Biodiversity loss is also an equity issue, disproportionately affecting poorer people, women and children. If current rates of decline continue, future generations will be deprived of the health benefits of biodiversity. The livelihoods of 70 per cent of people living in poverty directly depend on natural resources (well established). {6.1, 6.6.5; boxes 6.5, 13.2}


The critical pressures on biodiversity are habitat change, loss and degradation; unsustainable agricultural practices; the spread of invasive species; pollution, including microplastics; and overexploitation, including illegal logging and trade in wildlife. Illegal trade in wildlife, fisheries and forest products is worth between US$90 billion and US$270 billion per annum. There is evidence to suggest that climate change will pose the gravest threat in the future, as species, including disease vectors, migrate with temperature shifts (well established). {6.5}


Although governance efforts are progressing, greater efforts are required to achieve international objectives, such as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets within the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, and the Sustainable Development Goals. Over 190 National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans have been submitted to the Convention, although their quality and reliability, as well their subsequent implementation, remains uneven; the Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols to the Convention provide a deeper governance context. There is increasing international collaboration between various law enforcement authorities in combatting illegal wildlife trafficking. {Annex 6-1}


The science-policy interface for biodiversity and the contribution that nature makes to people was strengthened in 2012 through the establishment of the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity are negotiating the post-2020 global biodiversity framework. Negotiations under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea continue towards an agreement on the sustainable use and conservation of marine biological diversity beyond national jurisdiction. {6.7.2, 6.7.4, 13.1}


Several multilateral environmental agreements provide additional governance architecture on biodiversity, including the Convention on Wetlands of International Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. The continual updating of the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species and other independent monitoring efforts, such as the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, the consideration of the multiple values of biodiversity and the inclusion of the value of biodiversity in national economic valuation methods, will support and inform the implementation thereof. Furthermore, there is a pressing need to expand ecosystem assessments to better understand the global state of ecosystems and the trends therein. {6.5.3, 6.7.4, annexes 6.1 and 13.1}


Protecting species and ecosystems requires conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources (well established). Species and ecosystems are most effectively safeguarded through the conservation of natural habitats (well established) and there is clear evidence that conservation can help to reduce biodiversity loss. Implementation, management and representative coverage


of different ecosystems within protected areas remains insufficient. Less than 15 per cent of terrestrial habitats, including inland waters, and less than 16 per cent of coastal and marine areas within national jurisdiction are protected areas. {6.7.3}


Biodiversity is slowly being mainstreamed or integrated into health, gender and other equity concerns through such efforts as the 2015–2020 Gender Plan of Action under the Convention on Biological Diversity and its relationship to the Convention’s Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020 and the achievement of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets (well established). Indigenous peoples and local communities play a key role in biodiversity protection by offering bottom-up, self-driven and innovative solutions, based on traditional knowledge and the ecosystem approach. However, protected areas can adversely affect indigenous communities if access to natural resources within protected areas is denied. {13.1}


Ex situ conservation of genetic material provides safeguards for maintaining adaptive potential, in particular of crop and agricultural species. Gene banks and seed collections complement in situ conservation of genetic resources, yet the conservation status of genetic diversity for most wild species remains poorly documented. Yet accelerating biodiversity loss and the large, escalating costs of inaction, including numerous threats to human health, require an urgent increase in global investment in sustainable use and conservation, and the consistent integration of biodiversity concerns into all facets of economic and social development. {6.5.1, 13.2.4}


Greater focus on strengthening governance systems; improving policy frameworks through research; policy integration; implementation; and encouraging partnerships and participation, are all measures that have the potential to address the greatest pressures on biodiversity. Efforts to combat biodiversity loss must also address poverty eradication, food security challenges, gender inequality, systemic inefficiencies and corruption in governance structures and other social variables. Identification of the countries of origin of genetic resources, in accordance with the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Nagoya Protocol thereto, will help to ensure progress against the objectives of those instruments and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the commercial utilization of those resources with such countries. {6.8}


2.2.3 Oceans and coasts


The principal drivers of change facing oceans and coasts are ocean warming and acidification, ocean pollution and the increasing use of oceans, coasts, deltas and basins for food production, transportation, settlement, recreation, resource extraction and energy production (well established). The main impacts of those drivers are marine ecosystem degradation and loss, including death of coral reefs (well established), reduced marine living resources and the resulting disturbance of marine and coastal ecosystem food chains (well established), increased nutrient and sediment run-off (well established) and marine litter (established but incomplete). Those impacts interact in ways that are just beginning to be understood and their interaction may amplify their effect (inconclusive). If left unaddressed, there is a major risk that they will combine to produce a destructive cycle of degradation and that the ocean will no longer provide many vital ecosystem services (for example, livelihoods, income, health, employment, and aesthetic, cultural and religious values).


What is happening to our environment and how have we responded? 9


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