Measures for preserving biodiversity and ecosystems: UN report

The United Nations released a report on May 6, 2019, which effectively issues a warning about the global decline in Nature, occurring at unprecedented rates in human history as well as the accelerating rates at which species are becoming extinct, thereby gravely impacting the people and the world. Part 1 of this article provides an overview of the report, while this article will delve deeper into its recommendations.
 
According to the report, the greenhouse gas emissions have doubled since 1980, resulting in a rise in average global temperatures by at least 0.7 degree Celsius. Since, climate change is already impacting ecosystems and genetics in Nature, these deleterious impacts are expected to only increase in the coming decades, surpassing that of land and sea use.
 
The report posits that the achievement of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved only through transformative changes across economic, social, political and technological factors. The current trends related to biodiversity and ecosystems are bound to undermine progress towards 80% of the assessed targets under the SDGs, associated with hunger, poverty, health, water, oceans, land, cities and climate. Thus, loss of biodiversity is not just an environmental issue, but is a developmental, security, economic, social and moral issue as well.
 
In this context, the report calls for an integrated approach across agriculture, marine life, freshwater systems and urban areas. This includes the promotion of good agricultural and agro-ecological practices, multifunctional landscape planning (to simultaneously provide food security, livelihood opportunities, maintenance of species and ecological functions), cross-sectoral integrated management, reformation in the food supply chains and reduction of food waste.
 
Ecosystem-based approaches must be developed for fisheries management that include spatial planning, protection and management of designated marine areas, reduction of the effluent run-offs into the oceans and working closely with producers and consumers. To ensure the sustainability of freshwater systems, inclusive water governance is required for collaborative water management and greater equity; better integration of water resource management and landscape planning across scales; promoting practices to reduce soil erosion, sedimentation and pollution run-off, increasing water storage, promoting investment in water projects with clear sustainability criteria as well as addressing the fragmentation of many freshwater policies.
 
The report highlights multiple nature-based solutions pertinent to urban areas. These include increase in the access to urban services and healthy urban environments for low-income communities, improving access to green spaces, sustainable production and consumption as well as ecological connectivity within urban spaces, particularly with native species. Most importantly, full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in governance is crucial for the reform and development of incentive structures and ensuring that biodiversity considerations are prioritised across all key sector planning.
 
According to Prof. Brondízio, co-chair of the assessment, “to better understand and, more importantly, to address the main causes of damage to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, we need to understand the history and global interconnection of complex demographic and economic indirect drivers of change, as well as the social values that underpin them. Key indirect drivers include increased population and per capita consumption; technological innovation, which in some cases has lowered and in other cases increased the damage to nature; and, critically, issues of governance and accountability. A pattern that emerges is one of global interconnectivity and ‘telecoupling’ – with resource extraction and production often occurring in one part of the world to satisfy the needs of distant consumers in other regions.”
 
The report shows some degree of optimism for the initial stirrings of change, in the form of actions, initiatives and policies, in play across different countries, by local authorities and businesses and especially the youth. These reflect a groundswell of understanding that urgent action is critical for a sustainable present and future. Thus, the IPBES Global Assessment Report aims to offer the best available expert evidence in order to inform these decisions. It also aims to provide the scientific basis for the new decadal targets and frameworks for biodiversity, to be decided in late 2020 in China, under the auspices of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
 
All information has been sourced from the report.
 
India Outbound
May 8, 2019
 
 

source https://indiaoutbound.org/measures-for-preserving-biodiversity-and-ecosystems-un-report/