1. Further progress in reducing biodiversity loss relies on the improved quantification of the connections between drivers of habitat loss and subsequent biodiversity impacts. To this end, biodiversity impact metrics should be able to report linked trends in specific human activities and changes in biodiversity state, accounting for both the ecology of different species, and the cumulative effects of historical habitat losses. These characteristics are not currently captured within a single metric. 2. Here we...

Abstract Background Land-use is a major driver of changes in biodiversity worldwide, but studies have overwhelmingly focused on above-ground taxa: the effects on soil biodiversity are less well known, despite the importance of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning. We modelled data from a global biodiversity database to compare how the abundance of soil-dwelling and above-ground organisms responded to land use and soil properties. Results We found that land use affects overall abundance differently in soil...

The impacts of climate change and the socioecological challenges they present are ubiquitous and increasingly severe. Practical efforts to operationalize climate-responsive design and management in the global network of marine protected areas (MPAs) are required to ensure long-term effectiveness for safeguarding marine biodiversity and ecosystem services. Here, we review progress in integrating climate change adaptation into MPA design and management and provide eight recommendations to expedite this process. Climate-smart management objectives should become the default...

Current negative trends in nature could seriously undermine progress towards sustainable development. Only 10 years remain to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and progress has so far been insufficient, so increased effort is required to accelerate transformative pathways including further integration of biodiversity considerations into the wider implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) are a useful tool to assess country-level progress and the extent to which biodiversity is integrated...

Abstract Background Land-use is a major driver of changes in biodiversity worldwide, but studies have overwhelmingly focused on above-ground taxa: the effects on soil biodiversity are less well known, despite the importance of soil organisms in ecosystem functioning. We modelled data from a global biodiversity database to compare how the abundance of soil-dwelling and above-ground organisms responded to land use and soil properties. Results We found that land use affects overall abundance differently in soil...

Restoration of degraded land is recognized by the international community as an important way of enhancing both biodiversity and ecosystem services, but more information is needed about its costs and benefits. In Cambridgeshire, U.K., a long-term initiative to convert drained, intensively farmed arable land to a wetland habitat mosaic is driven by a desire both to prevent biodiversity loss from the nationally important Wicken Fen National Nature Reserve (Wicken Fen NNR) and to increase the...

Despite increasing concerns about the vulnerability of species’ populations to climate change, there has been little overall synthesis of how individual population responses to variation in climate differ between taxa, with trophic level or geographically. To address this, we extracted data from 132 long-term (≥20 years) studies of population responses to temperature and precipitation covering 236 animal and plant species across terrestrial and freshwater habitats. Temperature tended to have a greater overall impact on populations...

This report, which is the result of collaborative effort within the Trade Hub project, explores the multiplicity of issues associated with the so-called ‘soybean miracle’, both from a global and a local perspective. With a comprehensive review of the available literature and data, and with country-specific summaries for Tanzania, Brazil and China, this study retraces the historical moments that contributed to make soybean a ‘global flexible crop’, increasingly appreciated and demanded for its versatility all...

​The large-scale restoration of habitats including forests, peatlands and wetlands offers opportunities to tackle the twin crises of anthropogenic climate change and global biodiversity loss. It is therefore critical that restoration projects can maximise their climate change mitigation potential while still delivering biodiversity benefits. This project aims to understand how projects can achieve this, by quantifying the potential contribution of ELP projects to such ‘natural climate solutions’ – – and explore how this can be...

​Awareness of and global concern for marine plastic pollution continues to grow, with initiatives being implemented to tackle the problem worldwide. The Osaka Blue Ocean Vision, set at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, in 2019, aims to ‘reduce additional pollution by marine plastics litter to zero by 2050 through a comprehensive life-cycle approach’. Despite the rising profile of this issue, additional research is needed to understand the flow of plastics around the ocean, and...

It is widely accepted that the main driver of the observed decline in biological diversity is increasing human pressure on Earth’s ecosystems. However, the spatial patterns of change in human pressure and their relation to conservation efforts are less well known. We developed a spatially and temporally explicit map of global change in human pressure over two decades between 1990 and 2010 at a resolution of 10 km2. We evaluated 22 spatial data sets representing...

