THE COMMODITY ISSUE
Plate-billed Mountain-
toucan Andigena
laminirostris (Near
Threatened) in Andean
Cloud forest
Photo Martin Mecranowski
3
THE MESSAGE
OF THE IPBES
REPORT WAS
HARD TO IGNORE
– A POSSIBLE ONE
MILLION SPECIES
EXTINCT IN OUR
LIFETIME
report released by the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change last year. And its impacts are
already being seen: up to 300 million people are
now at increased risk of flooding due to the loss
or degradation of coastal habitats.
1
Photo Nuala O’Leary
But how have we reached this point? One of
the main reasons is that countries are nowhere
near on track to meet their targets to protect
nature. Chapter three of the report (co-led by
BirdLife’s Chief Scientist, Dr Stuart Butchart –
see page 16) evaluates governments’ progress
towards biodiversity goals such as the ‘Aichi
Biodiversity Targets’, adopted in 2010 through
the Convention on Biological Diversity.
Depressingly, the report concludes that
countries are unlikely to meet most of the Aichi
Targets by their deadline of 2020. In fact, good
progress has been made towards elements of
just four of the 20 targets.
One of the few areas of success is that of
protected areas, which now cover 15% of
terrestrial and freshwater environments and 7%
of the marine realm. However, these areas are
not necessarily the most important sites for
nature, and many are not yet effectively
managed. Similarly, while some species have
been brought back from the brink of extinction,
even more species are moving towards
extinction at an increasing rate. In general, more
progress has been made towards using nature
more sustainably rather than addressing the key
drivers of biodiversity loss at their source. As a
result, the state of nature overall continues to
decline.
For decades, BirdLife has been working with
leading conservation organisations to identify
the most important sites for nature globally, in
the form of Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs). Many
governments now use this information to
decide where to locate protected areas. But
many KBAs still have little or no protection. If
governments want to improve their progress
towards biodiversity targets, KBAs need to be a
key focus in the coming years.
The global assessment offers further advice
14
BIRDLIFE • JUL-SEP 2019