Current global response insufficient;
'Transformative changes' needed to restore and protect nature;
Opposition from vested interests can be overcome for public proficient
Most comprehensive cess of its kind;
ane,000,000 species threatened with extinction

PARIS, 6 May – Nature is declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history – and the charge per unit of species extinctions is accelerating, with grave impacts on people effectually the world now likely, warns a landmark new written report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the summary of which was approved at the 7th session of the IPBES Plenary, meeting concluding week (29 Apr – 4 May) in Paris.

"The overwhelming show of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of dissimilar fields of cognition, presents an ominous movie," said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. "The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more apace than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide."

"The Written report also tells us that it is not besides belatedly to make a difference, merely merely if we start now at every level from local to global," he said. "Through 'transformative modify', nature tin still be conserved, restored and used sustainably – this is besides key to coming together nearly other global goals. Past transformative modify, we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values."

"The fellow member States of IPBES Plenary accept now best-selling that, by its very nature, transformative alter can expect opposition from those with interests vested in the condition quo, but also that such opposition tin can be overcome for the broader public good," Watson said.

The IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is the most comprehensive e'er completed. It is the first intergovernmental Report of its kind and builds on the landmark Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, introducing innovative means of evaluating evidence.

Compiled by 145 adept authors from 50 countries over the past 3 years, with inputs from some other 310 contributing authors, the Report assesses changes over the past five decades, providing a comprehensive picture of the relationship between economical evolution pathways and their impacts on nature. It also offers a range of possible scenarios for the coming decades.

Based on the systematic review of about xv,000 scientific and government sources, the Report as well draws (for the first time always at this calibration) on indigenous and local knowledge, particularly addressing problems relevant to Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities.

"Biodiversity and nature's contributions to people are our common heritage and humanity's most important life-supporting 'safety net'. But our safe internet is stretched almost to breaking bespeak," said Prof. Sandra Díaz (Argentine republic), who co-chaired the Assessment with Prof. Josef Settele (Germany) and Prof. Eduardo Due south. Brondízio (Brazil and USA).

"The variety within species, between species and of ecosystems, also as many key contributions nosotros derive from nature, are declining fast, although nosotros withal have the means to ensure a sustainable future for people and the planet."

The Study finds that around 1 million brute and constitute species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than e'er before in human being history.

The average affluence of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, generally since 1900. More 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened. The picture is less articulate for insect species, but available prove supports a tentative guess of 10% being threatened. At least 680 vertebrate species had been driven to extinction since the 16th century and more than 9% of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agronomics had become extinct past 2016, with at least 1,000 more breeds still threatened.

"Ecosystems, species, wild populations, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating or vanishing. The essential, interconnected web of life on World is getting smaller and increasingly frayed," said Prof. Settele. "This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes a directly threat to homo well-being in all regions of the world."

To increase the policy-relevance of the Study, the cess's authors have ranked, for the get-go fourth dimension at this scale and based on a thorough assay of the available testify, the 5 direct drivers of change in nature with the largest relative global impacts so far. These culprits are, in descending order: (ane) changes in land and sea use; (2) direct exploitation of organisms; (3) climate change; (4) pollution and (5) invasive conflicting species.

The Report notes that, since 1980, greenhouse gas emissions have doubled, raising average global temperatures past at least 0.7 degrees Celsius – with climate change already impacting nature from the level of ecosystems to that of genetics – impacts expected to increase over the coming decades, in some cases surpassing the impact of land and sea use change and other drivers.

Despite progress to conserve nature and implement policies, the Written report likewise finds that global goals for conserving and sustainably using nature and achieving sustainability cannot be met by electric current trajectories, and goals for 2030 and across may only be achieved through transformative changes across economical, social, political and technological factors. With expert progress on components of only four of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, it is likely that nigh volition exist missed by the 2020 deadline. Current negative trends in biodiversity and ecosystems will undermine progress towards 80% (35 out of 44) of the assessed targets of the Sustainable Development Goals, related to poverty, hunger, health, water, cities, climate, oceans and country (SDGs 1, ii, 3, 6, 11, 13, fourteen and 15). Loss of biodiversity is therefore shown to be non only an environmental issue, but also a developmental, economic, security, social and moral effect also.

