Convention on Biological Diversity

About: Convention on Biological Diversity is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2232 publications have been published within this topic receiving 65599 citations. The topic is also known as: CBD & United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Meeting global land restoration and protection targets : What would the world look like in 2050?

Abstract: Land restoration has received increased attention recently as a tool to counteract negative externalities of unsustainable land management on human well-being. This is reflected in targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the United Nations Framework of the Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). However, the implications of these targets for land use, especially considering their potential conflict with growing food production demands, are largely unexplored. We study the potential and aggregated consequences of meeting these targets on land cover and land system change. We do so by analyzing targets originating from these global commitments towards land restoration and protection and implement them in a global land system change model. We compare this Restoration and Protection scenario with simulation results of two plausible pathways of socio-economic development in the absence of these targets, following the Shared Socio-Economic Pathway (SSP) storylines. We find that meeting global land restoration and protection targets would increase global tree cover by 4 million km², increasing forest carbon stocks by 50 Gt and protecting 28% of the terrestrial area with the highest value of both biodiversity and carbon storage. Gains in tree cover and natural land systems would cause a contraction of crop, pasture- and bare land. This results in further cropland intensification and the expansion of land systems that are combining land use demands in mosaics of forest and agriculture. Without these targets, land system architecture tends to become more specialized, while many carbon and biodiversity hotspots, such as in the Americas, India, and Indonesia would be lost. Grassland-agriculture mosaics were threatened by land use change under all scenarios, requiring greater consideration in research and environmental policy. Our results emphasize the need for targeted land management in line with the analyzed policy targets if global restoration and protection targets are to be achieved.

Potentials for monitoring gene level biodiversity: using Sweden as an example

Abstract: Programs for monitoring biological diversity over time are needed to detect changes that can constitute threats to biological resources. The convention on biological diversity regards effective monitoring as necessary to halt the ongoing erosion of biological variation, and such programs at the ecosystem and species levels are enforced in several countries. However, at the level of genetic biodiversity, little has been accomplished, and monitoring programs need to be developed. We define “conservation genetic monitoring” to imply the systematic, temporal study of genetic variation within particular species/populations with the aim to detect changes that indicate compromise or loss of such diversity. We also (i) identify basic starting points for conservation genetic monitoring, (ii) review the availability of such information using Sweden as an example, (iii) suggest categories of species for pilot monitoring programs, and (iv) identify some scientific and logistic issues that need to be addressed in the context of conservation genetic monitoring. We suggest that such programs are particularly warranted for species subject to large scale enhancement and harvest—operations that are known to potentially alter the genetic composition and reduce the variability of populations.

Linking political and scientifically derived targets for global biodiversity conservation: implications for the expansion of the global network of protected areas

Abstract: Despite the global network of protected areas covers 12% of the world’s land surface, its performance is still unsatisfactory. Although political and scientifically sound conservation targets usually portray different pictures of the task ahead, we show that in terms of priority areas for expanding the global network of reserves, there is much agreement between the political targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the scientifically derived goals endorsed by international conservation organizations. Here we analyse four global databases to identify priority areas for fulfilling the CBD target of representing 10% of every ecological region within protected areas, and compare the distribution of priority regions for fulfilling that political target, with the distribution of the priority areas for global biodiversity conservation identified by Conservation International, the WWF, and the Wildlife Conservation Society on scientific basis. For 63% (549) of the world’s terrestrial ecoregions the CBD 10% target is still not met; fulfilling it requires protecting another 4.6% of the Earth’s land surface (6,239,894 km 2 ). Yet, at least 78% of the priority regions for fulfilling that target lay within priority regions for the main global conservation strategies. By pursuing the political target set by the CBD much ancillary gains in terms of other global conservation objectives can be obtained.