Reforms failed biodiversity, need transformation to avoid further damage: Intergovernmental panel

Bengaluru: Fundamental system-wide shifts in the way people, especially policymakers, view the natural world are immediately needed to halt the large-scale damage to biodiversity and protect the dependent economic activities which annually generate $58 trillion or half of the global GDP, a new report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) said.

In a thematic assessment report titled 'The underlying causes of biodiversity loss and the determinants of transformative change and options for achieving the 2050 vision for biodiversity', IPBES noted that the current views of biodiversity and the practices adopted by the governance structures "perpetuate and reinforce the underlying causes of the biodiversity loss and nature's decline".

The report, result of three years work by 100 experts from 42 countries, was approved on Monday by the IPBES plenary composed of 147 member countries, including India. It called for fundamental shifts in views towards nature, in the organisation, regulation and governance of biodiversity as well as conservation practices. Experts said 'reforms' adopted by governments till now have only caused further damage and called for 'transformation' of practices.

Warning that the cost of delaying such a shift would lead to costly damages, the report also pointed to the positive benefits emerging from such a shift which will help generate "$10 trillion in business opportunity value" and support 395 million jobs by 2030.

However, such benefits can come only with the changes in "sectors that heavily contribute to biodiversity loss" from agriculture to fossil fuel sectors. Besides changes in the areas that are recognised for their role in the dominant economic and financial paradigms, countries need to bring sustainable practices in other sectors that are causing damage to biodiversity. For instance, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, forestry and fossil fuels are estimated to contribute to biodiversity loss, whose value is estimated to be $10.7 trillion as of 2023.

“Transformative change for a just and sustainable world is urgent because there is a closing window of opportunity to halt and reverse biodiversity loss and to prevent triggering the potentially irreversible decline and the projected collapse of key ecosystem functions,” said Prof Karen O’Brien, co-chair of the assessment with Prof Arun Agrawal and Prof Lucas Garibaldi.

He said under current trends, there was a serious risk of crossing several irreversible biophysical tipping points, including die-off of low altitude coral reefs, die back of the Amazon rainforest, and loss of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets.

“Promoting and accelerating transformative change is essential to meeting the 23 action-oriented targets of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by 2030 and four goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework by 2030 and for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity, which describes a world where all life can thrive,” said Prof Agrawal.

The report recognised the role of civil society organisations in piloting scalable sustainable models as well as checking initiatives that are damaging to biodiversity. "An analysis of 2,802 mobilizations between 1992 and 2023 provides evidence that they contested 46,955 documented environmental threats," it said, noting that more than half of such protests led to reforms.

The authors assessed more than 850 separate visions of a sustainable world for nature and people. They find that visions of a better future for humans and nature are abundant, but most do not change the status quo.

“The diversity of societies, economies, cultures and peoples means that no single theory or approach provides a complete understanding of transformative change or how to achieve it,” said Prof. O’Brien.

He said many knowledge systems, including Indigenous and local knowledge, provide complementary insights into how it occurs and how to promote, accelerate and navigate the change needed for a just and sustainable world.