"To better understand and, more than importantly, to address the main causes of damage to biodiversity and nature'south contributions to people, we need to sympathise the history and global interconnection of complex demographic and economic indirect drivers of change, as well every bit the social values that underpin them," said Prof. Brondízio. "Central indirect drivers include increased population and per capita consumption; technological innovation, which in some cases has lowered and in other cases increased the impairment to nature; and, critically, bug of governance and accountability. A pattern that emerges is ane of global interconnectivity and 'telecoupling' – with resource extraction and production ofttimes occurring in one role of the world to satisfy the needs of distant consumers in other regions."

Other notable findings of the Report include:

  • 3-quarters of the country-based surroundings and about 66% of the marine environment have been significantly altered by human being actions. On average these trends have been less astringent or avoided in areas held or managed by Ethnic Peoples and Local Communities.
  • More than a third of the earth's land surface and nearly 75% of freshwater resources are now devoted to crop or livestock production.
  • The value of agricultural ingather product has increased by about 300% since 1970, raw timber harvest has risen by 45% and approximately 60 billion tons of renewable and nonrenewable resources are at present extracted globally every year – having nearly doubled since 1980.
  • Country degradation has reduced the productivity of 23% of the global land surface, up to Usa$577 billion in annual global crops are at run a risk from pollinator loss and 100-300 million people are at increased risk of floods and hurricanes because of loss of coastal habitats and protection.
  • In 2015, 33% of marine fish stocks were existence harvested at unsustainable levels; sixty% were maximally sustainably fished, with only vii% harvested at levels lower than what tin can exist sustainably fished.
  • Urban areas have more than than doubled since 1992.
  • Plastic pollution has increased tenfold since 1980, 300-400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge and other wastes from industrial facilities are dumped annually into the world's waters, and fertilizers inbound littoral ecosystems take produced more than 400 ocean 'dead zones', totalling more than than 245,000 km2 (591-595) – a combined expanse greater than that of the United Kingdom.
  • Negative trends in nature volition continue to 2050 and beyond in all of the policy scenarios explored in the Study, except those that include transformative alter – due to the projected impacts of increasing state-use change, exploitation of organisms and climate change, although with meaning differences between regions.

The Report also presents a broad range of illustrative deportment for sustainability and pathways for achieving them across and betwixt sectors such as agronomics, forestry, marine systems, freshwater systems, urban areas, free energy, finance and many others. It highlights the importance of, amid others, adopting integrated management and cantankerous-sectoral approaches that take into account the merchandise-offs of nutrient and free energy production, infrastructure, freshwater and coastal management, and biodiversity conservation.

Also identified equally a primal element of more sustainable future policies is the evolution of global fiscal and economic systems to build a global sustainable economy, steering away from the electric current limited image of economical growth.

"IPBES presents the administrative science, knowledge and the policy options to decision-makers for their consideration," said IPBES Executive Secretary, Dr. Anne Larigauderie. "We thank the hundreds of experts, from effectually the earth, who take volunteered their time and knowledge to help address the loss of species, ecosystems and genetic multifariousness – a truly global and generational threat to human well-existence."

