NATURAL SYSTEMS that support economies, lives and livelihoods are “at risk of rapid degradation and collapse unless there is swift, radical and creative action to conserve the variety of life on Earth”.
This is the principal conclusion of a major new assessment of the state of biological diversity and the implications of its continued loss for human wellbeing.
The third edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook, produced under the UN convention on biological diversity, confirms that the world has failed to meet its target to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of loss by 2010.
It warns that “massive” further losses are becoming increasingly likely and, with it, a severe reduction of many essential services to human societies as several “tipping points” are approached.
Potential tipping points include a “dieback” of large areas of the Amazon rainforest, due to climate change, deforestation and fires, with consequences for the global climate, regional rainfall and widespread species extinctions.
“Multiple collapses” of coral reef ecosystems are also forecast, due to ocean acidification, bleaching, overfishing and nutrient pollution, threatening hundreds of millions of species directly dependent on coral reef resources.
The report, one of the principal milestones of the UN’s International Year of Biodiversity, is based on scientific assessments, national reports submitted by governments and a study on future scenarios.