Recently, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) released the Nexus Report, which focuses on biodiversity and environmental conservation. The report presents a scientific assessment of the complex relationships between five key elements – biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change – and suggests measures to enhance co-benefits.
Key Points of IPBES Nexus Report
Biodiversity loss
- Biodiversity has declined by an average of 2-6% every decade over the past 30-50 years.
- This puts food, water, health and climate systems at serious risk.
- Trade-offs between food security and other elements: The report presents six scenarios that show how the interactions between biodiversity, water, food, health and climate will play out.
- Climate solutions through nature restoration: Techniques such as reforestation, wetland restoration and sustainable land management provide co-benefits for biodiversity and climate action.
Reform the global financial system
- Biodiversity needs to be funded to address the $300 billion to $1 trillion annual funding shortfall.
- Current economic systems do not factor in the adverse effects of biodiversity loss, leading to an overlooked cost of $10-25 trillion annually.
Effects on natural ecosystems
Forests
- Provide critical ecosystem services such as water purification, which are essential for maintaining water availability and quality.
- Indiscriminate deforestation is affecting the health and sustainability of these services.
Climate
- Forests act as important regulators to help control climate change.
- Their loss due to human activities is reducing their effectiveness in these roles.
Freshwater biodiversity
- Rapidly degraded due to pollution, habitat destruction, and other human activities.
- Marine and freshwater species: particularly vulnerable to pollution, runoff, and other stresses in coastal and marsh areas.
- Coral reefs: face multiple threats including unsustainable fishing, ocean acidification, and climate change.
- Nearly a third of species globally at risk.
| Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services IBPES is an independent intergovernmental body established to strengthen the science-policy ‘interface’ for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity and sustainable development.Establishment: It was established on 21 April 2012 in Panama City by 94 governments.UN status: It is not a UN body.Secretariat: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) provides secretariat services to IPBES.Plenary: It is the governing body of IPBES and is composed of representatives from IPBES Member States. It usually meets once a year.Functions: IPBES broadly works in the following areas.Assessment: On specific themes (‘pollinators, pollination and food production’); methodological issues (scenarios and modelling); and at both regional and global levels (global assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services).Policy support: Identify policy-relevant tools and methodologies, facilitate their use and catalyze their further development. |