BIODIVERSITY
In September 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a comprehensive plan of action for people, the planet and prosperity. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, entitled
‘Transforming our world’, comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) supported by 169 specific targets.5 The SDGs are seen as ‘integrated and indivisible’, that is they are intended to be implemented as a mutually-reinforcing set.
Most of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets are well reflected in the SDGs and related targets.6 In many cases, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets provided the inspiration for the corresponding targets under the
Figure 0.1. The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-20207
Vision: Living in harmony with nature where by 2050, biodiversity is valued, conserved, restored and wisely used, maintaining ecosystem services, sustaining a healthy planet and delivering benefits essential for all people.
Mission: Take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020
ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services, thereby securing the planet’s variety of life, and contributing to human well-being, and poverty eradication....
Strategic Goal A
Address the underlying causes of biodiversity loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society
Awareness of biodiversity
increased Biodiversity values
integrated Incentives reformed Sustainable production and consumption
Strategic Goal B
Reduce the direct pressures on biodiversity and promote sustainable use
Habitat loss halved or reduced
Sustainable management of aquatic living resources
Sustainable agriculture, aquaculture and forestry
Pollution
reduced Invasive alien species prevented and controlled
Ecosystems vulnerable to climate change
Strategic Goal C
Improve the status of biodiversity by safeguarding ecosystems, species and genetic diversity
Protected areas Reducing risk of extinction Safeguarding genetic diversity
Strategic Goal D
Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services
Ecosystem services Ecosystem restoration
and resilience Access to and sharing benefits from genetic resources
Strategic Goal E
Enhance the benefits to all from biodiversity and ecosystem services
Biodiversity strategies
and action plans Traditional knowledge Sharing information and knowledge
Mobilizing resources from all sources Implementation, Monitoring, Review and Evaluation
• The provision of financial resources
• National biodiversity strategies and action and national and regional targets
• The participation of all relevant stakeholders
• Supported and encouragement of initiatives and activities of indigenous and local communities,
• The Convention’s programmes of work
Support Mechanisms
• Capacity-building for effective national action
• Clearing-house mechanism and technology transfer
• Financial resources
• Partnerships and initiatives to enhance cooperation
• Support mechanisms for research, monitoring and assessment
Part I. Introduction: Biodiversity for Sustainable Development 27 2030 Agenda, reflecting the role of the Convention
in setting the global biodiversity agenda and the comprehensive nature of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. The conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity may therefore be regarded as foundational to the whole 2030 Agenda.8
Sustainable Development Goals 14 and 15 directly address biodiversity in aquatic and terres-trial environments respectively. Beyond these, the achievement of many other Goals is either directly or indirectly dependent on biodiversity. This recog-nition aids the mainstreaming of biodiversity into the relevant sectors and provides incentives for its conservation and sustainable use. Examples of where biodiversity is a key factor for the achievement of other SDGs are:
• Goal 2 (Zero Hunger): All food systems depend on biodiversity and a broad range of ecosystem services that support agricultural productivity, soil fertility, and water quality and supply. At least one third of the world’s agricultural crops depend on pollinators.9 Genetic diversity in agriculture is a key element of food security, enabling the adaptation of crops and livestock to changing environmental conditions and providing resistance to particular diseases, pests and parasites.
• Goal 6 (Clean water and sanitation): Healthy ecosystems underpin the delivery of water supplies, water quality, and guard against water-related hazards and disasters. For example, wetlands play an appreciable role in surface, sub-surface and ground water storage, as well as preserving dry season river flows and reducing the risk of flooding in wet seasons.
Given that the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity is essential to achieve many SDGs, the ongoing decline of biodiversity, and the consequent decline of ecosystem services, places achievement of these SDGs in jeopardy (Figure 0.2).10
The relationship between biodiversity and the SDGs acts in both directions. Some Sustainable Development Goals address the drivers of biodi-versity loss, such as climate change (Goal 13),
pollution (Goals 6, 12 and 14) and overexploitation (Goals 6, 12, 14 and 15). Achieving these Goals would therefore contribute to the conservation of biodiversity. Moreover, numerous assess-ments have indicated that as the world population increases and becomes more affluent, pressures on biodiversity are likely to increase. However, there are pathways to avoid or mitigate these growing pressures, as identified, for example, in the targets associated with Goal 12 (Sustainable production and consumption) on the efficient use of natural resources (Target 12.2) and on reducing food waste (Target 12.3).
