INTERGOVERNMENTAL SCIENCE-POLICY PLATFORM ON BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES (IPBES)

The IPBES (Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) is to biodiversity and ecosystems what the more widely recognized IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is to climate change. It regularly reviews existing scientific research on biodiversity and nature to assess their current condition.

Established in 2012, IPBES released its first report in 2019, which assessed the global biodiversity crisis. The report found that up to one million species of plants and animals, out of an estimated eight million total, were at risk of extinction—more than ever before—largely due to human-induced changes in ecosystems.

According to the 2019 report, nearly 75% of the Earth's land area and 66% of marine environments had been "substantially altered," and over 85% of wetlands had been "lost." This information served as the foundation for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, finalized in 2022.

The Nexus report highlighted the interconnectedness of five major global challenges. Its primary message is that responses to these challenges must be coordinated to ensure that efforts to address one issue do not inadvertently worsen others, as is often the case in current strategies.

For instance, increasing food production to address hunger and malnutrition could unintentionally place additional pressure on land, water resources, and biodiversity.

The report advocates for integrated approaches that deliver benefits across various sectors. Some suggested measures include restoring carbon-rich ecosystems like forests, soils, and mangroves, managing biodiversity to reduce the risk of zoonotic diseases, promoting sustainable diets, and prioritizing nature-based solutions.

The Nexus report stressed that nature and biodiversity are vital not only for ecological and aesthetic reasons but also for economic purposes. It noted that more than half of the global GDP, roughly $58 trillion in annual economic activity, is moderately to highly dependent on nature. Degradation of natural ecosystems could, therefore, negatively affect productivity and economic output.

The central message of the Nexus report is that if the current approach to addressing climate change persists, it will lead to detrimental outcomes for biodiversity, water quality, and human health. Additionally, focusing on optimizing results for just one aspect of the nexus without considering the others is likely to create negative consequences for the other interconnected challenges

The KM-GBF was adopted in 2022 at the 15th meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity, where 196 countries committed to halting and reversing biodiversity loss by 2030 in order to create a nature-positive world.

It outlined four main goals and 23 targets, collectively known as the 30×30 target. This includes a pledge to protect at least 30% of the world’s land, oceans, and coastal areas by 2030, alongside a commitment to begin restoring at least 30% of degraded land and marine ecosystems by 2030.

The primary goal is to ensure that all natural ecosystems are maintained, improved, or restored significantly, with an overall increase in the area of natural ecosystems by 2050. Another target is to achieve a ten-fold reduction in the extinction rate of species, which is currently estimated to be significantly higher than the average rate over the past 10 million years.

India presented its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) at the recent United Nations biodiversity conference in Cali, Colombia, outlining 23 national biodiversity targets.