Further Information on Key Problems from the Report

Scale of Loss of Nature

  • Gains from societal and policy responses, while important, have not stopped massive losses.
  • Since 1970, trends in agronomical product, fish harvest, bioenergy production and harvest of materials have increased, in response to population growth, ascent demand and technological development, this has come at a steep toll, which has been unequally distributed within and across countries. Many other central indicators of nature'south contributions to people however, such every bit soil organic carbon and pollinator variety, have declined, indicating that gains in textile contributions are ofttimes not sustainable .
  • The stride of agricultural expansion into intact ecosystems has varied from land to country. Losses of intact ecosystems have occurred primarily in the tropics, home to the highest levels of biodiversity on the planet. For instance, 100 million hectares of tropical forest were lost from 1980 to 2000, resulting mainly from cattle ranching in Latin America (virtually 42 million hectares) and plantations in S-Eastern asia (about vii.5 1000000 hectares, of which eighty% is for palm oil, used more often than not in food, cosmetics, cleaning products and fuel) amidst others.
  • Since 1970 the global human population has more than doubled (from 3.vii to 7.half dozen billion), rising unevenly across countries and regions; and per capita gross domestic product is four times higher – with ever-more distant consumers shifting the environmental burden of consumption and production across regions.
  • The average affluence of native species in most major country-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, by and large since 1900.
  • The numbers of invasive conflicting species per country take risen by most 70% since 1970, across the 21 countries with detailed records.
  • The distributions of almost one-half (47%) of land-based flightless mammals, for example, and almost a quarter of threatened birds, may already have been negatively affected by climate modify.

Indigenous Peoples, Local Communities and Nature

  • At least a quarter of the global land area is traditionally owned, managed, used or occupied past Indigenous Peoples. These areas include approximately 35% of the surface area that is formally protected, and approximately 35% of all remaining terrestrial areas with very low human intervention.
  • Nature managed by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities is under increasing pressure simply is by and large declining less rapidly than in other lands – although 72% of local indicators adult and used past Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities show the deterioration of nature that underpins local livelihoods.
  • The areas of the world projected to feel significant negative furnishings from global changes in climate, biodiversity, ecosystem functions and nature's contributions to people are also areas in which big concentrations of Indigenous Peoples and many of the world'south poorest communities reside.
  • Regional and global scenarios currently lack and would do good from an explicit consideration of the views, perspectives and rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities, their knowledge and understanding of large regions and ecosystems, and their desired future development pathways. Recognition of the noesis, innovations and practices, institutions and values of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities and their inclusion and participation in environmental governance often enhances their quality of life, as well as nature conservation, restoration and sustainable utilise. Their positive contributions to sustainability can exist facilitated through national recognition of land tenure, access and resource rights in accordance with national legislation, the application of free, prior and informed consent, and improved collaboration, fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use, and co-management arrangements with local communities.

Global Targets and Policy Scenarios

  • Past and ongoing rapid declines in biodiversity, ecosystem functions and many of nature's contributions to people mean that virtually international societal and environmental goals, such equally those embodied in the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will not be achieved based on current trajectories.
  • The authors of the Written report examined six policy scenarios – very different 'baskets' of clustered policy options and approaches, including 'Regional Competition', 'Business as Usual' and 'Global Sustainability' – projecting the likely impacts on biodiversity and nature's contributions to people of these pathways by 2050. They ended that, except in scenarios that include transformative change, the negative trends in nature, ecosystem functions and in many of nature's contributions to people will go on to 2050 and beyond due to the projected impacts of increasing land and sea apply alter, exploitation of organisms and climate change.

