Journal Article

Bending the curve of terrestrial biodiversity needs an integrated strategy

Chaudhary, Abhishek, Leclère, David, Doelman, Jonathan C., Barrett, Mike, Newbold, Tim, Hill, Samantha L. L., Bunting, Gill, DeClerck, Fabrice A. J., Schipper, Aafke M., Burgess, Neil D., Jung, Martin, Ohashi, Haruka, Di Marco, Moreno, Harwood, Thomas, Dürauer, Martina, Herrero, Mario, Harfoot, Michael, Freeman, Robin, Cornell, Sarah E., Kram, Tom, Nel, Deon, Tabeau, Andrzej, Hellweg, Stefanie, Watson, James E. M., Humpenöder, Florian, Di Fulvio, Fulvio, Hoskins, Andrew J., Fritz, Steffen, Ware, Chris, Butchart, Stuart H. M., Hasegawa, Tomoko, Obersteiner, Michael, van Vuuren, Detlef P., Krisztin, Tamás, Visconti, Piero, Young, Lucy, Jennings, Nancy, van Meijl, Hans, Hilbers, Jelle P., Popp, Alexander, Grooten, Monique, Purvis, Andy, Almond, Rosamunde, van Zeist, Willem-Jan, Valin, Hugo, Fujimori, Shinichiro, Stehfest, Elke, Meyer, Carsten, Wu, Wenchao, Schmidt-Traub, Guido, Matsui, Tetsuya, Lotze-Campen, Hermann, Mace, Georgina M., Havlík, Petr, Strassburg, Bernardo B. N., Ferrier, Simon, Alkemade, Rob, De Palma, Adriana

2020

Overview

Increased efforts are required to prevent further losses to terrestrial biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it  provides 1 , 2 . Ambitious targets have been proposed, such as reversing the declining trends in biodiversity 3 ; however, just feeding the growing human population will make this a challenge 4 . Here we use an ensemble of land-use and biodiversity models to assess whether—and how—humanity can reverse the declines in terrestrial biodiversity caused by habitat conversion, which is a major threat to biodiversity 5 . We show that immediate efforts, consistent with the broader sustainability agenda but of unprecedented ambition and coordination, could enable the provision of food for the growing human population while reversing the global terrestrial biodiversity trends caused by habitat conversion. If we decide to increase the extent of land under conservation management, restore degraded land and generalize landscape-level conservation planning, biodiversity trends from habitat conversion could become positive by the mid-twenty-first century on average across models (confidence interval, 2042–2061), but this was not the case for all models. Food prices could increase and, on average across models, almost half (confidence interval, 34–50%) of the future biodiversity losses could not be avoided. However, additionally tackling the drivers of land-use change could avoid conflict with affordable food provision and reduces the environmental effects of the food-provision system. Through further sustainable intensification and trade, reduced food waste and more plant-based human diets, more than two thirds of future biodiversity losses are avoided and the biodiversity trends from habitat conversion are reversed by 2050 for almost all of the models. Although limiting further loss will remain challenging in several biodiversity-rich regions, and other threats—such as climate change—must be addressed to truly reverse the declines in biodiversity, our results show that ambitious conservation efforts and food system transformation are central to an effective post-2020 biodiversity strategy. To promote the recovery of the currently declining global trends in terrestrial biodiversity, increases in both the extent of land under conservation management and the sustainability of the global food system from farm to fork are required.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/158/670 / 704/172/4081 / 706/1143 / Animal populations / Biodiversity / Biodiversity loss / Biological diversity conservation / Climate change / Confidence intervals / Conservation / Conservation of Natural Resources - methods / Conservation of Natural Resources - trends / Conversion / Diet / Diet, Vegetarian - trends / Ecosystem services / Endangered & extinct species / Environmental effects / Environmental Policy - trends / Environmental protection / Extinction / Food / Food plants / Food Supply / Food waste / Forecasts and trends / Habitat destruction / Habitats / Human Activities - trends / Human populations / Humanities and Social Sciences / Humans / Land conservation / Land degradation / Land use / Landscape preservation / Modelling / multidisciplinary / Planning / Population declines / Population density / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Strategy / Sustainable agriculture / Sustainable Development - trends / Taxonomy / Terrestrial environments / Trends / Wildlife conservation