Healthy, biodiverse ecosystems sustain life on Earth by providing air, water and other essential elements. From forests to farmlands to oceans, the planet’s ecosystems are the basis of resources, services and industries.
Despite the value nature provides, it is being degraded at catastrophic rates. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), 75 percent of the Earth’s land and 66 percent of its oceans have been altered by human activity and many essential ecosystem services are eroding. The rate of global change in nature over the past 50 years is unprecedented in human history.
To address these issues, government leaders from around the world will convene in Kunming, China later this year for the UN Biodiversity Conference (also known as the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, or COP-15). They are set to agree upon new goals for nature through the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.