Tackling alarming decline in nature requires 'safety net' of multiple, ambitious goals

Date:
October 22, 2020
Source:
George Washington University
Summary:
A 'safety net' made up of multiple ambitious and interlinked goals
is needed to tackle nature's alarming decline, according to an
international team of researchers analyzing the new goals for
biodiversity being drafted by the UN's Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD).



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A "safety net" made up of multiple ambitious and interlinked goals is
needed to tackle nature's alarming decline, according to an international
team of researchers analyzing the new goals for biodiversity being
drafted by the UN's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).


==========================================================================
The scientific advice comes at a critical time: The CBD recently announced
that none of its 20 biodiversity targets for 2020, which were set in 2010,
has been fully reached. Policymakers, scientists and other experts are
now preparing for the next generation of biodiversity goals, which will
be unveiled at the CBD's Convention of the Parties in 2021.

"To curb the many threats to our biological world, we need biodiversity
targets that are distinct, manifold and appreciate different facets of biodiversity," Amy Zanne, associate professor of biological sciences at
the George Washington University and a member of the international team of researchers who analyzed the new biodiversity goals, said. "Evolutionary diversity, for example, may be a harder concept to neatly portray in a
simple biodiversity target but it is critical that we acknowledge that
some species are evolutionarily distinct - - they hold a unique and irreplaceable position within the Tree of Life and their preservation
should be prioritized." On August 17, 2020, the CBD released a draft
of their post-2020 biodiversity goals. The research team, which included
more than 60 leading biodiversity experts from 26 countries, assessed the
goals and asked a number of questions, including what scientific evidence supported them, how the goals reinforced or undermined each other, and
whether one aspect of nature could serve as a shortcut for others. Their independent assessment was published today in the journal Science.

"We hope this is a useful tool in the CBD negotiations on a new strategy
for nature and people," Sandra Di'az, a professor at the National
University of Co'rdoba and lead author of the paper, said.

According to the researchers, member nations of the CBD should consider
three critical points when setting new biodiversity goals:
* Goals based on a single facet, such as species or ecosystems in
isolation, are risky. Multiple, intertwined goals containing
different facets, such as genes, populations, species, deep
evolutionary history, ecosystems and more, are needed because of
nature's complexity.

* Goals should be defined and developed holistically rather than in
isolation, with potential to advance multiple goals simultaneously
and minimize trade-offs among them.

* Only the highest level of ambition in setting each goal, and
implementing
all goals in an integrated manner, will provide a realistic
chance of stopping -- and beginning to reverse -- biodiversity
loss by 2050.

"Building a sufficiently ambitious safety net for nature will be a major
global challenge," Di'az said. "But unless we do it, we are leaving
huge problems for every future generation." The researchers note they explicitly focused on the biological aspects of the draft goals and did
not evaluate the economic or political consequences. They say, however,
that not considering social and political issues when implementing new
goals would be a recipe for failure.

In the new paper, GW's Zanne urged that different kinds of diversity
be considered when setting biodiversity targets, which is reflected
in the paper's supplement under "Species extinctions -- risks, roles
and history."

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by George_Washington_University. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sandra Di'az, Noelia Zafra-Calvo, Andy Purvis, Peter H. Verburg,
David
Obura, Paul Leadley, Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Luc De Meester, Ehsan
Dulloo, Berta Marti'n-Lo'pez, M. Rebecca Shaw, Piero Visconti,
Wendy Broadgate, Michael W. Bruford, Neil D. Burgess, Jeannine
Cavender-Bares, Fabrice DeClerck, Jose' Mari'a Ferna'ndez-Palacios,
Lucas A. Garibaldi, Samantha L. L. Hill, Forest Isbell, Colin
K. Khoury, Cornelia B. Krug, Jianguo Liu, Martine Maron, Philip
J. K. McGowan, Henrique M. Pereira, Victoria Reyes-Garci'a,
Juan Rocha, Carlo Rondinini, Lynne Shannon, Yunne-Jai Shin, Paul
V. R. Snelgrove, Eva M. Spehn, Bernardo Strassburg, Suneetha
M. Subramanian, Joshua J. Tewksbury, James E. M. Watson, Amy E.

Zanne. Set ambitious goals for biodiversity and
sustainability. Science, 2020; 370 (6515): 411 DOI:
10.1126/science.abe1530 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201022151745.htm

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