dr. Delena Norris-Tull’s commentary:
The full report incorporates many details of the research-base for each of these Key Messages. The Intergovernmental agency that developed this report emphasizes that it is not too late to carry out these lofty goals, but that we cannot wait much longer to affect these changes.
Unfortunately, the political climate in many countries of the world, including in both the so-called developed and developing countries, has stymied many countries in their abilities to respond to these concerns. Recent attempts to tackle some of these issues, such as the 2016 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, has encouraged many nations to take positive actions, but some other nations, including the United States, have recently chosen to ignore the importance of climate change, even as its impact on the global economy has become more and more apparent.
It will be increasingly important, and will become increasingly clear, that nations must agree on the importance of these issues and come together to tackle them, in the very near future.
Next Sections:
on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services
Excerpted by Dr. Delena Norris-Tull, Professor Emerita of Science Education, University of Montana Western
In its May 6, 2019 Summary for policymakers makers of the global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services reported the following Key Messages:
“A. Nature and it’s vital contributions to people, which together embody biodiversity and ecosystem functions and services, are deteriorating worldwide.
A1. Nature is essential for human existence and good quality of life. Most of nature’s contributions to people are not fully replaceable, and some are irreplaceable.
A2. Nature’s contributions to people are often distributed unequally across space and time and among different segments of society. There are often trade-offs in the production and use of nature’s contributions.
A3. Since 1970, trends in agricultural production, fish harvest, bioenergy production and harvest of materials have increased, but 14 of the 18 categories of contributions of nature that were assessed, mostly regulating and non-material contributions, have declined.
A4. Nature across most of the globe has now been significantly altered by multiple human drivers, with the great majority of indicators of ecosystems and biodiversity showing rapid decline.
A5. Human actions threaten more species with global extinction now than ever before.
A6. Globally, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are disappearing. This loss of diversity, including genetic diversity, poses a serious risk to global food security by undermining the resilience of many agricultural systems to threats such as pests, pathogens and climate change.
A7. Biological communities are becoming more similar to each other in both managed and unmanaged systems within and across regions.
A8. Human-induced changes are creating conditions for fast biological evolution - so rapid that its effects can be seen in only a few years or even more quickly. The consequences can be positive or negative for biodiversity and ecosystems, but can create uncertainty about the sustainability of species, ecosystem functions and the delivery of nature’s contributions to people.”
[Note: one example of this is the rapid evolution of invasive plant species in reaction to herbicides, resulting in plant’s becoming herbicide resistant.]
“B. Direct and indirect drivers of change have accelerated during the past 50 years.
B1. For terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, land-use change has had the largest relative negative impact on nature since 1970, followed by the direct exploitation, in particular overexploitation, of animals, plants and other organisms mainly via harvesting, logging, hunting and fishing. In marine ecosystems, direct exploitation of organisms (mainly fishing) has had the largest relative impact, followed by land/sea-use change.
B2. Climate change is a direct driver that is increasingly exacerbating the impact of other drivers on nature and human well-being.
B3. Many types of pollution, as well as invasive alien species, are increasing, with negative impacts for nature.
B4. In the past 50 years, the human population has doubled, the global economy has grown nearly 4-fold and global trade has grown 10-fold, together driving up the demands for energy and materials.” [Note: one example is the rapid increase in private automobile ownership in China.]
“B5. Economic incentives generally have favoured expanding economic activity, and often environmental harm, over conservation or restoration. Incorporating the consideration of the multiple values of ecosystem functions and of nature’s contribution to people into economic incentives has, in the economy, been shown to permit better ecological, economic and social outcomes.
B6. Nature managed by indigenous peoples and local communities is under increasing pressure. Nature is generally declining less rapidly in indigenous peoples’ land than in other lands, but is nevertheless declining, as is the knowledge of how to manage it. At least a quarter of the global land area is traditionally own, managed, used or occupied by indigenous peoples.
”C. Goals for conserving and sustainably using nature and achieving sustainability cannot be met by current trajectories, and goals for 2030 and beyond may only be achieved through transformative changes across economic, social, political and technological factors.
C1. implementation of policy responses and actions to conserve nature and manage it more sustainably has progressed, yielding positive outcomes relative to scenarios of no intervention, but not sufficiently to stem the direct and indirect drivers of nature deterioration. It is therefore likely that most of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020 will be missed.