Policy Tools, Options and Exemplary Practices

  • Policy actions and societal initiatives are helping to enhance awareness most the impact of consumption on nature, protecting local environments, promoting sustainable local economies and restoring degraded areas. Together with initiatives at various levels these take contributed to expanding and strengthening the electric current network of ecologically representative and well-continued protected area networks and other constructive area-based conservation measures, the protection of watersheds and incentives and sanctions to reduce pollution .
  • The Report presents an illustrative list of possible actions and pathways for achieving them across locations, systems and scales, which will exist nigh likely to support sustainability. Taking an integrated arroyo:
  • In agriculture , the Report emphasizes, among others: promoting good agronomical and agroecological practices; multifunctional landscape planning (which simultaneously provides food security, livelihood opportunities, maintenance of species and ecological functions) and cross-sectoral integrated management. It also points to the importance of deeper engagement of all actors throughout the nutrient organization (including producers, the public sector, civil society and consumers) and more integrated landscape and watershed direction; conservation of the diverseness of genes, varieties, cultivars, breeds, landraces and species; as well as approaches that empower consumers and producers through market transparency, improved distribution and localization (that revitalizes local economies), reformed supply chains and reduced food waste.
  • In marine systems , the Report highlights, amongst others: ecosystem-based approaches to fisheries management; spatial planning; effective quotas; marine protected areas; protecting and managing fundamental marine biodiversity areas; reducing run- off pollution into oceans and working closely with producers and consumers.
  • In freshwater systems , policy options and actions include, among others: more inclusive water governance for collaborative h2o management and greater equity; improve integration of water resource direction and mural planning across scales; promoting practices to reduce soil erosion, sedimentation and pollution run-off; increasing water storage; promoting investment in h2o projects with clear sustainability criteria; also as addressing the fragmentation of many freshwater policies.
  • In urban areas , the Report highlights, among others: promotion of nature-based solutions; increasing access to urban services and a salubrious urban environment for low-income communities; improving access to green spaces; sustainable production and consumption and ecological connectivity within urban spaces, particularly with native species.
  • Across all examples, the Study recognises the importance of including different value systems and diverse interests and worldviews in formulating policies and actions. This includes the full and effective participation of Ethnic Peoples and Local Communities in governance, the reform and development of incentive structures and ensuring that biodiversity considerations are prioritised beyond all key sector planning.
  • "Nosotros have already seen the outset stirrings of actions and initiatives for transformative change, such equally innovative policies by many countries, local authorities and businesses, but peculiarly by young people worldwide," said Sir Robert Watson. "From the young global shapers backside the #VoiceforthePlanet movement, to school strikes for climate, there is a groundswell of understanding that urgent action is needed if we are to secure anything budgeted a sustainable future. The IPBES Global Assessment Report offers the best available expert evidence to help inform these decisions, policies and actions – and provides the scientific basis for the biodiversity framework and new decadal targets for biodiversity, to be decided in late 2020 in China, under the auspices of the Un Convention on Biological Diverseness."

By the Numbers – Key Statistics and Facts from the Report

General

  • 75%: terrestrial environment "severely altered" to date by man actions (marine environments 66%)
  • 47%: reduction in global indicators of ecosystem extent and status against their estimated natural baselines, with many standing to decline past at least 4% per decade
  • 28%: global land surface area held and/or managed by Indigenous Peoples , including >40% of formally protected areas and 37% of all remaining terrestrial areas with very low human intervention
  • +/-60 billion: tons of renewable and non-renewable resources extracted globally each yr, up nigh 100% since 1980
  • 15%: increase in global per capita consumption of materials since 1980
  • >85%: of wetlands present in 1700 had been lost by 2000 – loss of wetlands is currently 3 times faster, in pct terms, than forest loss.

Species, Populations and Varieties of Plants and Animals

  • viii meg: full estimated number of fauna and establish species on Earth (including v.five 1000000 insect species)
  • Tens to hundreds of times: the extent to which the current charge per unit of global species extinction is higher compared to average over the last 10 million years, and the rate is accelerating
  • Up to ane 1000000: species threatened with extinction, many within decades
  • >500,000 (+/-nine%): share of the world's estimated 5.9 million terrestrial species with insufficient habitat for long term survival without habitat restoration
  • >forty%: amphibian species threatened with extinction
  • Well-nigh 33%: reef forming corals, sharks and shark relatives, and >33% marine mammals threatened with extinction
  • 25%: average proportion of species threatened with extinction beyond terrestrial, freshwater and marine vertebrate, invertebrate and plant groups that have been studied in sufficient detail
  • At least 680: vertebrate species driven to extinction by homo actions since the 16th century
  • +/-10%: tentative estimate of proportion of insect species threatened with extinction
  • >twenty%: decline in average abundance of native species in near major terrestrial biomes, mostly since 1900
    +/-560 (+/-10%): domesticated breeds of mammals were extinct by 2016, with at least 1,000 more threatened
  • three.5%: domesticated breed of birds extinct by 2016
  • 70%: increment since 1970 in numbers of invasive conflicting species across 21 countries with detailed records
  • 30%: reduction in global terrestrial habitat integrity caused by habitat loss and deterioration
  • 47%: proportion of terrestrial flightless mammals and 23% of threatened birds whose distributions may take been negatively impacted by climate change already
  • >6: species of ungulate (hoofed mammals) would likely be extinct or surviving merely in captivity today without conservation measures

