As recently as December 2022, 196 countries signed an agreement promising to “live in harmony with nature” by 2050 and to “halt and reverse biodiversity loss” by 2030.
Previous research has shown that coordinated action at the global scale is urgently needed to meet such goals. As conservationists, we’re also aware of a lag between when environmental changes like rising temperatures are observed by scientists and when organisms respond. We wanted to find out how this “ecological lag” might affect the world’s chances of stemming the loss of nature by the end of this decade.
Biodiversity – that is, the variability among living things, such as the number of species in a patch of forest – is declining globally, driven by humanity’s demand for resources. Habitat loss, harvesting, climate change, pollution and invasive species are the major driving forces behind this ecological reorganisation. For example, species found on mountains are moving upslope where it is cooler to counteract the effects of higher temperatures in their historical distribution.
2030 nature targets agreed in December may already be slipping out of reach
Previous research has shown that coordinated action at the global scale is urgently needed to meet such goals. As conservationists, we’re also aware of a lag between when environmental changes like rising temperatures are observed by scientists and when organisms respond. We wanted to find out how this “ecological lag” might affect the world’s chances of stemming the loss of nature by the end of this decade.
Biodiversity – that is, the variability among living things, such as the number of species in a patch of forest – is declining globally, driven by humanity’s demand for resources. Habitat loss, harvesting, climate change, pollution and invasive species are the major driving forces behind this ecological reorganisation. For example, species found on mountains are moving upslope where it is cooler to counteract the effects of higher temperatures in their historical distribution.
2030 nature targets agreed in December may already be slipping out of reach
