Elsa Tsiοumani, Ph. D. , Asterios Tsiοumanis, Ph.D.
Nature is vanishing before our eyes. As many as one million plant and animal species are threatened with extinction because of habitat loss, farming, poaching, pollution, invasive species and, increasingly, global warming. Over the past few hundred years, population growth and increased, unsustainable production and consumption patterns have expanded demand for biological resources, which has in turn caused a dramatic loss of biological diversity.
Recognition of this problem is not new. However, successfully addressing it has become increasingly urgent, as biodiversity decline has accelerated to an unprecedented rate and the pressures driving this decline are intensifying. Transition pathways to a sustainable future are needed to
simultaneously reverse biodiversity loss, limit climate change, and improve the capacity to adapt to it and meet other goals such Biological Diversity: Protecting the variety of life on Earth as improved food security. This requires a significant shift away from “business as usual.” Failure of the international community to meet internationally agreed targets, mainly due to economic priorities leading to inequitable and unsustainable development, underlines the urgency of such shift.
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Key Messages
• Biodiversity underpins human well-being and livelihoods. We are all part of the same
ecosystem.
• A significant policy shift away from “business as usual” is required to reverse the
alarming rate of biodiversity loss.
• The Convention on Biological Diversity and its Protocols provide the main forum for
the international community to conserve biodiversity, use its components sustainably,
and share fairly and equitably the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.
• The post-2020 global biodiversity framework offers an opportunity to identify
transition pathways toward a sustainable future.
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