Food and Agriculture

  • 300%: increment in nutrient ingather production since 1970
  • 23%: land areas that have seen a reduction in productivity due to state deposition
  • >75%: global food crop types that rely on brute pollination
  • US$235 to US$577 billion: annual value of global crop output at adventure due to pollinator loss
  • 5.half dozen gigatons: almanac CO2 emissions sequestered in marine and terrestrial ecosystems – equivalent to 60% of global fossil fuel emission
  • +/-11%: globe population that is undernourished
  • 100 million: hectares of agronomical expansion in the torrid zone from 1980 to 2000, mainly cattle ranching in Latin America (+/-42 1000000 ha), and plantations in Southeast Asia (+/-7.5 million ha, of which lxxx% is oil palm), half of it at the expense of intact forests
  • 3%: increment in land transformation to agriculture between 1992 and 2015, mostly at the expense of orests
  • >33%: world's land surface (and +/-75% of freshwater resources) devoted to crop or livestock production
  • 12%: world's ice-gratis country used for crop production
  • 25%: world's ice-free land used for grazing (+/-70% of drylands)
  • +/-25%: greenhouse gas emissions caused by land clearing, crop product and fertilization, with animal-based nutrient contributing 75% to that figure
  • +/-xxx%: global crop production and global food supply provided by small land holdings (<two ha), using +/-25% of agricultural land, commonly maintaining rich agrobiodiversity
  • $100 billion: estimated level of financial support in OECD countries (2015) to agriculture that is potentially harmful to the environment

Oceans and Fishing

  • 33%: marine fish stocks in 2015 beingness harvested at unsustainable levels; threescore% are maximally sustainably fished; 7% are underfished
  • >55%: ocean area covered by industrial fishing
  • 3-10%: projected decrease in body of water internet primary production due to climate change alone by the end of the century
  • 3-25%: projected decrease in fish biomass by the end of the century in low and loftier climate warming scenarios, respectively
  • >ninety%: proportion of the global commercial fishers deemed for by small calibration fisheries (over thirty million people) – representing well-nigh 50% of global fish grab
  • Upward to 33%: estimated share in 2011 of world'southward reported fish catch that is illegal, unreported or unregulated
  • >10%: decrease per decade in the extent of seagrass meadows from 1970-2000
  • +/-50%: alive coral encompass of reefs lost since 1870s
  • 100-300 million: people in coastal areas at increased risk due to loss of littoral habitat protection
  • 400: low oxygen (hypoxic) coastal ecosystem 'dead zones' acquired by fertilizers, affecting >245,000 km2
  • 29%: boilerplate reduction in the extinction risk for mammals and birds in 109 countries thanks to conservation investments from 1996 to 2008; the extinction adventure of birds, mammals and amphibians would have been at least 20% greater without conservation activity in recent decade
  • >107: highly threatened birds, mammals and reptiles estimated to have benefitted from the eradication of invasive mammals on islands

Forests

  • 45%: increase in raw timber production since 1970 (4 billion cubic meters in 2017)
  • +/-13 meg: forestry industry jobs
  • l%: agronomical expansion that occurred at the expense of forests
  • 50%: decrease in net rate of forest loss since the 1990s (excluding those managed for timber or agricultural extraction)
  • 68%: global forest area today compared with the estimated pre-industrial level
  • 7%: reduction of intact forests (>500 sq. km with no human pressure) from 2000-2013 in developed and developing countries
  • 290 million ha (+/-6%): native forest cover lost from 1990-2015 due to clearing and forest harvesting
  • 110 million ha: ascension in the surface area of planted forests from 1990-2015
  • 10-15%: global timber supplies provided by illegal forestry (up to 50% in some areas)
  • >ii billion: people who rely on wood fuel to meet their primary free energy needs

