United Nations Summit on Biodiversity

Addressing the loss of biodiversity is essential for poverty eradication, sustainable jobs, economic development and meeting the SDGs. The conservation, sustainable use and equitable sharing of benefits from biodiversity underpin the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Humanity’s dependence on biodiversity is widely recognized and nature is critical for the delivery and success of 14 of the 17 SDGs, including those that relate to food security, health, livelihoods, jobs, water security, the ocean, climate change, and disaster prevention. More than half of the world’s GDP is moderately or highly dependent on nature, through the contributions of nature to people such as pollination, water quality, and natural materials. Construction, agriculture, and food and beverages are the three largest sectors most dependent on nature. In recent years, biodiversity loss has been consistently identified by business leaders as one of the top risks to global business.

All people depend on a healthy planet. Nature plays a critical role in providing food, medicines and a variety of materials fundamental to the physical and mental well-being as well as livelihoods of all people. For example, an estimated 4 billion people rely on natural medicines for their health and some 70 per cent of drugs used for cancer are natural or synthetic products inspired by nature. Nature also contributes to non-material aspects of quality of life, including inspiration and learning, cultural expression and physical, psychological and spiritual development. Degradation of ecosystems, including from deforestation, competing use of land, uncontrolled expansion of agriculture particularly for intensive farming, and infrastructure development, as well as the unsustainable exploitation of wild species have created a ‘perfect storm’ for the spillover of diseases from wildlife to people. Investments in biodiversity including through jobs, incentive reform, and policies that boost conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of biodiversity, and through an inclusive “One Health[1]” approach are essential elements of reducing the risk of future zoonotic outbreaks, and ensure a sustainable, equitable and green recovery of economies.

Sustainable use and conservation of biodiversity is key to ensure that no one is left behind. Every person, in every community, depends on biodiversity, but poorer and marginalized groups are those most directly vulnerable to biodiversity loss. Around one third of jobs in developing countries are directly dependent on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and rural and indigenous communities are particularly dependent on nature for their livelihoods and culture. More than a quarter of the global land area is traditionally owned, managed, used or occupied by indigenous peoples, covering one third of all remaining land wilderness areas. Indigenous peoples and local communities therefore have a particularly important role as custodians of nature. Empowerment of women, currently with limited or no access to resources and opportunities to contribute, is also critical as key actors and agents of change in biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, for example through significant and often overlooked roles in fisheries, seed conservation, and harvesting of wild resources, among many other areas.

Restoration of biodiversity and implementation of nature-based solutions will be essential to meet the SDGs. Ecosystem degradation is reducing the capacity of biodiversity to address climate change and compromising progress to achieve the SDGs, underlining the urgency of action on biodiversity for sustainable development. At least two billion hectares of currently degraded land require restoration to enhance biodiversity, ecosystem services and agricultural productivity. In addition, more than three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods and more than one-third of fish stocks are in urgent need of recovery. Nature-based solutions can contribute to climate mitigation and adaptation, food and water security and to protection from flooding and other extreme events, and they provide key opportunities for integrating biodiversity into actions to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs. For example, nature-based solutions can provide approximately one third of the solutions needed to achieve the climate mitigation targets of the Paris Agreement. Such solutions also provide co-benefits and promote synergies with other areas of global concern, such as desertification, land degradation and drought, ocean acidification, and biodiversity loss, while also creating local employment/ contributing to local livelihoods.

The Decade of Action and Delivery for Sustainable Development provides a critical opportunity to halt biodiversity loss and encourage its sustainable use. Many commitments have already been made for action on biodiversity at all scales. A strong focus on accelerating and scaling-up implementation is required to deliver on such commitments. In 2010, Parties to the CBD committed to “take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity” through the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi targets. Many elements of these targets were subsequently embedded into the SDGs. Many other commitments have been made at national level, and through other multilateral environmental agreements, including those relating to wetlands, desertification, migratory species, species in international trade, plant genetic resources and plant health, the ocean and fisheries, chemical management and climate change. Renewed and ambitious leadership is now required in the context of the Decade of Action to accelerate implementation of these and future commitments including those from the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and those for marine biodiversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction.

Urgent action on biodiversity is needed across all sectors and from all actors. Action on biodiversity for sustainable development is needed by public and private sectors, including from national and sub-national governments, cities, the business and finance world, and civil society. The right conditions for action and innovation at scale, the removal of barriers to change, and deep-rooted shifts in both consumer culture and world views are all elements of the transformations required to secure a sustainable future for people, planet and prosperity.

[1] “One Health” approaches consider the interdependent relationships between human, agricultural and environmental health.