In 2010, the international community, under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity, agreed on 20 biodiversity-related "Aichi Targets" to be achieved within a decade. We provide a comprehensive mid-term assessment of progress toward these global targets using 55 indicator data sets. We projected indicator trends to 2020 using an adaptive statistical framework that incorporated the specific properties of individual time series. On current trajectories, results suggest that despite accelerating policy and management responses to the biodiversity crisis, the impacts of these efforts are unlikely to be reflected in improved trends in the state of biodiversity by 2020. We highlight areas of societal endeavor requiring additional efforts to achieve the Aichi Targets, and provide a baseline against which to assess future progress.
Biodiversity and ecosystem service losses driven by land use change are
expected to intensify as a growing and more affluent global population requires
more agricultural and forestry products, and teleconnections in the global
economy lead to increasing remote environmental responsibility. By combining
global biophysical and economic models, we show that between the years 2000-2011
overall population and economic growth resulted in increasing total impacts on
bird diversity and carbon sequestration globally, despite a reduction of
land–use impacts per unit of GDP. The exceptions were North America and
Western Europe, where there was a reduction of forestry and agriculture impacts
on nature, accentuated by the 2007-2008 financial crisis. Biodiversity losses
occurred predominantly in Central and Southern America, Africa and Asia with
international trade an important and growing driver. In 2011, 33% of Central and
Southern America and 26% of Africa’s biodiversity impacts were driven by
consumption in other world regions. Overall, cattle farming is the major driver
of biodiversity loss, but oil seeds production showed the largest increases in
biodiversity impacts. Forestry activities exerted the highest impact on carbon
sequestration, and also showed the largest increase in the 2000-2011 period. Our
results suggest that to address the biodiversity crisis, governments should take
an equitable approach recognizing remote responsibility, and promote a shift of
economic development towards activities with low biodiversity impacts.
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