Mining and Energy

  • <one%: total state used for mining, merely the industry has significant negative impacts on biodiversity, emissions, h2o quality and human wellness
  • +/-17,000: large-scale mining sites (in 171 countries), by and large managed by 616 international corporations
  • +/-6,500: offshore oil and gas ocean mining installations ((in 53 countries)
  • US$345 billion: global subsidies for fossil fuels resulting in Us$5 trillion in overall costs, including nature deterioration externalities; coal accounts for 52% of post-taxation subsidies, petroleum for +/-33% and natural gas for +/-x%

Urbanization, Evolution and Socioeconomic Problems

  • >100%: growth of urban areas since 1992
  • 25 one thousand thousand km: length of new paved roads foreseen by 2050, with 90% of construction in least developed and developing countries
  • +/-50,000: number of large dams (>15m height) ; +/-17 million reservoirs (>0.01 ha)
  • 105%: increment in global human population (from 3.7 to 7.6 billion) since 1970 unevenly across countries and regions
  • 50 times higher: per capita GDP in developed vs. to the lowest degree developed countries
  • >ii,500: conflicts over fossil fuels, water, nutrient and land currently occurring worldwide
  • >1,000: environmental activists and journalists killed between 2002 and 2013

Health

  • 70%: proportion of cancer drugs that are natural or synthetic products inspired by nature
  • +/-4 billion: people who rely primarily on natural medicines
  • 17%: infectious diseases spread past animal vectors, causing >700,000 annual deaths
  • +/-821 million: people face nutrient insecurity in Asia and Africa
  • 40%: of the global population lacks access to clean and safe drinking h2o
  • >fourscore%: global wastewater discharged untreated into the surroundings
  • 300-400 million tons: heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge, and other wastes from industrial facilities dumped annually into the globe'due south waters
  • 10 times: increase in plastic pollution since 1980

Climate Modify

  • one degree Celsius: average global temperature difference in 2017 compared to pre-industrial levels, rising +/-0.two (+/-0.1) degrees Celsius per decade
  • >3 mm: annual average global sea level rise over the past two decades
  • 16-21 cm: ascension in global average ocean level since 1900
  • 100% increase since 1980 in greenhouse gas emissions, raising average global temperature by at least 0.7 degree
  • 40%: rise in carbon footprint of tourism (to 4.5Gt of carbon dioxide) from 2009 to 2013
  • 8%: of total greenhouse gas emissions are from transport and food consumption related to tourism
  • five%: estimated fraction of species at risk of extinction from two°C warming  lone, rising to sixteen% at four.3°C warming
  • Even for global warming of one.5 to 2 degrees, the bulk of terrestrial species ranges are projected to shrink profoundly.

Sustainable Evolution Goals

  • Most: Aichi Biodiversity Targets for 2020 likely to be missed
  • 22 of 44: assessed targets under the Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty, hunger, health, h2o, cities, climate, ocean and state are beingness undermined past substantial negative trends in nature and its contributions to people
  • 72%: of local indicators in nature developed and used by Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities that show negative trends
  • 4: number of Aichi Targets where good progress has been made on certain components, with moderate progress on some components of another 7 targets, poor progress on all components of 6 targets, and insufficient information to assess progress on some or all components of the remaining 3 targets

IPBES Partner Comments

"Nature makes human evolution possible but our relentless demand for the earth'due south resource is accelerating extinction rates and devastating the world's ecosystems. United nations Surroundings is proud to support the Global Assessment Report produced by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services because it highlights the critical need to integrate biodiversity considerations in global decision-making on any sector or challenge, whether its water or agriculture, infrastructure or business concern."
– Joyce Msuya, Acting Head, Un Environment

