Biodiversity loss occurs all over the World, particularly in the tropics. The efforts of the past decade have not been successful in slowing down biodiversity loss and we have to think about other strategies to halt this loss

Trends in the abundance of global species (Living Planet Index) on land, in the oceans and in freshwater bodies, on average, have declined, with no decrease in the rate of loss. The rate of biodiversity loss in the tropics is significantly higher than the world average. In temperate climatic zones progress is being made for freshwater species, biodiversity on land is stable, while the mean species abundance in marine environments are falling again, after an initial improvement between 1970 and 1995 (CBD, 2010; WWF, 2008).

Tropical zones still contain large areas of good quality biodiversity, but these are under severe pressure (CBD, 2010). Large parts of the temperate zones contain biodiversity of low quality, owing to land clearances in the past and historically high levels of human activity. However, the rate of further loss in these areas is either decreasing, already low or has even stopped. In recent decades, agricultural development has become concentrated in the remaining thinly populated areas in the world where biodiversity is still high.

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