Nature is critical to our survival: nature provides united states with our oxygen, regulates our weather patterns, pollinates our crops, produces our nutrient, feed and fibre. But it is under increasing stress. Act has altered well-nigh 75 per cent of the earth's surface , squeezing wildlife and nature into an ever-smaller corner of the planet.

Effectually ane one thousand thousand fauna and institute species are threatened with extinction – many within decades – according to the 2019 Global Assessment Written report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Service. The written report called for transformative changes to restore and protect nature. It found that the wellness of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more speedily than ever, affecting  the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, nutrient security, health and quality of life worldwide.

Deforestation and desertification – caused by homo activities and climate change – pose major challenges to sustainable evolution and have affected the lives and livelihoods of millions of people. Forests are vitally important for sustaining life on Globe, and play a major office in the fight against climate change. And investing in land restoration is disquisitional for improving livelihoods, reducing vulnerabilities, and reducing risks for the economy.

The health of our planet also plays an important role in the emergence of zoonotic diseases , i.e. diseases that are transmissible between animals and humans. As we continue to encroach on fragile ecosystems, we bring humans into ever-greater contact with wildlife, enabling pathogens in wildlife to spill over to livestock and humans, increasing the adventure of disease emergence and amplification.

COVID-xix response

The COVID-19 outbreak highlights the demand to address threats to ecosystems and wildlife .

In 2016, the Un Environment Programme (UNEP) flagged a worldwide increment in zoonotic epidemics as an issue of concern. Specifically, it pointed out that 75 per cent of all emerging infectious diseases in humans are zoonotic and that these zoonotic diseases are closely interlinked with the health of ecosystems.

"In COVID-xix, the planet has delivered its strongest alarm to date that humanity must modify," said UNEP Executive Manager Inger Andersen.

In Working With the Surroundings to Protect People , UNEP lays out how to "build back amend" – through stronger science, policies that back a healthier planet, and more greenish investments.

UNEP'south response covers four areas:

  1. Helping nations manage COVID-19 waste,
  2. Delivering a transformational change for nature and people,
  3. Working to ensure economic recovery packages create resilience to future crises, and
  4. Modernizing global environmental governance.

To forestall, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide, the United nations has launched a Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030 ). This globally-coordinated response to the loss and degradation of habitats will focus on building political will and capacity to restore humankind'southward relation with nature. It is also a direct response to the telephone call from science, as articulated in the Special Study on Climate Modify and State of the Intergovernmental Console on Climatic change, and to the decisions taken by all UN Member States in the Rio Conventions on climatic change and biodiversity , and the United nations Convention to Combat Desertification .

Work on a new and ambitious post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework is as well underway.

Equally the world responds to and recovers from the current pandemic, it will need a robust plan for protecting nature, so that nature can protect humanity.

  • Goal fifteen targets

  • Links

  • Human activity has altered most 75 per cent of the globe'due south surface , squeezing wild animals and nature into an ever-smaller corner of the planet and increasing risks of zoonotic diseases like COVID-19.

Forests

  • Around 1.half-dozen billion people depend on forests for their livelihood, including 70 million indigenous people.
  • Forests are domicile to more than than lxxx per cent of all terrestrial species of animals, plants and insects.
  • Between 2010 and 2015 , the world lost 3.3 one thousand thousand hectares of forest areas. Poor rural women depend on mutual pool resource and are specially affected by their depletion.
  • Currently, country degradation has reduced productivity in 23 per cent of the global terrestrial area, and between $235 billion and $577 billion in annual global crop output is at gamble every bit a upshot of pollinator loss.

Desertification

  • Arable land loss is estimated at 30 to 35 times the historical rate
  • Due to drought and desertification, 12 million hectares are lost each year (23 hectares per minute). Within ane year, 20 one thousand thousand tons of grain could have been grown.
  • 74 per cent of the poor are directly affected by land degradation globally.
  • Habitat loss and deterioration , largely acquired by human deportment, have reduced global terrestrial habitat integrity by thirty per cent relative to an unimpacted baseline.

Biodiversity

  • Illicit poaching and trafficking of wildlife continues to thwart conservation efforts, with nearly 7,000 species of animals and plants reported in illegal trade involving 120 countries.
  • Of the viii,300 animal breeds known, 8 per cent are extinct and 22 per cent are at chance of extinction.
  • Of the over 80,000 tree species , less than i per cent have been studied for potential use.
  • Fish provide 20 per cent of animal poly peptide to about 3 billion people. Only ten species provide near xxx per cent of marine capture fisheries and ten species provide about 50 per cent of aquaculture production.
  • Over 80 per cent of the human diet is provided by plants. Only iii cereal crops – rice, maize and wheat – provide lx per cent of energy intake.
  • As many as lxxx per cent of people living in rural areas in developing countries rely on traditional constitute-­‐based medicines for basic healthcare.
  • Micro-organisms and invertebrates are key to ecosystem services , merely their contributions are all the same poorly known and rarely acknowledged.
  • While protected areas now cover 15 per cent of terrestrial and freshwater environments and 7 per cent of the marine realm, they only partly embrace of import sites for biodiversity and are non yet fully ecologically representative and finer or equitably managed.

  • Goal xv targets

15.i By 2020, ensure the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services, in particular forests, wetlands, mountains and drylands, in line with obligations under international agreements

fifteen.ii By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable direction of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally

15.3 By 2030, gainsay desertification, restore degraded country and soil, including land affected by desertification, drought and floods, and strive to achieve a state degradation-neutral globe

fifteen.four By 2030, ensure the conservation of mountain ecosystems, including their biodiversity, in order to enhance their capacity to provide benefits that are essential for sustainable development

15.5 Take urgent and significant action to reduce the degradation of natural habitats, halt the loss of biodiversity and, by 2020, protect and forbid the extinction of threatened species

15.6 Promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote advisable access to such resources, as internationally agreed

15.7 Take urgent action to end poaching and trafficking of protected species of flora and fauna and accost both demand and supply of illegal wildlife products

15.eight Past 2020, introduce measures to prevent the introduction and significantly reduce the impact of invasive conflicting species on state and water ecosystems and command or eradicate the priority species

15.9 Past 2020, integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into national and local planning, evolution processes, poverty reduction strategies and accounts

15.A Mobilize and significantly increment fiscal resources from all sources to conserve and sustainably utilise biodiversity and ecosystems

15.B Mobilize significant resources from all sources and at all levels to finance sustainable forest management and provide adequate incentives to developing countries to advance such management, including for conservation and reforestation

15.C Enhance global back up for efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species, including by increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities

  • Links

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