Biodiversity Will R. Turner1*, Russell A. Mittermeier1, Julia Marton-Lefèvre2, Simon N. Stuart2, Jane Smart2, Elizabeth R. Selig1 1 Conservation International 2 International Union for Conservation of Nature * Address correspondence to w.turner@conservation.org. [Note: This draft contains a few passages from the authors’ previously published work, and should be/will be modified for any further publication.]

Biodiversity – the variety of species, genes, ecosystems, and ecological processes that make up life on Earth – is integral to the fabric of all the world’s cultures.

Biodiversity underpins ecosystem services, sustains humanity, and is foundational to the resilience of life on Earth.

Biodiversity is also the source of benefits, often immeasurable, that sustain human lives, livelihoods, communities, and economies and Nations. Its economic value and contribution to human development is enormous; biodiversity is the most fundamental element of green economic development ( or sustainable development) .

We are at risk of losing much of biodiversity and the benefits it provides humanity. As humankind’s footprint has swelled, unsustainable use of land, ocean, and freshwater resources has produced extraordinary global changes, from habitat loss and invasive species to anthropogenic climate change and pollution. Threats to terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity are diverse, persistent, and, in some ( most ) cases, increasing.

Action is critical: without it, current high rates of species loss are projected to continue what is becoming the 6th mass extinction event in Earth’s history, while losses in 2/3 of ecosystem services already will soon amount to an estimated $500 billion annually in lost benefits.

Action is also possible: these losses can be stopped and reversed by concerted planning based on adequate data, a well-managed protected areas network, and transformational shifts in the public and private sector that value and internalize the role of natural capital in economic development. The CBD is our international umbrella for biodiversity, and its 2020 Aichi targets – particularly targets 11 and 12 – are critically important.

Introduction. Biodiversity, the variability among living organisms and ecosystems, is

foundational to the resilience of life on Earth.

Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is the variation within and between life forms. Defined by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as “the variability among living organisms, including terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems. Biodiversity includes diversity within species, between species, and between ecosystems”, biodiversity is often used as a measure of the health of biological systems. Ecosystems are distinguished from each other by the composition and interactions of species within and between these systems. A healthy population of organisms, community of multiple species, or ecosystem recovers from disturbance and threat, and continues to provide sufficient opportunity for feeding, growth and reproduction. Loss of species, declining populations or size of organisms, and changing dynamics between life forms can represent reduced health of the system. Within species, genetic diversity influences the ability to respond to threats, adapt to a changing environment, and evolve in the face of long-term changes.

Benefits of biodiversity. Biodiversity underpins ecosystem services and sustains

humanity; its economic value is enormous; biodiversity is the most fundamental element

of green economic development.

Biodiversity is integral to the benefits, or ecosystem services, that humans receive from nature.

Biodiversity is thus a fundamental component of the natural capital that, along with produced

capital and human capital, underpins human communities and economies. Countless examples

make these connections clear. Fish are among the most important food sources (FAO Fisheries

and Aquaculture Department 2010) and the fishing industry contributes USD 225-240 billion/yr

to the global economy (Dyck and Sumaila 2010). Plant pollination by insect, bird, and other

animal pollinators is essential for about one in three food crops worldwide (Daily and Ellison

2002). Earth‟s species are a vast genetic storehouse that has provided more than half of all

commercial medicines – even more in developing nations (Chivian & Bernstein 2008) – and

may harbor yet-to-be discovered cures for cancer, malaria, or the next emergent pathogen.

Natural forms, processes, and ecosystems provide design and inspiration for a vast array of

new materials, sources of energy, technological devices, and other innovations (Benyus 2009).

Loss of species has been compared to burning down the world‟s libraries without knowing the

content of 90% of the books. With loss of species, we lose the ultimate source of our crops and

the genes we use to improve agricultural resilience, the inspiration for manufactured products,

and the basis of the structure and function of the ecosystems that support humans and all life on

Earth (McNeely et al. 2009). Above and beyond material welfare and livelihoods, biodiversity

contributes to security, resiliency, and freedom of choices and actions (Millennium Ecosystem

Assessment 2005). Less tangible, but no less important, are the cultural, spiritual, and moral

costs inflicted by species extinctions. All societies value species for their own sake, and wild

plants and animals are integral to the fabric of all of the world‟s cultures (Wilson 1984).

Threats. Biodiversity is being lost at alarming rates; threats to terrestrial and aquatic

biodiversity are diverse, persistent, and, in some cases, increasing.

Earth‟s biodiversity and the benefits it provides are in trouble. As human populations have

increased from a few hundred million 1000 years ago to 7 billion in 2011, unsustainable

consumption in developed countries and persistent poverty in developing nations is destroying

the natural world. Wild lands continue to suffer widespread incursions from agricultural

expansion, urbanization, and industrial development, overexploitation threatens the viability of

wild populations, invasive species wreak havoc on ecosystems, chemical pollution alters

biochemical processes in the soil, air, and water, and rapidly spreading diseases jeopardize

entire branches of the tree of life (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005; Vitousek et al.

1997; Wake & Vredenburg 2008). The higher density of people in some areas puts particular

strain on ecosystems to provide food and fuel and also to clean the water, break down the

waste and control the spread of disease.

Extinction is the gravest consequence of the biodiversity crisis, since it is irreversible. Human

activities have elevated the rate of species extinctions to a thousand or more times the natural

background rate (Pimm et al. 1995). Habitat destruction, projected to remain the dominant

threat to terrestrial biodiversity even in an era of climate change (Sala et al. 2000), is driving

extinctions in every part of the globe (Brooks et al. 2002). The growing impacts of climate

change will be felt worldwide, as altered precipitation and temperature, rising oceans, and

climate-driven habitat loss threaten a large fraction of species with extinction (Thomas et al.

2004) and drive desperate human populations to further environmental degradation (Turner et

al. 2010). Other threats are less widespread, but felt severely in particular regions. Introduced

predators have devastated island biodiversity, where species evolved in the absence of

domestic cats and rats and other invasive predators (Steadman 1995). Introduced plants are

having massive impacts on hydrology and biodiversity in many ecosystems, particularly those

having Mediterranean-type vegetation (Groves & di Castri 1991). Exploitation for protein and

micronutrients (e.g., bushmeat), for medicine, and for the pet trade threatens species on several

continents, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (van Dijk et al. 2000).

Chitridiomycosis, a fungal disease, is recognized as a proximate driver of amphibian declines

and extinctions worldwide (Stuart et al. 2004; Wake & Vredenburg 2008).

There are multiple indications of continuing decline in biodiversity in all three of its components – ecosystems, species and genes. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (2005) concluded that 60% of ecosystem services worldwide have become degraded in the past 50 years, primarily due to unsustainable use of land, freshwater and ocean resources. Most major habitats have declined in this time and at the species level, The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2008) tells us that 22% of the world‟s mammals are threatened and at risk of extinction worldwide, as well as nearly one third of amphibians, one in eight birds, and 28% of conifers. Marine ecosystems and species have experienced substantial declines in the last several decades as well (Butchart et al. 2010), with populations of exploited marine species declining an average 84% in abundance (Lotze & Worm 2009). Globally, 35% of mangrove area (Valiela et al. 2001) and 15% of seagrass area has been lost (Waycott et al. 2009), and an estimated 32% of coral species are threatened (Carpenter et al. 2008). The loss foundation species or top-level predators can cause shifts from highly productive ecosystems to less complex ones with reduced ecosystem services (Springer et al. 2003; Estes et al. 2011). Human activities now

threaten every part of the oceans, with 41% of the ocean strongly impacted by multiple human activities (Halpern et al. 2008). Climate-related threats currently have the highest cumulative impact on marine ecosystems (Halpern et al. 2008), with increased ocean temperatures, ocean acidification, sea level rise, increased ultraviolet radiation, and increased storm frequency and intensity (Harley et al. 2006; IPCC 2007) producing shifts in species‟ ranges, ocean productivity, species composition, and population dynamics (Hoegh-Guldberg & Bruno 2010). Open ocean and coastal regions are also highly impacted by fishing, as vast new areas of the ocean have been opened to commercial fishing (Swartz et al. 2010) and technology has facilitated an unprecedented level of exploitation, leading to collapse of several major fisheries (Myers & Worm 2003). Land-based activities can cause direct habitat destruction and result in run-off of sediments and nutrients to sensitive coastal habitats (McCulloch et al. 2003). Population density and growth are very high in coastal regions around the world, with roughly half of all humans living within 200 km of the coast, with the result that the most highly impacted marine regions in the world are in coastal areas, because they experience the full set of coastal and open ocean threats (Halpern et al. 2008). Although some large areas of the ocean remain comparatively unaffected, particularly near the poles, even these areas will likely be at future risk if climate change continues at current rates and illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing in these areas remains relatively uncontrolled.

Responses. Arresting biodiversity loss depends critically on sufficient data, effective

planning, a well managed protected areas network, and transformational shifts in the

public sector and private sector to green economic development. The CBD is our

international umbrella for biodiversity, and its 2020 Aichi targets – particularly targets 11

and 12 – are critically important.

Bringing an end to global biodiversity loss requires that limited available resources be guided to

conservation and green economic development in those regions that need it most. Biodiversity

is not evenly distributed on our planet. It is heavily concentrated in certain areas, these areas

have exceptionally high concentrations of endemic species found nowhere else, and many (but

not all) of these areas are the areas at greatest risk of disappearing because of heavy human

impact. The biodiversity hotspots, for example, are a set of 35 regions of high endemism that

collectively has lost more than 85% its original habitat extent (Mittermeier et al. 2011; Myers

1988; Myers et al. 2000). Though their combined remnant natural vegetation comprises a scant

2.3% of the world‟s land area (3.4 million km2), these regions harbor more than 50% of all plant

species and 43% of all terrestrial vertebrates as endemics. If one considers only threatened

species – those that are assessed as critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable on the

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (IUCN 2008) – 60% of threatened mammals, 63% of

threatened birds, and 79% of threatened amphibians are found exclusively within the hotspots.

These regions concentrate an irreplaceable wealth of biodiversity in what is in fact a very small

and highly threatened portion of our planet. While conservation in these areas is made difficult

by ongoing threats, scarce information, and limited local financial capacity, conservation here is

not optional. Indeed, if we fail in the hotspots, we will lose nearly half of all terrestrial species

regardless of how successful we are everywhere else, not to mention an almost unthinkably

large contribution to greenhouse gas emissions and extensive human suffering resulting from

loss of ecosystem services upon which the human populations of the hotspots ultimately

depend. A few highly biodiverse regions remain largely intact, including the high-biodiversity

wilderness areas of Amazonia, Congo, and the island New Guinea (Mittermeier et al. 2003).

What is more, some 18 „megadiversity‟ countries (Mittermeier et al. 1997) account for more than

2/3 of all biodiversity – terrestrial, freshwater and marine – a concept that led to the creation of

the Like-minded Group of Megadiverse Countries in the CBD.

Planning for effective conservation requires sufficient data to illuminate the natural and human

dimensions of biodiversity conservation. The Global Mammal Assessment (Schipper et al.

2008), for example, provides substantially revised data on the status and distribution of Earth‟s

mammals, while recently compiled population (LandScan 2006) and poverty (CIESIN 2005)

data sets provide important socioeconomic context. Accurate, timely data on biodiversity,

threats, and benefits to humanity are needed, at finer scales, to guide conservation efforts

successfully. Our data on marine regions remains sparse compared with information on

terrestrial systems (Sala & Knowlton 2006), and our lack of knowledge about freshwater

systems is even more pronounced. However, significant strides are being made on aquatic

biodiversity, for example with efforts such as the Global Freshwater Biodiversity Assessment

(Darwall et al. 2005) and the Global Marine Species Assessment, which includes

comprehensive status assessments completed for reef-forming corals (Carpenter et al. 2008),

and similar work under way for many thousands of other species.

The establishment and effective management of a comprehensive set of protected areas

(Bruner et al. 2001) (6) must continue to be the cornerstone of efforts to halt the loss of

biodiversity. These areas may be in the form of national parks or strict biological reserves or

may come in a variety of other forms, depending on local context, including indigenous

reserves, private protected areas, and community conservation agreements of various kinds.

Efforts must focus on ensuring long-term persistence and equitable management of the areas

already protected, and strategically add new protected areas in the highest priority unprotected

habitats that remain intact as indicated by systematic efforts to identify gaps in protected areas

networks (e.g., Rodrigues et al. 2004).

