Current global response insufficient;
'Transformative changes' needed to restore and protect nature;
Opposition from vested interests can exist overcome for public good
Most comprehensive assessment of its kind;
1,000,000 species threatened with extinction

PARIS, 6 May – Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history – and the rate of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people around the world now likely, warns a landmark new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the summary of which was approved at the 7th session of the IPBES Plenary, meeting last week (29 Apr – 4 May) in Paris.

"The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture," said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. "The health of ecosystems on which nosotros and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide."

"The Report too tells us that information technology is not also late to make a deviation, but merely if we start at present at every level from local to global," he said. "Through 'transformative alter', nature can still be conserved, restored and used sustainably – this is as well cardinal to meeting most other global goals. By transformative change, we mean a fundamental, organisation-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values."

"The member States of IPBES Plenary accept now best-selling that, by its very nature, transformative change can await opposition from those with interests vested in the status quo, but also that such opposition can be overcome for the broader public good," Watson said.

The IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is the most comprehensive ever completed. It is the showtime intergovernmental Report of its kind and builds on the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, introducing innovative ways of evaluating evidence.

Compiled by 145 skillful authors from 50 countries over the past iii years, with inputs from another 310 contributing authors, the Written report assesses changes over the past v decades, providing a comprehensive picture of the relationship betwixt economic evolution pathways and their impacts on nature. Information technology besides offers a range of possible scenarios for the coming decades.

Based on the systematic review of about xv,000 scientific and regime sources, the Report besides draws (for the first time ever at this scale) on indigenous and local knowledge, specially addressing problems relevant to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

"Biodiversity and nature's contributions to people are our common heritage and humanity'due south most important life-supporting 'safe net'. Simply our condom cyberspace is stretched almost to breaking point," said Prof. Sandra Díaz (Argentine republic), who co-chaired the Assessment with Prof. Josef Settele (Frg) and Prof. Eduardo S. Brondízio (Brazil and USA).

"The diversity within species, betwixt species and of ecosystems, likewise as many fundamental contributions we derive from nature, are declining fast, although nosotros still have the ways to ensure a sustainable future for people and the planet."

The Written report finds that around 1 million brute and plant species are at present threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than than e'er earlier in human history.

The average affluence of native species in near major land-based habitats has fallen by at least xx%, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. The picture is less clear for insect species, but available evidence supports a tentative gauge of 10% beingness threatened. At to the lowest degree 680 vertebrate species had been driven to extinction since the 16th century and more than 9% of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for nutrient and agriculture had get extinct by 2016, with at to the lowest degree 1,000 more breeds still threatened.

"Ecosystems, species, wild populations, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating or vanishing. The essential, interconnected spider web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed," said Prof. Settele. "This loss is a direct result of human being activity and constitutes a directly threat to homo well-being in all regions of the world."

To increase the policy-relevance of the Report, the assessment's authors have ranked, for the outset time at this calibration and based on a thorough assay of the available evidence, the v straight drivers of change in nature with the largest relative global impacts and so far. These culprits are, in descending order: (i) changes in land and sea apply; (2) direct exploitation of organisms; (3) climate change; (4) pollution and (5) invasive alien species.

The Report notes that, since 1980, greenhouse gas emissions have doubled, raising average global temperatures past at least 0.7 degrees Celsius – with climatic change already impacting nature from the level of ecosystems to that of genetics – impacts expected to increment over the coming decades, in some cases surpassing the touch on of state and bounding main use change and other drivers.

Despite progress to conserve nature and implement policies, the Report besides finds that global goals for conserving and sustainably using nature and achieving sustainability cannot be met by current trajectories, and goals for 2030 and beyond may but be achieved through transformative changes beyond economic, social, political and technological factors. With skilful progress on components of simply 4 of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, information technology is likely that most will be missed by the 2020 deadline. Current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems volition undermine progress towards eighty% (35 out of 44) of the assessed targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and country (SDGs 1, 2, 3, vi, eleven, 13, fourteen and xv). Loss of biodiversity is therefore shown to exist not but an environmental issue, but also a developmental, economic, security, social and moral consequence likewise.

