Articles 2020

Backed by the UN, an alliance of conservationists and policymakers is devising new ways to finance the preservation of biodiversity by placing economic values on ecosystems. Some analysts say such schemes have the potential to boost conservation, but others are skeptical.

The steady destruction of wildlife can suddenly tip over into total ecosystem collapse, scientists studying the greatest mass extinction in Earth’s history have found. Many scientists think the huge current losses of biodiversity are the start of a new mass extinction. But the new research shows total ecosystem collapse is “inevitable”, if the losses are not reversed, the scientists said.

Negotiators hope to put humanity on a path to harmonious coexistence with nature by 2050.

Small patches of land given over to wildlife-friendly planting can make a big difference to pollinator conservation, a new study suggests. Bee and other pollinator populations in Europe and North America are in decline due to a range of factors including habitat loss and insufficient flowers for food.

Plusieurs universités, ONG, fédérations, administrations et sociétés privées ont lancé vendredi la "Belgian Biodiversity Alliance", une plateforme destinée à encourager et visibiliser les efforts pour restaurer la biodiversité, en déclin partout dans le monde. Cette Alliance, qui réunit notamment l’institut Jane Goodall, l’Université de Hasselt, l’Institut flamand de recherche sur la nature et la forêt (INBO), la direction générale Environnement du SPF Santé publique, Bruxelles Environnement ou encore le SPW Agriculture, entend rassembler citoyens, organisations, communes ou entreprises qui agissent pour infléchir la perte de biodiversité.

Industry groups representing some of the world’s largest companies are “opposed to almost all major biodiversity-relevant policies” and are lobbying to block them, according to a new report. Researchers found that 89% of engagement by leading industry associations in Europe and the US is designed to delay, dilute and block progress on tackling the biodiversity crisis, which scientists say is as serious as the climate emergency.

xit le bleu et le rouge. Inspirées des rayures du réchauffement, les "warming stripes", l'expert Miles Richardson a développé les rayures de la biodiversité allant du vert au gris, signe de la perte de couleur et de biodiversité de la nature. L'objectif est de focaliser l'attention sur le déclin de la biodiversité, un phénomène beaucoup moins couvert médiatiquement que le réchauffement climatique.

A wildfire racing across a hillside has become emblematic of climate change. And for good reason: a quarter of the world’s natural landscapes now face longer fire seasons as a result of warming and shifts to rainfall, according to a recent landmark climate report.

A new study describes a period of rapid global climate change in an ice-capped world much like the present—but 304 million years ago. Within about 300,000 years, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels doubled, oceans became anoxic, and biodiversity dropped on land and at sea.

Our study assessed whether the opportunity to see many vertebrate animal species mattered to tourists visiting Costa Rica, and if so, how important it was compared with other features like hotels and beaches. in Costa Rica, our research shows that biodiversity needs to be paired with infrastructure like hotels and roads that enable access to nature.

Volgens een nieuw rapport van Finance for Biodiversity (F4B) leveren milieumisdrijven jaarlijks tot 280 miljard dollar op. De regels om die vorm van criminaliteit te bestrijden zijn er, zegt Simon Zadek, voorzitter van F4B, maar regeringen treden niet krachtig genoeg op. ‘De financiële gemeenschap zou goed aan doen zich in te zetten voor een proces waarbij beleggingsportefeuille worden ontdaan van banden met milieucriminaliteit’.

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The UK is one of the world's most nature-depleted countries - in the bottom 10% globally and last among the G7 group of nations, new data shows. It has an average of about half its biodiversity left, far below the global average of 75%, a study has found.

Europe’s 25 largest banks are still failing to present comprehensive plans that address both the climate crisis and biodiversity loss, putting their sustainability pledges in doubt, campaigners have warned.

The UN General Assembly in September, 2021, will bring countries together at a critical time for marshalling collective action to tackle the global environmental crisis.

Insects have declined by 75% in the past 50 years – and the consequences may soon be catastrophic. Biologist Dave Goulson reveals the vital services they perform

A landmark report by the world’s most senior climate and biodiversity scientists argues that the world will have to tackle the climate crisis and the species extinction crisis simultaneously, or not at all.

In December 2020, 50 of the world’s leading biodiversity and climate experts, selected by a 12-person Scientific Steering Committee assembled by IPBES and IPCC, participated in a four-day virtual workshop to examine the synergies and trade-offs between biodiversity protection and climate change mitigation and adaptation. This represents the first-ever collaboration between the two intergovernmental science-policy bodies.

The root cause of pandemics – the destruction of nature – is being ignored, scientists have warned. The focus of world leaders on responding to future outbreaks overlooks the far cheaper and more effective strategy of stopping the spillover of disease from animals to humans in the first place, they have said. The razing of forests and hunting of wildlife is increasingly bringing animals and the microbes they harbour into contact with people and livestock. About 70% of new infectious diseases have come from animals, including Covid-19, Sars, bird flu, Ebola and HIV.

The world must rewild and restore an area the size of China to meet commitments on nature and the climate, says the UN, and the revival of ecosystems must be met with all the ambition of the space race. Existing conservation efforts are insufficient to prevent widespread biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, the global body has warned at the launch of the decade on ecosystem restoration, an urgent call for the large-scale revival of nature in farmlands, forests and other ecosystems.

The climate crisis is causing a widespread fall in oxygen levels in lakes across the world, suffocating wildlife and threatening drinking water supplies. Falling levels of oxygen in oceans had already been identified, but new research shows that the decline in lakes has been between three and nine times faster in the past 40 years. Scientists found oxygen levels had fallen by 19% in deep waters and 5% at the surface.

To understand how long it will take to recover from this extinction event, a team of European scientists from Germany, Switzerland, the UK and The Netherlands decided to compare it with the previous mass extinction event, which occurred 66 million years ago when an asteroid hit our planet. This was a major event event that wiped off dinosaurs along with 75% of all species.

While the climate crisis has dominated the airwaves for a while now, the biodiversity crisis is at least as serious. Actually, these are multiple, interconnected crises, stemming from age old systemic failings. In 2019, scientific body IPBES brought to the fore the urgent need for “transformative change” to prevent biodiversity collapse, which would be disastrous for people and planet. As one example, the global coronavirus pandemic has tragically highlighted the risks of ecosystem loss for global public health. In a bid to find an answer to this crisis, the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is discussing a Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) - effectively how to ‘save’ nature.

A new study has found that if greenhouse gas emissions are not curbed urgently, a third of endemic species on land and half in the sea will become extinct, causing a collapse of biodiversity. According to the study, 92% of all endemic species on land and 95% of those in the ocean will decrease in numbers or even disappear under current emissions levels, which will increase global temperatures by 3 degrees Celsius by 2100.

Global warming is a "threat multiplier" for habitats and species already under pressure – by understanding how the problems are linked, we can solve two crises at once

Professor Reinhard Loske argues that the idea that the ‘economisation of nature’ represents the one and only path to salvation should be viewed much more critically. Should cost-free services that are provided by nature, be understood as ecosystem services and allocated a price ? Should a landscape worthy of conservation be evaluated by means of a cost-benefit analysis ?

Only a decade or two ago it was widely thought that tropical forests and intact natural environments teeming with exotic wildlife threatened humans by harboring the viruses and pathogens that lead to new diseases in humans like Ebola, HIV and dengue. But a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity’s destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases like COVID-19, the viral disease that emerged in China in December 2019,