UN Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO 5) Report - "None of 20 biodiversity goals set in the last 10 years fully met"

Ahead of finalising new goals to protect biodiversity in next 10 years (2021-30), the UN Convention on Biological Diversity on Tuesday released its fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook report showing how none of the 20 agreed conservation targets of the past 10 years could be fully met by the word - a case which will further complicate the global biodiversity crisis. 

Experts believe that such crisis may push the world towards more disasters like Covid-19 pandemic, a zoonotic disease transmitted between animals and humans, massive wildfires and water crisis if the countries don't accept the growing scientific consensus over an ambitious new target of protecting at least 30% of the planet by 2030 – popularly known as 30x30 target – under the UN Convention.

Blaming human pressure on resources and unsustainable policies where $500 Billion value of government subsidies potentially cause environmental harm across the globe, the report underlined that the world would now require more than one ‘earths’ (1.7) to regenerate the biological resources used by humanity from 2011 to 2016. 

On the progress of the 20 global biodiversity targets - known as Aichi Biodiversity targets - agreed in 2010 with a 2020 deadline, the report concludes that the world has “not achieved” 14 targets (relating to sustainable agriculture, reducing pollution and subsidies harmful to biodiversity, and conservation of species, corals, fish/oceans, forests/habitats, genetic materials and ecosystems among others) while only “partially achieved” six of the targets within the deadline.

Though the report speaks about few success stories in terms of conserving few species, expansion of protected areas and reduction in the global rate of deforestation, it paints a gloomy picture in terms of pollution of oceans due to accumulation of huge plastic waste, the disappearance of wetlands, continued threat to over 60% corals due to overfishing and risk of extinction to 1,940 local domesticated animal breeds out of 7,155 whose risk status are known across the globe. 

“The Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-5) should serve as a call to action for leaders across the globe. The world cannot afford another decade without major progress in biodiversity conservation,” said Brain O’Donnell, director of the Campaign for Nature, while pushing for an ambitious new target of protecting at least 30% of the planet by 2030.

Among one of the few positives in the report, the GBO-5 notes that there has been “significant expansion of the protected area estate”, increasing over the 2000-2020 period from about 10% to at least 15% terrestrially, and from about 3% to at least 7% in marine areas. 

Similarly, the key biodiversity area has also increased from 29% to 44% over the same time period – it shows the progress that countries have made in protecting more of the natural world. 

The report, at the same time, underlines that the world is now expected to meet its goal to protect 17% of the land and 10% of the ocean in due course through ongoing efforts. 

Under various best practices, the UN report flagged India’s ‘zero budget natural farming’ approach of sustainable agriculture and role of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as not only as of the biggest social security schemes of the world but also as its employment generation activities through schemes relate to restoration, rehabilitation and conservation of natural resources. 

‘Natural farming’ refers to a farming approach that emphasizes the importance of co-production of crops and animals so that synergistic effects of different parts of the system can be used to build the fertility of the soil and reduce fungal infections. 

Although difficult to quantify, conservation actions have succeeded in reducing the risk of extinction of many species, and are estimated to have prevented between 28 and 48 bird and mammal species, including the black-footed ferret, from going extinct since 1993 (when the CBD came into force), including between 11 and 25 since 2010. 

Citing examples, the report says the efforts have also been successful in protecting 100 highly threatened species of birds, mammals and reptiles, including island fox and Seychelles magpie-robin. 

As the GBO report comes at a time when the Covid-19 challenges people to rethink their relationship with nature, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said, “As we emerge from the immediate impacts of the pandemic, we have an unprecedented opportunity to ‘build back better’, incorporating the transitions outlined in this Outlook and embodied in an ambitious plan to put the world on track to achieve the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity.”

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