"To ameliorate empathise and, more importantly, to address the principal causes of harm to biodiversity and nature'due south contributions to people, nosotros demand to understand the history and global interconnection of circuitous demographic and economical indirect drivers of change, too every bit the social values that underpin them," said Prof. Brondízio. "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 frequently occurring in one part of the earth to satisfy the needs of distant consumers in other regions."

Other notable findings of the Written report include:

  • 3-quarters of the state-based environment and about 66% of the marine surround accept been significantly altered by human deportment. On average these trends have been less severe or avoided in areas held or managed past Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.
  • More than than a third of the world's land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock product.
  • The value of agronomical crop production has increased by about 300% since 1970, raw timber harvest has risen by 45% and approximately threescore billion tons of renewable and nonrenewable resources are at present extracted globally every year – having nearly doubled since 1980.
  • Country deposition has reduced the productivity of 23% of the global state surface, up to Usa$577 billion in annual global crops are at risk from pollinator loss and 100-300 million people are at increased risk of floods and hurricanes because of loss of coastal habitats and protection.
  • In 2015, 33% of marine fish stocks were being harvested at unsustainable levels; 60% were maximally sustainably fished, with just seven% harvested at levels lower than what tin exist sustainably fished.
  • Urban areas have more than doubled since 1992.
  • Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, 300-400 meg tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other wastes from industrial facilities are dumped annually into the world'south waters, and fertilizers entering coastal ecosystems have produced more than 400 ocean 'expressionless zones', totalling more than than 245,000 km2 (591-595) – a combined area greater than that of the United Kingdom.
  • Negative trends in nature volition continue to 2050 and beyond in all of the policy scenarios explored in the Report, except those that include transformative change – due to the projected impacts of increasing land-use modify, exploitation of organisms and climatic change, although with meaning differences betwixt regions.

The Study too presents a broad range of illustrative deportment for sustainability and pathways for achieving them across and between sectors such as agriculture, forestry, marine systems, freshwater systems, urban areas, energy, finance and many others. Information technology highlights the importance of, amidst others, adopting integrated direction and cantankerous-sectoral approaches that take into account the trade-offs of food and free energy product, infrastructure, freshwater and coastal management, and biodiversity conservation.

Too identified equally a fundamental chemical element of more sustainable futurity policies is the evolution of global financial and economic systems to build a global sustainable economic system, steering away from the electric current limited prototype of economic growth.

"IPBES presents the authoritative science, knowledge and the policy options to determination-makers for their consideration," said IPBES Executive Secretary, Dr. Anne Larigauderie. "We thank the hundreds of experts, from around the earth, who have volunteered their time and knowledge to help address the loss of species, ecosystems and genetic diverseness – a truly global and generational threat to human well-beingness."

Farther Information on Key Bug from the Report

Scale of Loss of Nature

  • Gains from societal and policy responses, while important, have non stopped massive losses.
  • Since 1970, trends in agricultural output, fish harvest, bioenergy production and harvest of materials accept increased, in response to population growth, rising demand and technological development, this has come at a steep price, which has been unequally distributed inside and across countries. Many other cardinal indicators of nature's contributions to people however, such as soil organic carbon and pollinator diverseness, have declined, indicating that gains in fabric contributions are frequently not sustainable .
  • The footstep of agronomical expansion into intact ecosystems has varied from country to state. Losses of intact ecosystems have occurred primarily in the tropics, home to the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet. For example, 100 million hectares of tropical forest were lost from 1980 to 2000, resulting mainly from cattle ranching in Latin America (about 42 1000000 hectares) and plantations in South-East Asia (about 7.5 meg hectares, of which eighty% is for palm oil, used by and large in food, cosmetics, cleaning products and fuel) among others.
  • Since 1970 the global homo population has more than than doubled (from three.7 to 7.6 billion), rise unevenly across countries and regions; and per capita gross domestic production is four times higher – with e'er-more distant consumers shifting the ecology brunt of consumption and production across regions.
  • The boilerplate abundance of native species in nearly major land-based habitats has fallen by at least xx%, more often than not since 1900.
  • The numbers of invasive alien species per land have risen by about seventy% since 1970, across the 21 countries with detailed records.
  • The distributions of almost half (47%) of country-based flightless mammals, for example, and nearly a quarter of threatened birds, may already have been negatively afflicted past climatic change.

