Sustainable Development

Biodiversity is a challenging topic to comprehend, much less govern and express. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines “biodiversity” as “the variability among living organisms from all sources, including diversity within species, between species, and across ecosystems,” and it aims to capture the diversity and interactions of all life on Earth.

Whether or whether we believe that specific species, genes, or ecosystems are directly relevant to human needs, biodiversity is essential. The degree of scientific uncertainty was considerable twenty years ago, and action on biodiversity conservation was frequently justified using the precautionary principle. While there are still gaps in knowledge, particularly in terms of the interconnections across natural systems, it is becoming increasingly apparent that biodiversity underpins human well-being and livelihoods and is critical to accomplishing the SDGs. 

Regardless of their diverse target areas, all of these studies emphasise the importance of coordinated policy solutions that address global concerns as a whole. Biodiversity and healthy ecosystems provide essential resources and ecosystem services that directly support various societal sectors and economic activities, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and tourism, far beyond the scope of SDGs 14 and 15, which address life below water and life on land, respectively.

As a result, biodiversity is directly related to SDG 1 on poverty alleviation and SDG 8 on decent work and economic growth. The recognition of indigenous peoples, local communities, and women’s rights to sustainable development and natural resource management, as well as the implementation of the CBD’s goal of fair and equitable benefit-sharing, has the potential to reduce socioeconomic and political disparities between countries and social groups (SDG 10). Significantly, the world’s rural people, such as smallholders, fisherfolk, and forest dwellers, rely on natural resources to survive and livelihoods. Biodiversity is essential for food security and nutrition, and it helps to accomplish SDG 2 on ending hunger.

Agricultural genetic variety, including crop and livestock genetic variety, is critical of farming systems’ resilience and adaptation to pests and changing environmental conditions. Biodiversity and ecosystem services that sustain agricultural production, soil fertility, and water quality and supply are essential to all food systems.

The connection between biodiversity and health (SDG 3) is increasingly acknowledged as more fatalities worldwide are attributable to environmental factors. Healthy ecosystems help reduce pollution in the air, water, and soil, providing new and traditional treatments. They provide energy (SDG 7), reliable and cost-effective natural infrastructure (SDG 9), and, in general, critical services to cities and nature-based solutions to problems related to urban well-being (SDG 11) and climate change (SDG 13). All of this is jeopardised by current unsustainable production and consumption patterns (SDG 12), as well as illegal wildlife trade, fisheries, and timber trade (SDG 16).

The CBD and its Protocols, as well as several other biodiversity-related conventions and bodies such as the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), and the International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC), are at the forefront of international biodiversity policy-making (IWC).

Many of the agreements made by CBD Parties at the most recent UN Biodiversity Conference, held in November 2018 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, mention biodiversity’s ability to contribute to sustainable development. The Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP 14), the ninth meeting of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (COP/MOP 9), and the third meeting of the COP serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from Genetic Resources (COP/MOP 3) were all held in Durban.

The parties acknowledged the SDGs and the Aichi Biodiversity Targets of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020. They voiced fear that most of the Aichi Targets will not be met by 2020, putting the SDGs and, eventually, the planet’s life support systems in jeopardy. They requested that the CBD Executive Secretary communicate through the UN system, including the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF), that failing to implement the Strategic Plan jeopardises the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s implementation (Decision 14/1).

The integration of biodiversity into various economic activities is essential for halting biodiversity loss and achieving the SDGs, with Parties emphasising the interconnections between biodiversity and human health (Decision 14/4). At the same time, as described in the SDG Hub Policy Brief on the Post-2020 Framework, the interlinkages between biodiversity and the SDGs will serve as a foundation for the establishment of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

As evidence of the links between biodiversity loss and climate change grows, CBD Parties reiterated that ecosystem destruction, degradation, and fragmentation reduce ecosystem capacity to store carbon, increase greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, reduce ecosystem resilience and stability, and exacerbate climate change crisis. Biodiversity and ecosystems aid climate change adaptation, mitigation, and disaster risk reduction (DRR), yet climate change is a substantial and growing driver of biodiversity loss. 

The development and implementation of coherent, integrated, and co-beneficial policies are required across the biodiversity, climate change, and sustainable development arenas, as exemplified by the adopted Voluntary Guidelines for the design and effective implementation of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change adaptation and DRR (Decision 14/5). These detailed guidelines include a step-by-step process for planning and implementing ecosystem-based climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction, as well as principles, safeguards, and overarching considerations for mainstreaming indigenous peoples’ and local communities’ knowledge and practises.

Increased societal awareness and policy action have emerged from the scourge of pollinator loss and its effects on ecosystems, particularly agricultural ecosystems and, as a result, food security. The CBD Parties approved an updated plan of action for 2018-2030 to promote global coordination to protect wild and managed pollinators and promote the sustainable development and it’s use of pollination, which is recognised as a critical ecosystem service for agriculture and ecosystem function and health.