September - 2020

Planetary ‘safety net’ could halt wildlife loss and slow climate breakdown

World leaders are preparing to join a key summit on biodiversity being hosted in New York amid mounting evidence that governments are failing to halt the unprecedented loss of species around the world. Earlier this month, a UN report revealed that the international community had failed to fully achieve any of the 20 biodiversity targets agreed in 2010. But scientists at the environmental research organisation Resolve have drawn up a blueprint for a planetary “safety net” of p

Isolation of protected areas a major blind spot in habitat conservation

A mere 10 % of nature protection areas worldwide are connected to each other by green corridors, a study published in Nature Communications with the contribution of JRC scientists has found out. Read more here.

'Shocking': wilderness the size of Mexico lost worldwide in just 13 years, study finds

Wilderness across the planet is disappearing on a huge scale, according to a new study that found human activities had converted an area the size of Mexico from virtually intact natural landscapes to heavily modified ones in just 13 years. Read here.

Research finds nearly all of protected habitats are 'disconnected'

More than 90 per cent of the world’s protected wildlife habitats are "disconnected", new research has found, greatly reducing their ability to support the plants and wildlife they were established to protect. Most nations on Earth have established protected areas to help conserve wildlife and plant species and maintain a functional ecosystem. Read more here.

Wilderness Area the Size of Mexico Lost in 13 Years Because of Humans, Study Finds

An area of intact wilderness the size of Mexico has been significantly changed — and much of it was lost forever — in just 13 years, a new study found. From 2000 to 2013, humans modified 734,000 square miles of land that had remained relatively undisturbed, according to the study published in the journal One Earth. Read more here.

Protect Indigenous People’s rights to avoid a sixth extinction

Humanity today face multiple crises. A pandemic grips societies around the globe and with each passing year greed, poor governance, and naivete push us further toward a climate change forced sixth great extinction and the collapse of ecosystems. It may already be too late to prevent the looming catastrophe of climate change. But there is an overlooked and undervalued blueprint for our survival. We must turn for help to the Indigenous Peoples who have, for millennia, provided

68% Of Animals Are Gone - Yet Conservation Can Work. Here’s How

We are all familiar with the climate change problem that our world is facing. But almost as equally as concerning - our world is currently undergoing a dramatic and rapid loss of biodiversity. Read more here.

Bending the curve of terrestrial biodiversity needs an integrated strategy

Increased efforts are required to prevent further losses to terrestrial biodiversity and the ecosystem services that it provides1,2. Ambitious targets have been proposed, such as reversing the declining trends in biodiversity3; however, just feeding the growing human population will make this a challenge4. Here we use an ensemble of land-use and biodiversity models to assess whether—and how—humanity can reverse the declines in terrestrial biodiversity caused by habitat conve

Living Planet Report 2020

The findings of The Living Planet Report 2020 are clear. Our relationship with nature is broken. Biodiversity - the rich diversity of life on Earth - is being lost at an alarming rate. The impacts of this loss on our well-being are mounting. And catastrophic impacts for people and planet loom closer than ever. Time is running out. We must take action now if nature is going to recover. Read here.