Ethnic Peoples, Local Communities and Nature

  • At least a quarter of the global country area is traditionally owned, managed, used or occupied past Ethnic Peoples. These areas include approximately 35% of the area that is formally protected, and approximately 35% of all remaining terrestrial areas with very low human intervention.
  • Nature managed by Ethnic Peoples and Local Communities is under increasing force per unit area but is generally failing less rapidly than in other lands – although 72% of local indicators developed and used by Ethnic Peoples and Local Communities show the deterioration of nature that underpins local livelihoods.
  • The areas of the world projected to experience significant negative furnishings from global changes in climate, biodiversity, ecosystem functions and nature's contributions to people are as well areas in which large concentrations of Indigenous Peoples and many of the world's poorest communities reside.
  • Regional and global scenarios currently lack and would benefit from an explicit consideration of the views, perspectives and rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, their cognition and understanding of large regions and ecosystems, and their desired futurity development pathways. Recognition of the knowledge, innovations and practices, institutions and values of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities and their inclusion and participation in environmental governance often enhances their quality of life, equally well every bit nature conservation, restoration and sustainable use. Their positive contributions to sustainability tin can be facilitated through national recognition of land tenure, access and resource rights in accordance with national legislation, the application of costless, prior and informed consent, and improved collaboration, fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use, and co-management arrangements with local communities.

Global Targets and Policy Scenarios

  • By and ongoing rapid declines in biodiversity, ecosystem functions and many of nature'southward contributions to people mean that nigh international societal and environmental goals, such as those embodied in the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will not exist achieved based on electric current trajectories.
  • The authors of the Written report examined six policy scenarios – very different 'baskets' of clustered policy options and approaches, including 'Regional Competition', 'Business as Usual' and 'Global Sustainability' – projecting the likely impacts on biodiversity and nature'due south contributions to people of these pathways past 2050. They concluded that, except in scenarios that include transformative alter, the negative trends in nature, ecosystem functions and in many of nature's contributions to people will keep to 2050 and beyond due to the projected impacts of increasing country and sea use change, exploitation of organisms and climate change.

