Biodiversity

With wider sharing of the vast amounts of raw biodiversity data collected from the studies and projects they finance, development banks could facilitate the implementation of ecological transitions. Last part of this series focusing on the links between data sharing and biodiversity.

An increasing amount of biodiversity data has become available worldwide. Yet, we clearly lack data on groups of little-known organisms in the intertropical zone, which is richest in biodiversity.

According to natural scientists, Gilbert Cochet and Béatrice Kremer-Cochet, rewilding land helps restore biodiversity, and thus offers better protection for humankind.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals provided for subsidies contributing to overfishing to end by 2020. Where are we now, with negotiations on overfishing resuming at the World Trade Organization (WTO)?

Agriculture has been one of the main causes of the decline in biodiversity. Yet it is essential to guarantee the productive potential of future farmlands. According to agricultural economist Jacques Loyat, the common agricultural policy (CAP) must be used as a means of restoring and protecting...

For philosopher Corine Pelluchon, who recently published ‘Réparons le monde’ (Rivages), ecological transition must put “planetary limits, our relationship with animals, health and reducing inequalities” at the heart of government policy.

Crises overshadowed by the COVID-19 pandemic are now resurfacing, although they are counteracted by notable progress. While Latin America faces environmental and social issues, in Africa, the use of the law and of technology to protect populations is a step forward.

Humans use the biodiversity found in nature as a material, yet it is also a major source of information from which we can draw inspiration through biomimicry, providing models that can be replicated, especially in terms of transition and adaptation.

In just a few years, illegal pangolin trade originating in Nigeria has boomed. For Chervine Oftadeh, a strong, coordinated response to this issue could save this near-extinct species, protect global health and contribute to the country’s development.

In 2020, both climate and biodiversity will be addressed by a Conference of the Parties (COP). These two subjects are often addressed in silos, but are in fact inseparable: biodiversity has a leading role to play in mitigating climate change.

Biodiversity continues to decline, and conservation efforts are not equal to the challenges. According to Gilles Kleitz, biodiversity conservation has a part to play in the achievement of all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

Three-quarters of the world’s food is generated from 12 plants and 5 animal species. Agrobiodiversity gets less attention than animal biodiversity, but it’s nonetheless threatened by major corporations that have built economic monopolies in the seed market.

The losses in biodiversity have never been as fast nor as dramatic. Nonetheless, scientists and organizations fight on. Save endangered species, restore animal communities, return their habitats to them: it’s still possible.

Biodiversity is increasingly under threat on the African continent. In the face of this danger, IDDRI researchers Renaud Lapeyre and Yann Laurans promote a contractual approach to the financing and management of protected areas in Africa.