A species lost to extinction is a species lost forever. In fact, the risk here is asymmetric: growth in one wildlife population does not offset a species getting pushed to extinction. They definitely don’t make up for the large losses in wildlife we’re seeing around the world. Of course, we shouldn’t use them to mask the bad news. We need to make sure these stories of success are heard. And each year there are a number of species that move away from the extinction zone on the IUCN Red List. There’s other evidence that protected areas have retained bird diversity in tropical ecosystems. Tens of species were saved through these interventions. As we will see, conservation action might have been insufficient to meet our Aichi targets, but it did make a difference. Maybe there is nothing we can do to turn things around. Perhaps, then, the loss of biodiversity is unavoidable. The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity set twenty targets – the Aichi Biodiversity Targets – to be achieved by 2020. Many predict that we’re heading for a sixth mass extinction the Living Planet Index reports a 68% average decline in wildlife populations since 1970 and we continue to lose the tropical habitats that support our most diverse ecosystems. It’s hard to find good news on the state of the world’s wildlife.
That’s an increase from 2000 when only one-third of these sites were protected. Globally, 46% of important sites for terrestrial biodiversity were protected in 2017. Identification as a Alliance for Zero Extinction site, that is, sites holding effectively the entire population of at least one species assessed as Critically Endangered or Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.More than 12,000 sites across the world have been designated through this criteria. Identified as an Important Bird & Biodiversity Area, that is, sites contributing significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity, identified using data on birds.What qualifies as an ‘important biodiversity site’. The IUCN therefore designates ‘important sites for biodiversity’. This might be because they have a high-density of unique species, or because species in that area are highly threatened. There are areas and sites across the world that are particularly important for the preservation for biodiversity. In the sections below we take a look at the distribution of protected areas across the world. Nonetheless, when properly implemented, they can make a significant difference to conservation efforts. While others have been too poorly monitored to stop this. Unfortunately protected areas are not perfect: some have been very effective in protecting habitats and endangered species. 1 The IUCN provides guidelines on assigning categories and governance types to different types of protected areas here. The specific objectives and regulations can vary across protected areas: for example, what is permitted in a strict nature reserve might differ from a national park or protected landscape. These are designated areas where there are tighter regulations on agricultural or infrastructural expansion efforts and closer monitoring of human encroachment. One way to protect habitats, ecosystems and vulnerable species is to set aside protected areas. Habitat loss has been, and continues to be, one of the biggest threats to wildlife. This has come at a severe cost to biodiversity. In the process, we’ve lost one-third of the planet’s forests and large areas of wild grasslands, peatlands and other environments. Half of the world’s habitable (ice- and desert-free land) is now used for agriculture. For millennia, humans have transformed the world’s landscape with the expansion of agricultural land, and more recently, the expansion of urban infrastructure.
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