Policy Tools, Options and Exemplary Practices

  • Policy actions and societal initiatives are helping to enhance awareness near the impact of consumption on nature, protecting local environments, promoting sustainable local economies and restoring degraded areas. Together with initiatives at diverse levels these have contributed to expanding and strengthening the electric current network of ecologically representative and well-connected protected area networks and other effective surface area-based conservation measures, the protection of watersheds and incentives and sanctions to reduce pollution .
  • The Report presents an illustrative listing of possible actions and pathways for achieving them across locations, systems and scales, which will exist most likely to support sustainability. Taking an integrated approach:
  • In agriculture , the Report emphasizes, amid others: promoting good agronomical and agroecological practices; multifunctional landscape planning (which simultaneously provides food security, livelihood opportunities, maintenance of species and ecological functions) and cross-sectoral integrated direction. It also points to the importance of deeper engagement of all actors throughout the food system (including producers, the public sector, ceremonious order and consumers) and more than integrated landscape and watershed direction; conservation of the multifariousness of genes, varieties, cultivars, breeds, landraces and species; as well as approaches that empower consumers and producers through market transparency, improved distribution and localization (that revitalizes local economies), reformed supply chains and reduced food waste matter.
  • In marine systems , the Report highlights, among others: ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management; spatial planning; effective quotas; marine protected areas; protecting and managing primal marine biodiversity areas; reducing run- off pollution into oceans and working closely with producers and consumers.
  • In freshwater systems , policy options and deportment include, among others: more inclusive water governance for collaborative water management and greater disinterestedness; improve 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 articulate sustainability criteria; equally well equally addressing the fragmentation of many freshwater policies.
  • In urban areas , the Report highlights, among others: promotion of nature-based solutions; increasing access to urban services and a healthy urban environment for low-income communities; improving access to green spaces; sustainable production and consumption and ecological connectivity within urban spaces, particularly with native species.
  • Across all examples, the Report recognises the importance of including unlike value systems and diverse interests and worldviews in formulating policies and deportment. This includes the total and effective participation of Ethnic Peoples and Local Communities in governance, the reform and development of incentive structures and ensuring that biodiversity considerations are prioritised across all key sector planning.
  • "We have already seen the offset stirrings of actions and initiatives for transformative alter, such every bit innovative policies past many countries, local authorities and businesses, but especially by young people worldwide," said Sir Robert Watson. "From the young global shapers behind the #VoiceforthePlanet move, to school strikes for climate, at that place is a groundswell of understanding that urgent action is needed if we are to secure annihilation approaching a sustainable future. The IPBES Global Assessment Report offers the best bachelor good evidence to help inform these decisions, policies and deportment – and provides the scientific basis for the biodiversity framework and new decadal targets for biodiversity, to be decided in belatedly 2020 in Communist china, under the auspices of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity."

By the Numbers – Primal Statistics and Facts from the Report

General

  • 75%: terrestrial environment "severely altered" to date by homo actions (marine environments 66%)
  • 47%: reduction in global indicators of ecosystem extent and condition against their estimated natural baselines, with many continuing to reject by at least 4% per decade
  • 28%: global land area held and/or managed by Indigenous Peoples , including >40% of formally protected areas and 37% of all remaining terrestrial areas with very low human intervention
  • +/-60 billion: tons of renewable and non-renewable resource extracted globally each twelvemonth, up near 100% since 1980
  • xv%: increase in global per capita consumption of materials since 1980
  • >85%: of wetlands present in 1700 had been lost by 2000 – loss of wetlands is currently three times faster, in percentage terms, than forest loss.

Species, Populations and Varieties of Plants and Animals

  • viii 1000000: full estimated number of brute and constitute species on Earth (including 5.five 1000000 insect species)
  • Tens to hundreds of times: the extent to which the current rate of global species extinction is higher compared to average over the terminal 10 1000000 years, and the charge per unit is accelerating
  • Up to 1 million: species threatened with extinction, many within decades
  • >500,000 (+/-9%): share of the world'southward estimated 5.ix one thousand thousand terrestrial species with insufficient habitat for long term survival without habitat restoration
  • >40%: amphibian species threatened with extinction
  • Nearly 33%: reef forming corals, sharks and shark relatives, and >33% marine mammals threatened with extinction
  • 25%: average proportion of species threatened with extinction across terrestrial, freshwater and marine vertebrate, invertebrate and plant groups that have been studied in sufficient item
  • At least 680: vertebrate species driven to extinction past homo actions since the 16th century
  • +/-10%: tentative estimate of proportion of insect species threatened with extinction
  • >20%: decline in average abundance of native species in most major terrestrial biomes, more often than not since 1900
    +/-560 (+/-10%): domesticated breeds of mammals were extinct past 2016, with at least one,000 more threatened
  • 3.5%: domesticated brood of birds extinct by 2016
  • 70%: increase since 1970 in numbers of invasive conflicting species beyond 21 countries with detailed records
  • 30%: reduction in global terrestrial habitat integrity acquired past habitat loss and deterioration
  • 47%: proportion of terrestrial flightless mammals and 23% of threatened birds whose distributions may have been negatively impacted by climate change already
  • >6: species of ungulate (hoofed mammals) would probable be extinct or surviving just in captivity today without conservation measures

