PITY Mother Nature. Most of the world's nations are failing miserably to meet global targets for preserving biodiversity, a meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was told in Pyeongchang, South Korea, this week. The delegates are discussing what has been done towards achieving the 20 targets, set in 2010 in Nagoya, Japan.
A progress report by the United Nations Environment Programme and the CBD finds that coral reefs are particularly at risk; 55 per cent are threatened by overfishing and other pressures. Likewise, habitat degradation and loss is continuing apace, pushing many species to the brink of extinction. As a result, the world's wildlife population has halved in 40 years.
The report shows only four out of the 55 components that make up the targets are on course to be met by 2020. Five are less likely to be achieved than they were in 2010, with the rest seeing little or no progress. "The data suggest we are not making good progress," says Derek Tittensor of UNEP. But he's encouraged by commitments to set up huge marine protected zones in the Pacific Ocean.
This article appeared in print under the headline "Biodiversity fail"
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