Biodiversity, and the benefits it provides, is fundamental to human well-being and a healthy planet.
Despite ongoing efforts, biodiversity is deteriorating worldwide and this decline is projected to continue or worsen under business-as-usual scenarios. The post-2020 global biodiversity framework builds on the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and sets out an ambitious plan to implement broad-based action to bring about a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in harmony with nature is fulfilled.
Category: Biodiversity
Addressing biodiversity authentically and effectively
Read the full story at GreenBiz.
As a global beverage company that relies on water, protecting the healthy biodiverse environment that nurtures water has been at the center of Suntory’s work over the past several decades. The company has worked to preserve the resources that enable our business to thrive. For corporations unsure where to begin on their biodiversity events, here are some guiding tips based on our experience of preserving forests and water, managing bird habitat and communicating our biodiversity efforts.
New tool helps banks, investors take immediate action to reverse biodiversity loss
Read the full story at Sustainable Brands.
A new ENCORE biodiversity module by the Natural Capital Finance Alliance — a collaboration between the UN Environment Program (UNEP) World Conservation Monitoring Centre, the UNEP Finance Initiative and Global Canopy — enables banks and investors to analyze the potential impact of their investment activities in agriculture and mining on biodiversity loss, with focus on species extinction and loss of ecological integrity.
Nature-based solutions for adaptation Are underfunded — but offer big benefits
Read the full story from the World Resources Institute.
Nature-based solutions are key to advancing climate adaptation. These are approaches that work with nature, not against it — from restoring wetlands, which can protect against storms, to conserving forests that stabilize soil and runoff during floods. Mangrove forests, for example, save an estimated $80 billion per year in avoided losses from coastal flooding globally, and protect up to 18 million people. Additionally, nature-based solutions can provide many co-benefits — for nature, economies, communities, culture and health.
But despite these extensive benefits, new research finds that as little as 1.5% of all public international climate finance has gone to support nature-based solutions for adaptation in developing countries. Just a handful of major bilateral donors and multilateral institutions have driven public funding for these approaches.
Ancient gardens persist in British Columbia’s forests
Read the full story at Hakai Magazine.
Indigenous-managed landscapes retain higher biodiversity than surrounding areas a century after the people who kept them were displaced.
Climate change a bigger threat to landscape biodiversity than emerald ash borer
Read the full story from Penn State.
Despite the devastating impact the emerald ashborer beetle has had on forests in the eastern and midwestern parts of the U.S., climate change will have a much larger and widespread impact on these landscapes through the end of the century, according to researchers.
Nature has enormous potential to fight climate change and biodiversity loss in the UK
Read the full story from the British Ecological Society.
A new report details how nature can be a powerful ally in responding to the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change.
Can fisheries benefit from biodiversity and conserve it, too?
Read the full story from Simon Fraser University.
A new study reveals the trade-offs of fish biodiversity — its costs and benefits to mixed-stock fisheries — and points to a potential way to harness the benefits while avoiding costs to fishery performance.
How smartphones can help detect ecological change
Read the full story from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig.
Mobile apps like Flora Incognita that allow automated identification of wild plants cannot only identify plant species, but also uncover large-scale ecological patterns. This opens up new perspectives for rapid detection of biodiversity changes.
Soil bacteria evolve with climate change
Read the full story from the University of California – Irvine.
While evolution is normally thought of as occurring over millions of years, researchers have discovered that bacteria can evolve in response to climate change in 18 months. Biologists found that evolution is one way that soil microbes might deal with global warming.