C2. Nature is essential for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. However, taking into consideration that the Sustainable Development Goals are integrated and indivisible, as well as implemented nationally, current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems will undermine progress toward 80 percent (35 out of 44) of the assessed targets of goals related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and land.
C3. Areas of the world projected to experience significant negative effects from global changes in climate, biodiversity, ecosystem functions and nature’s contributions to people are also home to large concentrations of indigenous peoples and many of the world’s poorest communities.
C4. Except in scenarios that include transformative change, negative trends in nature, ecosystem functions and in many of nature’s contributions to people are projected to continue to 2050 and beyond, due to the projected impacts of increasing land/sea-use change, exploitation of organisms and climate change.
C5. Climate change is projected to become increasingly important as a direct driver of changes in nature and its contributions to people in the next decades. Scenarios show that meeting the Sustainable Development Goals and the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity depends on taking into account climate change impacts in the definition of future goals and objectives.
”D. Nature can be conserved, restored and used sustainably while simultaneously meeting other global societal goals through urgent and concerted efforts fostering transformative change.
D1. The global environment can be safeguarded through enhanced international cooperation and linked locally relevant measures. The review and renewal of agreed environment-related international goals and targets based on the best available scientific knowledge and the widespread adoption and funding of conservation, ecological restoration and sustainable use actions but all actors, including individuals, are key to this safeguarding.
D2. Five main interventions (‘levers’) can generate transformative change by tackling the underlying indirect drivers of nature deterioration: (1) incentives and capacity-building; (2) cross-sectoral cooperation; (3) pre-emptive action; (4) decision-making in the context of resilience and uncertainty; and (5) environmental law and implementation.
D3. Transformations towards sustainability are more likely when efforts are directed at the following key leverage points, where efforts yield exceptionally large effects: (1j visions of a good life; (2) [lowering] total consumption and waste; (3j values and action; (4) addressing inequalities; (5j justice and inclusion in conservation; (6) externalities and telecouplings (distances); (7j technology, innovation and investment; and (8) education and knowledge generation and sharing.
D4. The character and trajectories of transformation will vary across contexts, with challenges and needs differing, among others, in developing and developed countries. Risks related to inevitable uncertainties and complexities in transformations towards sustainability can be reduced through governance approaches that are integrative, inclusive, informed and adaptive.
D5. Recognizing the knowledge, innovations and practices, institutions and values of indigenous peoples and local communities and their inclusion and participation in environmental governance often enhances their quality of life, as well as nature conservation, restoration and sustainable use, which is relevant to broader society. Governance, including customary institutions and management systems, and co-management regimes involving indigenous peoples and local communities, can be an effective way to safeguard nature and its contributions to people, incorporating locally attuned management systems and indigenous and local knowledge.
D6. Feeding humanity and enhancing the conservation and sustainable use of nature are complementary and closely interdependent goals that could be advanced through sustainable agricultural, aquacultural and livestock systems, the safeguarding of native species, varieties, breeds and habitats, and ecological restoration.
D7. Sustaining and conserving fisheries and marine species and ecosystems can be achieved through a coordinated mix of interventions on land, in freshwater and in the oceans, including multilevel coordination across stakeholders on the use of open oceans.
D8. Land-based climate change mitigation activities can be effective and support conservation goals. However, the large-scale deployment of bioenergy plantations and afforestation of non-forest ecosystems can come with negative side effects for biodiversity and ecosystem functions. D9. Nature-based solutions can be cost-effective for meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in cities, which are crucial for global sustainability.
D10. A key constituent of sustainable pathways is the evolution of global financial and economic systems to build a global sustainable economy, steering away from the current limited paradigm of economic growth.”
Dr. Delena Norris-Tull’s commentary:
The full report incorporates many details of the research-base for each of these Key Messages. The Intergovernmental agency that developed this report emphasizes that it is not too late to carry out these lofty goals, but that we cannot wait much longer to affect these changes.
Unfortunately, the political climate in many countries of the world, including in both the so-called developed and developing countries, has stymied many countries in their abilities to respond to these concerns. Recent attempts to tackle some of these issues, such as the 2016 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, has encouraged many nations to take positive actions, but some other nations, including the United States, have recently chosen to ignore the importance of climate change, even as its impact on the global economy has become more and more apparent.
It will be increasingly important, and will become increasingly clear, that nations must agree on the importance of these issues and come together to tackle them, in the very near future.
Next Sections: