COP16: “We need to bend the curve for biodiversity loss”

Biodiversity is essential for a liveable planet , supporting food production, stable communities, and mitigating climate change. Photo by Rebecca Campbell via Unsplash.

Biodiversity is a prerequisite for a liveable planet, for producing food, stable communities and taking up carbon to mitigate the effects of climate change. Today, the Planetary Boundary for biodiversity is breached well beyond a safe operating space for humanity.

“In a world of polycrises caused by disasters and conflicts, nature is important for recovery processes, says Stockholm Resilience Centre researcher Thomas Elmqvist,” convener and participant in the 6th Science Policy Forum taking place during COP16.

“There is strong scientific consensus that the loss of nature is continuing and will have increasing impacts on people. Most people benefit from nature and are losing out from this destruction. Negotiators and other participants at COP16 need to mobilize for nature, says Stockholm Resilience Centre researcher Garry Peterson, and contributor to IPBES, The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Garry Peterson further highlights moving from high-level agreements to tangible outcomes, bridging the gap between global aspirations and local implementation.

Measuring biodiversity

At COP16, people from across the world will come together in the city of Cali, to agree on indicators for monitoring and measuring biodiversity loss and progress that are comparable across countries.

“We need open data and timely monitoring to understand what policies work and where in bending the curve of biodiversity loss,” says Juan Rocha, Stockholm Resilience Centre researcher attending COP16 and coming from Colombia.

Funding is key

Juan Rocha also underlines that proper funding for the biodiversity plan is key to implement actions agreed on. Without proper funding, it will be harder for future generations to deal with the crises.

The decline in the diversity, extent, and health of living organisms and ecosystems, threatens the biosphere’s ability to co-regulate the state of the planet by impacting the energy balance and chemical cycles on Earth. Both the loss of genetic diversity, and the decline in the functional integrity of the biosphere, have exceeded their safe levels.

“We are at risk of several tipping points that can exacerbate biodiversity loss and reduction of the ecosystem services on which society depends upon,” says Juan Rocha.

Respecting human rights

Stockholm Resilience Centre hosted Swedbio, a programme on biodiversity and equitable development, and their local partners around the world, are addressing that human rights are included and respected in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the framework, in line with was agreed in the Global Biodiversity Framework at COP15.

“All planning, implementation and monitoring of the biodiversity framework should respect, protect, promote and fulfill human rights,” says Pernilla Malmer, Senior Advisor at Swedbio, and expert in the Swedish delegation led by the Swedish Ministry of Climate and Enterprise in the negotiations of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

As part of the Swedish delegation, her focus is to ensure the new programme of work on article 8j, on traditional knowledge and the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities is adopted, and be an important contribution to the implementation of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

Diseases likely to increase

Zoonotic diseases are also likely to increase rapidly in the next decades due to biodiversity loss and climate change. In a new report launched for COP16, a team of researchers from Stockholm Resilience Centre, address how responsible investors can help mitigate the risks.

“Zoonotic diseases can, as the COVID-19 pandemic showed, have devastating effects on human health and societies. Investors such as pension funds and development banks have a responsibility to help mitigate them through their active ownership and through good sustainability practices,” says Stockholm Resilience Centre researcher Victor Galaz.

Read full article on Stockholm Resilience Centre web