Food and Agriculture

  • 300%: increase in food crop production since 1970
  • 23%: country areas that accept seen a reduction in productivity due to country degradation
  • >75%: global food ingather types that rely on animal pollination
  • US$235 to US$577 billion: annual value of global crop output at adventure due to pollinator loss
  • 5.six gigatons: annual CO2 emissions sequestered in marine and terrestrial ecosystems – equivalent to 60% of global fossil fuel emission
  • +/-11%: world population that is undernourished
  • 100 million: hectares of agricultural expansion in the torrid zone from 1980 to 2000, mainly cattle ranching in Latin America (+/-42 million ha), and plantations in Southeast Asia (+/-7.v one thousand thousand ha, of which 80% is oil palm), half of it at the expense of intact forests
  • three%: increment in country transformation to agronomics betwixt 1992 and 2015, generally at the expense of orests
  • >33%: earth'southward state surface (and +/-75% of freshwater resources) devoted to crop or livestock product
  • 12%: globe's ice-free country used for crop product
  • 25%: world's ice-free land used for grazing (+/-70% of drylands)
  • +/-25%: greenhouse gas emissions acquired past land clearing, crop production and fertilization, with brute-based food contributing 75% to that effigy
  • +/-30%: global ingather production and global food supply provided by modest land holdings (<2 ha), using +/-25% of agronomical land, usually maintaining rich agrobiodiversity
  • $100 billion: estimated level of financial support in OECD countries (2015) to agriculture that is potentially harmful to the environment

Oceans and Fishing

  • 33%: marine fish stocks in 2015 being harvested at unsustainable levels; 60% are maximally sustainably fished; 7% are underfished
  • >55%: ocean area covered by industrial fishing
  • 3-x%: projected subtract in ocean cyberspace primary production due to climate change lone by the end of the century
  • three-25%: projected subtract in fish biomass past the end of the century in low and high climate warming scenarios, respectively
  • >ninety%: proportion of the global commercial fishers accounted for by small scale fisheries (over 30 million people) – representing well-nigh fifty% of global fish catch
  • Up to 33%: estimated share in 2011 of world's reported fish catch that is illegal, unreported or unregulated
  • >ten%: decrease per decade in the extent of seagrass meadows from 1970-2000
  • +/-50%: live coral embrace of reefs lost since 1870s
  • 100-300 million: people in coastal areas at increased run a risk due to loss of littoral habitat protection
  • 400: depression oxygen (hypoxic) littoral ecosystem 'dead zones' caused by fertilizers, affecting >245,000 km2
  • 29%: average reduction in the extinction gamble for mammals and birds in 109 countries thanks to conservation investments from 1996 to 2008; the extinction risk of birds, mammals and amphibians would accept been at least 20% greater without conservation action in recent decade
  • >107: highly threatened birds, mammals and reptiles estimated to accept benefitted from the eradication of invasive mammals on islands

Forests

  • 45%: increase in raw timber product since 1970 (4 billion cubic meters in 2017)
  • +/-13 million: forestry manufacture jobs
  • l%: agricultural expansion that occurred at the expense of forests
  • l%: subtract in internet charge per unit of wood loss since the 1990s (excluding those managed for timber or agricultural extraction)
  • 68%: global forest expanse today compared with the estimated pre-industrial level
  • 7%: reduction of intact forests (>500 sq. km with no human pressure) from 2000-2013 in adult and developing countries
  • 290 one thousand thousand ha (+/-vi%): native forest cover lost from 1990-2015 due to clearing and woods harvesting
  • 110 meg ha: ascension in the expanse of planted forests from 1990-2015
  • 10-xv%: global timber supplies provided by illegal forestry (up to 50% in some areas)
  • >2 billion: people who rely on woods fuel to see their primary energy needs

