Drastic measures needed to protect biodiversity: Dutch environmental assessment agency

The decline of global biodiversity is “persistent” and can only be halted through drastic changes. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) published this message in a report. “With nature policy alone, it will not be possible to achieve the global goals for biodiversity,” the planning office said.

While the United Nations climate summit is still underway, the PBL is already looking ahead to the UN summit on biodiversity in Montreal next month. According to the agency, the conference comes “at a time when the links between climate change and biodiversity loss are becoming increasingly visible.” Cohesive solutions are needed, the PBL said.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was established in 1992 to protect the species richness on earth. Almost the whole world is a member of this UN biodiversity treaty. The United States is not a member because the US government considers it too great an infringement on its sovereignty.

Things are not going well with the treaty’s goals; that much is clear from the report. Species richness has plummeted since the treaty was signed. “Due to the lack of progress,” the PBL said, a “fundamental change” is needed in global biodiversity policy. Protecting biodiversity will not succeed simply by giving more areas a protected status.

Production and consumption patterns must change, the researchers wrote. “Think of reducing meat and dairy consumption, reducing food waste, and making agricultural production more sustainable,” they summarized. Measures that are good for biodiversity often also have favorable effects on the climate, according to the PBL.

Getting closer to the biodiversity goals requires the “commitment and innovative power” of companies, cities, and social organizations. With governments to “direct it” and allocate money for it, the PBL said.