Celebrating 25 Years of Action for Biodiversity

[ ] 6 Over the last decades, governments have carried out important processes to develop and implement National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans, and strategically advance the vision and objectives of the Convention. In most cases, the development of these plans has been done through a participatory multi-stakeholder process. Overall, biodiversity continues to gain traction as an important policy subject. But more importantly, also as an essential factor for all life on Earth, including our own. The incorporation of biodiversity into the Sustainable Development Goals is a sign that the role of biodiversity as the foundation for sustainable development is understood and valued. The Paris Climate Agreement recognizes the importance of biodiversity as an element of climate change mitigation and adaptation. And at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York in 2018 we heard many presidents underscore the importance of biodiversity and launch new initiatives to promote public and private solutions for safeguarding our most important resource — life on the planet. The world is increasingly paying attention to nature’s role and its multiple values and benefits to people. However, despite these successes, biodiversity continues to decline. Recent reports of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) have warned us of the dangerous consequence of biodiversity loss for the people and the proper functioning of the planet’s systems. The World Economic Forum, in its 2018 Global Risk Report also recognizes that ecosystem damage and biodiversity loss are critical likely risks. Biodiversity loss is a threat to the entire globe. Given the interdependency of the planet’s biological system, moreover, loss in any one area impacts the health of the entire system. Such loss affects the social, political, and economic security of all societies. That is why we must take common action to protect all life on our shared planet. This is where the Convention on Biological Diversity steps in — the 196 Parties to the Convention have the power to make a difference. The world needs to move towards a more sustainable relationship with nature. Our current economic model is rooted in unsustainable consumption and production patterns, and neglects to incorporate the costs of losing the natural capital that underpins our very existence. In order to change that, and to enable the much-needed shift towards an economy within ecological boundaries, we need to be bold and innovative. Given that biodiversity and our natural ecosystems provide the essential infrastructure supporting human development and life on the planet, it is essential that biodiversity is placed at the centre of all economic and social projects, as well as at the heart of the political decision- making processes. We cannot halt the biodiversity crisis by working in isolation, cocooned in specialized bubbles that do not interact with each other. The complexity of the interdependencies between human, social, and economic systems, and the natural Earth’s systems requires interconnected measures and solutions.