Mining and Energy

  • <ane%: total land used for mining, but the industry has significant negative impacts on biodiversity, emissions, water quality and human being health
  • +/-17,000: large-scale mining sites (in 171 countries), generally managed by 616 international corporations
  • +/-half-dozen,500: offshore oil and gas ocean mining installations ((in 53 countries)
  • US$345 billion: global subsidies for fossil fuels resulting in US$v trillion in overall costs, including nature deterioration externalities; coal accounts for 52% of post-tax subsidies, petroleum for +/-33% and natural gas for +/-10%

Urbanization, Development and Socioeconomic Issues

  • >100%: growth of urban areas since 1992
  • 25 million km: length of new paved roads foreseen by 2050, with 90% of construction in least developed and developing countries
  • +/-50,000: number of large dams (>15m tiptop) ; +/-17 million reservoirs (>0.01 ha)
  • 105%: increment in global human population (from 3.vii to 7.6 billion) since 1970 unevenly across countries and regions
  • l times higher: per capita Gross domestic product in developed vs. least developed countries
  • >2,500: conflicts over fossil fuels, water, food and state currently occurring worldwide
  • >1,000: ecology activists and journalists killed between 2002 and 2013

Health

  • 70%: proportion of cancer drugs that are natural or synthetic products inspired past nature
  • +/-4 billion: people who rely primarily on natural medicines
  • 17%: infectious diseases spread past animal vectors, causing >700,000 annual deaths
  • +/-821 meg: people face food insecurity in Asia and Africa
  • 40%: of the global population lacks access to clean and prophylactic drinking water
  • >80%: global wastewater discharged untreated into the environment
  • 300-400 million tons: heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge, and other wastes from industrial facilities dumped annually into the earth'south waters
  • 10 times: increment in plastic pollution since 1980

Climate change

  • 1 degree Celsius: boilerplate global temperature divergence in 2017 compared to pre-industrial levels, rising +/-0.2 (+/-0.one) degrees Celsius per decade
  • >iii mm: annual average global sea level rise over the past two decades
  • 16-21 cm: rise in global boilerplate sea level since 1900
  • 100% increase since 1980 in greenhouse gas emissions, raising average global temperature past at to the lowest degree 0.7 degree
  • 40%: rise in carbon footprint of tourism (to 4.5Gt of carbon dioxide) from 2009 to 2013
  • eight%: of total greenhouse gas emissions are from transport and food consumption related to tourism
  • five%: estimated fraction of species at take chances of extinction from 2°C warming  solitary, rising to 16% at 4.3°C warming
  • Even for global warming of one.5 to 2 degrees, the majority of terrestrial species ranges are projected to compress profoundly.

Sustainable Development Goals

  • Most: Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020 likely to be missed
  • 22 of 44: assessed targets under the Sustainable Evolution Goals related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, body of water and land are being undermined by substantial negative trends in nature and its contributions to people
  • 72%: of local indicators in nature developed and used past Ethnic Peoples and Local Communities that show negative trends
  • iv: number of Aichi Targets where skilful progress has been made on certain components, with moderate progress on some components of some other seven targets, poor progress on all components of 6 targets, and insufficient information to assess progress on some or all components of the remaining 3 targets

IPBES Partner Comments

"Nature makes human being development possible but our relentless demand for the earth's resources is accelerating extinction rates and devastating the world's ecosystems. UN Environment is proud to support the Global Assessment Report produced by the Intergovernmental Scientific discipline-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services because information technology highlights the critical need to integrate biodiversity considerations in global controlling on any sector or challenge, whether its water or agriculture, infrastructure or business organization."
– Joyce Msuya, Interim Head, UN Environment