​​The large-scale restoration of habitats including forests, peatlands and wetlands offers opportunities to tackle the twin crises of anthropogenic climate change and global biodiversity loss. It is therefore critical that restoration projects can maximise their climate change mitigation potential while still delivering biodiversity benefits. This project aims to understand how projects can achieve this, by quantifying the potential contribution of ELP projects to such ‘natural climate solutions’ – – and explore how this can be...

​This synthesis report draws on the different studies developed under the ABNJ Deep Seas project and provides insights into the future of cross-sectoral area-based planning in ABNJ.

​This Manual makes the methods of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) and associated sub-global (local and regional) assessments widely accessible. While the MA is the most comprehensive assessment of ecosystems carried out to date, there are other related assessment processes such as Global Environment Outlook, Global International Waters Assessment, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Land Degradation Assessment in Drylands, International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development, and World Water Assessment. Lessons learned...

​The Biodiversity Indicators Partnership (BIP) is a global initiative that has operated since 2007. Mandated by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), it promotes and coordinates the development of indicators of biodiversity change in support of the CBD and related Conventions, national and regional governments and a range of other sectors. UNEP-WCMC is the official Secretariat of the BIP.

Although species are being lost at alarming rates, previous research has provided conflicting results on the extent and even direction of global biodiversity change at the local scale. Here, we assessed the ability to detect global biodiversity trends using local species richness and how it is affected by the number of monitoring sites, sampling interval (i.e., time between original survey and re-survey of the site), measurement error (error of the measurement of the local species...

The world is currently experiencing a period of rapid, human-driven biodiversity loss. Over the past decade, numerous metrics for biodiversity have been used to create indicators to track change in biodiversity. However, our ability to predict future changes has been limited. In this study, we use two very different models to predict the status and possible futures for the composition and diversity of ecological assemblages in African tropical grasslands and savannas under land-use change. We...

1. Cultural Ecosystem Services (CES) encompass a range of social, cultural and health benefits to local communities, for example recreation, spirituality, a sense of place and local identity. However, these complex and place-specific CES are often overlooked in rapid land management decisions and assessed using broad, top–down approaches. 2. We use the Toolkit for Ecosystem Service Site-based Assessment (TESSA) to examine a novel approach to rapid assessment of local CES provision using inductive, participatory methods....

​UNEP-WCMC has been providing technical support to the work of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on biodiversity and climate change. UNEP-WCMC carried out three reviews of the recent scientific literature and these fed into the deliberations of the CBD's Second Ad Hoc Technical Expert Group (AHTEG) on Biodiversity and Climate Change. These reviews, entitled, 'Links between Biodiversity and Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Mitigation', have now been published as No. 42 of the CBD...

This technical report was produced for the Endangered Landscapes Programme (ELP) by UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC), together with BirdLife Europe and Central Asia, in order to assess the benefits of ecosystem restoration in Europe. The report is the result of a literature review conducted in 2020.

Restoration is a long-term process, and for it to be as efficient and effective as possible, climate change impacts have to be considered before any action is carried out. This global screening layer of Restoration Resilience offers users a high-level overview of the climate resilience of restorable ecosystems. Different climate threats are considered, however, this is a global analysis that can only be used for scoping, screening and information gathering - before any action can...

This output has been funded in whole or part by the UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund under the Trade, Development and the Environment Hub project (project number ES/S008160/1).

​Cloud forests represent a rare and fragile ecosystem that is under threat in many parts of the world. These rich mountain forests make up no more than 2.5 percent of the world's tropical forests but contain a disproportionately large number of the world's species. The Cloud Forest Agenda report aims to stimulate new initiatives and partnerships for the conservation and restoration of tropical montane cloud forests around the world. The report provides the first global...

​This report presents the first comprehensive overview of international trade in CITES-listed wildlife in the Amazon countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela. The analysis provides a baseline of information on trade levels and trends in these countries for the ten-year period 2005-2014, in order to inform trade management in the region. Produced in close collaboration with national experts, the report also presents contextual information and insights into the management of wildlife...