Many Sustainable Development Goals focus on the building of institutions and human capital (for example through education) and the strength-ening of equality and rights, and these relate to the underlying drivers of biodiversity loss. Such SDGs therefore provide an enabling environment conducive to the improved governance of factors affecting biodiversity. For example:
• Greater access to education (Goal 4) builds human capital and thereby enables effective action, including collective action, to be taken. In addition, education, especially for women and girls, has been shown to reduce fertility rates,11 and, therefore, this goal may have an indirect effect on biodiver-sity by reducing population growth, a pressure on biodiversity.
• Gender roles in many countries have an effect on the use and management of biodiversity by influencing the ability of women to participate in decision-making and by affecting their access to and control of land, biological resources and other productive assets. Greater equality and empower-ment of women and girls, as called for in Goal 5, would therefore have a positive effect on biodiver-sity by affording women greater influence in its use.
• Reducing inequalities (Goal 10) will help to develop the human capital required to make meaningful progress towards sustainable develop-ment. Moreover, progress on Goals such as zero hunger (Goal 2) and energy for all (Goal 7) can only be reconciled with the protection of the global climate (Goal 13) and biodiversity (Goals 14 and 15)
Figure 0.2. Linkages between biodiversity, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets and the Sustainable Development Goals
SDG Aichi Biodiversity Target Biodiversity’s impact
on the SDG SDG’s impact on biodiversity
j ! 5 5 1
j ! 1 5 5 1
j ! 5 5 5 5 5 5
j ! 1 5 5
S 1 1
S 5 5 1
S 5 5 1 5 5
j ! 1
S 1
j ! 1 1
j ! 1
j ! 1 5 5 5 5
The SDGs are listed in column 1. Column 2 shows the Aichi Biodiversity Targets whose elements are reflected in the targets of the SDGs(Relevant targets under the SDGs are further specified in Part 2 of this Outlook).12 Column 3 shows which SDGs biodiversity contributes to significantly, and whether the ongoing decline in biodiversity jeopardizes or reduces the likelihood of achieving the SDG.13 Column 4 shows the nature of the effect of the SDGs on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.
j
Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity contributes directly to SDG achievementS
Conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity supports SDG achievement! Declining biodiversity jeopardizes SDG achievement
1
Achieving SDG contributes to biodiversity. ‘Contributes’ refers to a relationship where attainment of the SDG would address a major direct pressure on biodiversity5
5
Achieving SDG contributes to the enabling environment for addressing biodiversity. ‘Enabling’ refers to a relationship where attainment of the SDG improves the enabling environment for addressing biodiversity issues1
Achieving SDG while protecting biodiversity is potentially constraining. ‘Constraining’ refers to a relationship whereby simultaneously achieving the SDG and the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity would require the choice of particular pathways to avoid potential conflicts and minimize tradeoffs.14Part I. Introduction: Biodiversity for Sustainable Development 29 if there is a more equitable distribution of access to
resources. Thus, action to reduce inequalities within and among countries is essential to achieve biodi-versity objectives at the same time as achieving the other SDGs.
Some potential trade-offs exist between reaching the objectives of the Convention and attaining some of the SDGs – such as Goals 2 (food security), 7 (energy), 8 (economic growth) and 9 (infra-structure). However, these can be avoided or minimized through coherent and integrated decision making. Thus, the Goals may be viewed as constraining the choice of particular pathways of achieving a given SDG, rather than representing a fundamental contradiction. Many of the approaches required to avoid such potential negative impacts are already specified in the targets associated with the Sustainable Development Goals. This implies that care will be needed to select pathways that are compatible with both the objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.