Somewhere between $103 billion and $895 billion a year – that is how much funding will be needed to "bend the curve" on global nature loss, according to several recent estimates.

 

最近的几份估算研究显示，要想扭转全球生态损失的曲线，每年的花费将达到1030亿至8950亿美元。

 

Campaigners and academics have been striving to convince governments and the private sector¹ that the current loss of nature – dubbed² by scientists the "sixth mass extinction³" – poses a threat not just to species and ecosystems⁴, but also to economies.

 

Now, an expert panel convened⁵ by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) has analyzed⁶ various estimates of the costs and benefits of conserving⁷ nature. The analysis is part of work surrounding international negotiations⁸ on a new deal for nature, which will be agreed in Kunming, China, in May 2021.

 

New targets under discussion would see areas protected for nature on both land and sea increased from 17% to at least 30%. The new goals will replace the Aichi targets agreed in 2010, which the CBD recently confirmed had mostly failed.

 

The lower funding range, of $103-178 billion, is based only on investments in expanding protected areas, the panel noted⁹.

 

The larger range, of $631 billion to $895 billion, takes into account the cost of making the agricultural, fishery and forestry¹⁰ sectors¹¹ sustainable, conserving biodiversity in urban and coastal¹² areas, managing invasive species, and protecting urban water quality – all of which currently drive biodiversity loss.

 

Despite differing methodologies, the CBD expert panel noted that these estimates all reach the same conclusion: investment must increase substantially from current levels.

 

The panel also stressed that continuing on current trajectories¹³ of nature destruction will lead to significant global economic costs. It pointed¹⁴ to an analysis by campaign group WWF that estimates the loss of "services" provided by nature, such as crop pollination¹⁵ and clean water supply, at nearly $500 billion a year. Investing to protect nature would save money in the longer term by reducing the amount needed to tackle problems caused by losing these services, it said.

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