"Across cultures, humans inherently value nature. The magic of seeing fireflies flickering long into the nighttime is immense. We draw free energy and nutrients from nature. We discover sources of nutrient, medicine, livelihoods and innovation in nature. Our well-beingness fundamentally depends on nature. Our efforts to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems must be underpinned by the all-time science that humanity tin can produce. This is why the scientific evidence compiled in this IPBES Global Assessment is and so important. Information technology will help u.s. build a stronger foundation for shaping the post 2020 global biodiversity framework: the 'New Bargain for Nature and People'; and for achieving the SDGs."
– Achim Steiner, Administrator, United nations Evolution Programme

"This essential report reminds each of u.s. of the obvious truth: the present generations have the responsibility to bequeath to future generations a planet that is not irreversibly damaged by human being activity. Our local, indigenous and scientific knowledge are proving that we accept solutions and then no more excuses: nosotros must live on earth differently. UNESCO is committed to promoting respect of the living and of its diverseness, ecological solidarity with other living species, and to plant new, equitable and global links of partnership and intragenerational solidarity, for the perpetuation of humankind."
– Audrey Azoulay, Manager-General, UNESCO

"The IPBES' 2019 Global Assessment Written report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services comes at a critical time for the planet and all its peoples. The report's findings – and the years of diligent work past the many scientists who contributed – will offer a comprehensive view of the current conditions of global biodiversity. Healthy biodiversity is the essential infrastructure that supports all forms of life on world, including homo life. It also provides nature-based solutions on many of the virtually critical environmental, economic, and social challenges that we face as human lodge, including climate change, sustainable development, health, and h2o and nutrient security. We are currently in the midst of preparing for the 2020 United nations Biodiversity Conference, in Cathay, which volition mark the shut of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and set the form for a post 2020 ecologically focused sustainable evolution pathway to deliver multiple benefits for people, the planet and our global economy. The IPBES report will serve as a fundamental baseline of where we are and where we demand to go as a global customs to inspire humanity to reach the 2050 Vision of the Un Biodiversity Convention "Living in harmony with nature". I want to extend my thanks and congratulations to the IPBES community for their hard piece of work, immense contributions and continued partnership."
– Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

"The Global Assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services adds a major element to the trunk of evidence for the importance of biodiversity to efforts to achieve the Zero Hunger objective and run across the Sustainable Development Goals. Together, assessments undertaken by IPBES, FAO, CBD and other organizations bespeak to the urgent need for activity to improve conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and to the importance of cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary collaboration among conclusion-makers and other stakeholders at all levels."
– Jose Graziano da Silva, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Notes to editors

IPBES has at present released the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the Global Assessment report. The SPM presents the key messages and policy options, as approved past the IPBES Plenary. To admission the SPM, photos, 'B-roll' and other media resources go to: scrap.ly/IPBESReport The full half-dozen-chapter Report (including all data) is expected exceed 1,500 pages and volition be published later this twelvemonth.

Additional videos:

  • IPBES Assessment of Country Degradation and Restoration (2018): www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCt7aai17Nk
  • IPBES Regional Assessments of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2018): www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR0HeepbWCc
  • IPBES Assessment of Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production (2016): www.youtube.com/watch?five=YwkYbeiwK5A
  • IPBES Assessment of Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity (2016): www.youtube.com/picket?five=wZfcDmtGa9I

IPBES Partner Comments about the importance of the Report:

  • Joyce Msuya, Interim Head, United nations Environment
  • Audrey Azoulay, Director-Full general, UNESCO
  • José Graziano da Silva, Director-General, Nutrient and Agronomics Organization of the United nations
  • Achim Steiner, Administrator, United Nations Development Programme
  • Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diversity

Well-nigh IPBES:

Ofttimes described as the "IPCC for biodiversity", IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprising more 130 member Governments. Established by Governments in 2012, it provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments most the state of noesis regarding the planet'due south biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, besides as the tools and methods to protect and sustainably utilize these vital natural assets. For more information almost IPBES and its assessments visit www.ipbes.net

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