5.1 The health of our ecosystem

Biodiversity is typically a measure of variation at the genetic, species and ecosystem level. Biodiversity is richest in the tropics, but the balance of the same is equally important everywhere.

Nature is declining globally at a pace unprecedented in human history - and the number of species extinctions is accelerating, warns a report from the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). All within the UN.

The report is the most comprehensive ever presented, and it has been prepared by 145 experts from 50 countries over the course of 3 years. The report assesses the changes in our ecosystem and reveals a thorough picture of our ecosystem's health.

"The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture," said IPBES Chairman, Sir Robert Watson. "The health of the ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating faster than ever. We are undermining the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide."

"The report also tells us that it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at all levels from local to global," he said. "Through 'transformative change' nature can still be conserved, restored and used sustainably - it is also the key to meeting most other global goals. By transformative change we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values."

Source : https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2019/05/nature-decline-unprecedented-report/

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