"Across cultures, humans inherently value nature. The magic of seeing fireflies flickering long into the night is immense. We draw free energy and nutrients from nature. We find sources of food, medicine, livelihoods and innovation in nature. Our well-being fundamentally depends on nature. Our efforts to conserve biodiversity and ecosystems must exist underpinned by the best science that humanity can produce. This is why the scientific show compiled in this IPBES Global Assessment is so important. It volition help us build a stronger foundation for shaping the mail 2020 global biodiversity framework: the 'New Bargain for Nature and People'; and for achieving the SDGs."
– Achim Steiner, Ambassador, United Nations Evolution Programme

"This essential written report reminds each of us of the obvious truth: the present generations have the responsibleness to bequeath to time to come generations a planet that is not irreversibly damaged by act. Our local, indigenous and scientific noesis are proving that we accept solutions and so no more excuses: we must live on earth differently. UNESCO is committed to promoting respect of the living and of its diverseness, ecological solidarity with other living species, and to establish new, equitable and global links of partnership and intragenerational solidarity, for the perpetuation of humankind."
– Audrey Azoulay, Director-General, UNESCO

"The IPBES' 2019 Global Assessment Written report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services comes at a critical time for the planet and all its peoples. The report's findings – and the years of diligent work past the many scientists who contributed – will offer a comprehensive view of the electric current conditions of global biodiversity. Good for you biodiversity is the essential infrastructure that supports all forms of life on earth, including human life. It besides provides nature-based solutions on many of the most critical environmental, economic, and social challenges that we confront equally human society, including climate alter, sustainable development, health, and water and food security. We are currently in the midst of preparing for the 2020 United nations Biodiversity Briefing, in Red china, which will mark the close of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and prepare the class for a postal service 2020 ecologically focused sustainable development pathway to deliver multiple benefits for people, the planet and our global economic system. The IPBES study will serve as a fundamental baseline of where we are and where we need to go as a global community to inspire humanity to accomplish the 2050 Vision of the Un Biodiversity Convention "Living in harmony with nature". I want to extend my thanks and congratulations to the IPBES customs for their hard work, immense contributions and continued partnership."
– Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Variety

"The Global Assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services adds a major element to the body of testify for the importance of biodiversity to efforts to reach the Zero Hunger objective and meet the Sustainable Development Goals. Together, assessments undertaken past IPBES, FAO, CBD and other organizations point to the urgent need for action to meliorate conserve and sustainably use biodiversity and to the importance of cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary collaboration among conclusion-makers and other stakeholders at all levels."
– Jose Graziano da Silva, Managing director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United nations

Notes to editors

IPBES has now released the Summary for Policymakers (SPM) of the Global Assessment written report. The SPM presents the key messages and policy options, as approved by the IPBES Plenary. To access the SPM, photos, 'B-roll' and other media resource go to: bit.ly/IPBESReport The total half-dozen-chapter Report (including all data) is expected exceed one,500 pages and will be published later this twelvemonth.

Additional videos:

  • IPBES Assessment of Country Deposition and Restoration (2018): www.youtube.com/picket?v=KCt7aai17Nk
  • IPBES Regional Assessments of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (2018): www.youtube.com/watch?5=kR0HeepbWCc
  • IPBES Assessment of Pollinators, Pollination and Food Production (2016): www.youtube.com/lookout man?v=YwkYbeiwK5A
  • IPBES Assessment of Scenarios and Models of Biodiversity (2016): world wide web.youtube.com/watch?5=wZfcDmtGa9I

IPBES Partner Comments about the importance of the Report:

  • Joyce Msuya, Acting Head, UN Surround
  • Audrey Azoulay, Director-Full general, UNESCO
  • José Graziano da Silva, Managing director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization of the Un
  • Achim Steiner, Administrator, Un Development Programme
  • Cristiana Pasca Palmer, Executive Secretary, Convention on Biological Diverseness

Well-nigh IPBES:

Often described every bit the "IPCC for biodiversity", IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprising more than than 130 member Governments. Established past Governments in 2012, it provides policymakers with objective scientific assessments most the state of knowledge regarding the planet'due south biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make to people, as well every bit the tools and methods to protect and sustainably utilise these vital natural assets. For more information nearly IPBES and its assessments visit www.ipbes.net

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