Post-2020 Targets for Biodiversity
With the UN Convention on Biological Diversity's existing global targets for biodiversity expiring in 2020, world leaders are planning to adopt a new global biodiversity framework, with new goals, targets and indicators, at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD CoP15).
POSITION PAPERS FOR CBD COP15.2 (DECEMBER 2022)
POSITION PAPERS FOR FOURTH SESSION OF OEWG (JUNE 2022)
POSITION PAPERS FOR RESUMED SBSTTA, SBI, OEWG (MARCH 2022)
OVERVIEW VIDEO: ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY
POSITION PAPERS & MATERIALS FOR CBD SBSTTA and SBI
GOALS, TARGETS AND INDICATORS FOR ECOSYSTEM INTEGRITY
Webinar on Ecosystem Integrity in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework

CONSERVING THE INTEGRITY OF CORAL REEF ECOSYSTEMS
Following the publication of the draft framework, WCS and other members of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), including 40 countries whose territories contain most of the world’s coral reef ecosystems, agreed by consensus to critical recommendations to CBD Parties on this draft.
COMMITTING TO PROTECT OR CONSERVE 30%
OF OUR PLANET BY 2030
WCS supports the global efforts to ensure that CBD Parties commit to protecting or conserving least 30% of land and sea areas by 2030 through area-based conservation measures, including protected areas that effectively mitigate impacts from identified threats, and other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs) that demonstrate comparable outcomes to protected areas. The science is clear that at least 30% of the global ocean and 30% of terrestrial and freshwater areas must be protected if the world is to avert the worst outcomes of the biodiversity and climate crises.
RESOURCE MOBILIZATION POST-2020
The OECD has estimated that government investments (subsidies) in activities harmful to biodiversity are 5-6 times larger than both public and private investment in biodiversity. Current levels of funding are already insufficient to manage existing protected areas, and the financial shortfalls are even worse in regions with a number of developing countries where the majority of the world’s biodiversity is located. A post-2020 framework must include commitments to identify and eliminate harmful expenditures and perverse subsidies, while also increasing both domestic and international spending on biodiversity and nature conservation.
SCIENCE
Tackling the Shocking Decline in Nature Needs a ‘Safety Net’ of Multiple Goals
The paper, published in the journal Science, identifies three points critical for countries to take into account when setting new biodiversity goals
Act NowSixteen years of change in the global terrestrial human footprint
In Nature Communications, scientists detail the impacts on biodiversity. The pressures are perversely intense, they note, widespread, and rapidly intensifying in places with high biodiversity.
Act NowModification of forests by people means only 40% of remaining forests have high ecosystem integrity
Scientists, including from WCS, generate the first globally-consistent, continuous index of forest condition as determined by degree of anthropogenic modification.
Act NowSocial–environmental drivers inform strategic management of coral reefs in the Anthropocene
More than 80 marine scientists joined together to identify key social-environmental pressures and human impacts on coral reefs. The authors recommended “protect, recover, and transform” strategies to save and protect these ecosystems.
Act NowThe exceptional value of intact forest ecosystems
There is emerging evidence that the remaining intact forest supports an exceptional confluence of globally significant environmental values relative to degraded forests, write scientists in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Act NowCOMMENTARY
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