Maintaining the resilience of biodiversity in the face of climate change is another major

challenge for planning and policy. Changing temperature and precipitation patterns force

species to move according to movement in their preferred habitat conditions, yet these

movements will often be both difficult for species to undertake and complex for researchers to

predict (Loarie et al. 2009; Tewksbury et al. 2008), and changing climates are likely to produce

a complex global mosaic of climates shifted in space, climates that disappear in the future, and

entirely novel climates (Williams et al. 2007). To be successful, then, conservation planning

must begin to systematically plan actions in both space and time. Protecting the sites where

species currently exist is essential, particularly sites where species are at greatest current risk,

including key biodiversity areas (Eken et al. 2004) and Alliance for Zero Extinction sites –

locations harboring the sole remaining populations of the most threatened species (Ricketts et

al. 2005). If we lose these sites now, we will not be granted another chance to save their

species later. However, this is only the beginning. We must also protect habitats where species

will be in the future, as well as „stepping stones‟ to facilitate movement to these new ranges.

Biologists are increasing their ability to anticipate and plan for these needs (Hannah et al. 2007).

To be successful, conservation in a changing climate will require a very strong focus on ending

further habitat destruction as quickly as possible.

The CBD Strategic Plan for Biodiversity was adopted with the purpose of inspiring broad-based

action in support of biodiversity conservation over the next decade by all countries and

stakeholders. The Aichi targets (8) now clearly articulate what needs to be done to secure the

life support systems of the planet. In Nagoya countries settled on a target for the global

coverage of protected areas, compromising 17% for land and 10% for oceans by 2020

(8).Currently, the global network of protected areas (PAs) covers 12.9% of Earth‟s land surface

(9) and only about 1.17% of the total ocean area (2). Thus, on land a fulfillment of this global

target would expand the global coverage of PAs by about 4% by 2020, while for the oceans, the

agreed target represents more than a ten-fold increase over what is currently protected.

The adoption of The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 in Nagoya, Japan, represented a

major step forward for biodiversity conservation to support life on earth. Urgent action and

mobilization of resources is needed to ensure the resilience of people and nature, and to avoid

catastrophic tipping points. Recovering from such dramatic changes in biodiversity is difficult

and costly, if not impossible in many instances. CBD parties -- indeed the world, together--need

to maintain the sense of urgency and level of ambition of the targets to ensure the necessary

„step change‟ in our investment and action towards achieving the targets we have set.

Nevertheless, the agreement on the CBD policy target of global coverage of 17% of land as PAs

by 2020 is based on perceptions of political feasibility rather than science-based understanding

of PA needs to sustain planetary health. The question of how much nature needs to be

protected to prevent biodiversity loss and ensure important ecosystem services is critical and

holds many challenges. First, little is still known about Earth‟s biodiversity: only 2.5% of known

species have been assessed for their conservation status (10), and only a small fraction of the

estimated total number of species have been described by science. Second, the understanding

of ecosystem services is still poor for a range of important issues such as the ecological

underpinnings of ecosystem services (11). Finally, we face limited understanding of tipping

points in ecological systems and cannot yet predict the potential threshold effects of climate

change and other anthropogenic pressures on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services

(IPBES, www.ipbes.net) – patterned after the influential IPCC for climate change – is in the

process of being established (www.ipbes.net). IPBES will be an interface between the scientific

community and policy makers and will conduct regular and timely assessments of knowledge on

biodiversity and ecosystem services and their interlinkages to enhance national planning and

mainstreaming biodiversity conservation (12). IPBES must catalyze the effort to set science-

driven targets for protection of biodiversity and ecosystem services and create the necessary

understanding of societal dependence on natural ecosystems to decision-makers.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) constitute a set of goals and targets by 2015

designed to inspire efforts to improve people‟s lives, i.e. halving extreme poverty

(www.un.org/millenniumgoals). The people for whom the benefits from protecting biodiversity

matter most are the world‟s poor, who depend disproportionately on nature for critical services

such as clean water, for livelihoods, and for insurance against hard times, making biodiversity

conservation and development two intertwined challenges (4, 13)(Turner et al. 2012). Therefore,

the development and environmental sustainability agenda needs to be integrated in order to

address these two intertwined issues in a meaningful way. The upcoming UN Conference on

Sustainable Development in 2012 (Rio+20) will provide an opportunity for the international

community to address this challenge.

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