Current Concerns over Biodiversity’s Future

Prior to the upcoming United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in Nagoya, Japan in October 2010, the UN General Assembly will meet  about the biodiversity crisis for the first time. Director General of IUCN and GEG Forum Participant, Julia Marton-Lefèvre, writes about her concerns in Science Magazine. Rising extinction risks and large scale destruction of tropical forests  has increased climate change threats and incurred heavy economic costs. Studies place the costs of biodiversity loss at 1.35 to 3.1 trillion US  dollars. Forest reduction now constitutes a fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. International coordination and cooperation are vital to mitigating these devastating losses. “A strengthened global science-policy interface is needed” argues Marton-Lefèvre, “the key challenge in Nagoya will be to establish a new plan for scaling up and mainstreaming these successes.” Read the editorial here.