Nature
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Fantastic news has dropped, as a first-of-its-kind review has concluded that conservation action does have a meaningful impact on biodiversity loss. The global meta-analysis uncovered how in two-thirds of cases, conservation efforts either improved the state of biodiversity or at least slowed its decline.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.It’s the strongest evidence to date that nature conservation is worth the investment. It also paints a promising picture for the future, as by scaling up conservation interventions, it shows we can halt and reverse biodiversity loss, returning our planet to a healthier balance that will in turn reduce the effects of climate change.
In the poignant documentary David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet, everyone’s favorite naturalist drew harrowing comparisons between the 1986 Chernobyl disaster and the ongoing crisis of biodiversity loss on Earth. Speaking from the condemned city, Attenborough described how, without proper intervention, the climatic and ecological consequences of biodiversity loss could one day parallel the destruction caused by the rupture of Chernobyl’s radioactive core.
Biodiversity is a crucial feature of a healthy ecosystem, and yet there are currently more than 44,000 species documented as being at risk of extinction. As such, this latest insight into the efficacy of conservation strategies isn’t just good news for the animals scientists are working to protect, but also for our own survival.
“If you look only at the trend of species declines, it would be easy to think that we’re failing to protect biodiversity, but you would not be looking at the full picture,” said Penny Langhammer, lead author of the study and executive vice president of Re:wild, in a statement. “What we show with this paper is that conservation is, in fact, working to halt and reverse biodiversity loss."
"It is clear that conservation must be prioritized and receive significant additional resources and political support globally, while we simultaneously address the systemic drivers of biodiversity loss, such as unsustainable consumption and production.”
Science has demonstrated that biodiverse ecosystems can help stabilize the climate, helping to provide billions of people around the world with everything from clean water and shelter to their livelihoods and culture. It’s been estimated that the ecosystem services provided by elephants should put them on an annual salary of around $70,000 a year, and creatures big and small are similarly pivotal in shaping our environment.
Governments across the globe have targets to reach in order to halt and reverse biodiversity loss – and to inspire funding, it pays to be able to demonstrate the results. Looking at 186 studies, including 665 trials, this analysis was able to quantify how conservation strategies have changed the outcome for species and ecosystems all around the planet.
Some of the most influential actions include establishing protected areas, eradicating invasive species, finding sustainable ways to manage ecosystems, reducing habitat loss, and restoring those that had been destroyed. The authors described them as being highly effective with large effect sizes, but stressed that conservation actions “require transformational scaling up to meet global targets.”
“It would be too easy to lose any sense of optimism in the face of ongoing biodiversity declines,” said study co-author and Associate Professor Joseph Bull, from the University of Oxford’s Department of Biology, in a statement. “However, our results clearly show that there is room for hope. Conservation interventions seemed to be an improvement on inaction most of the time; and when they were not, the losses were comparatively limited."
The study is published in the journal Science.
