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Biodiversity is fundamental to both planet and people, and it is in deep crisis. In Europe, only 23% of species and 16% of habitats under the EU Nature Directives are in good health [State of European Environment and Outlook Report 2020].
The Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, published in 2019 by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services [IPBES], on the global state of biodiversity, stated:
“The Earth’s biodiversity has suffered a catastrophic decline. An estimated 82 percent of wild mammal biomass has been lost, while 40 percent of amphibians, almost a third of reef-building corals, more than a third of marine mammals, and 10 percent of all insects are threatened with extinction”.
The drivers of this extinction are, in descending order: (1) changes in land and sea use; (2) direct exploitation of organisms; (3) climate change; (4) pollution, and (5) invasive alien species.[5]
On a global level, there is a plan to address the problems that are already known for a long time: the “Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020”. It is a ten-year framework for action by all countries to save biodiversity. It provides a set of 20 ambitious, but achievable targets, known as the Aichi Targets.
The link to the specified 20 achi targets can be found here:
The fifth edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook [GBO-5] is an output of the processes of the Convention on Biological Diversity; published in 2020.
Another fine source of information is World Wildlife Fund´s Living Planet Report 2020. I provide both a link to the report [upper button] as well one to the dedicated page, which is also interesting for children:
This website is a personal narrative, based on 50 years experience in international business, non governmental organisations and consulting practise. My guest lectures at the Institute of Environmental Sciences [Leiden University, The Netherlands] are derived from it.
Ludo van Oyen – Brussels, 2021
Some photos are taken from the web. If you think your photo is used and you disagree, please send me an e-mail and I will remove it from this site.