Conserving biodiversity through nature-positive pathways

Just as nature is the foundation of life on Earth, biodiversity provides the essential ‘ecosystem services’ required to sustain that foundation (e.g. food, water, medicines, fuel, water and climate regulation, pollination, aesthetic value, recreation, spirituality, education). Yet, globally that foundation is weakening as at least a million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, and many of these threatened species will go extinct within decades without “transformative changes” (IPBES, 2019). In fact, driven by increased human activity, extinction rates are estimated to be between 10 to 100 times higher than the average extinction rates of the past 10 million years. Therefore, a sustainable future for all depends on whether the world works toward goals consistent with nature-positive development such as “halting and reversing nature loss by 2030 on a 2020 baseline and achieving full recovery by 2050” (Locke and others, 2021).