Global Assessments show that biodiversity is continuing to be lost. In the tropics, this rate of loss is high, while in the temperate zone the loss is smaller and some successes have been achieved. In the Netherlands, the loss has slowed down, but has not been halted. The slightly positive picture from this country becomes negative if its impacts on biodiversity abroad are taken into account.

 Looking beyond the frontiers

Integrated assessments help us to understand the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and support the decision-making process of post-2010 biodiversity policies. PBL advocates looking beyond three traditional frontiers of biodiversity stocktaking:

• looking beyond national borders, to include the impacts from domestic consumption and economic activities on biodiversity abroad
• looking beyond biodiversity policies by integrating them into economic sectors, spatial planning, transport and urban development
• looking beyond the impacts of development and economic growth and enhancing the positive outcomes of biodiversity policies for distributing wealth and reducing poverty.

Biodiversity loss is unevenly spread around the world

Biodiversity loss occurs all over the World, particularly in the tropics. Over the past decade, efforts to slow down this loss have not been successful and we have to think about other strategies to bring it to a halt. 

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Trade brings responsibility for biodiversity conservation abroad

Spatial claims related to national consumption and economic activity cause biodiversity loss beyond national borders. Four instruments for reducing biodiversity loss abroad are the certification of trade chains, implementation of measures to ban illegal trade, eco-regional investments to combine biodiversity conservation with local economic development, and compensating for biodiversity loss.

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Spatial planning across policy boundaries

Biodiversity loss cannot be stopped if biodiversity policies are implemented in isolation from other policies, such as those on the economy, urban and infrastructure developments, and climate change. To incorporate biodiversity conservation into these policy fields, attention needs to be paid to an appropriate use of policy tools of spatial planning and land-use planning. Besides the traditional set-aside policy for protected areas, four strategies for biodiversity-friendly planning can be identified:

1) connecting biodiversity in ecological networks,

2) exploiting opportunities for combining biodiversity conservation with new urban developments,

3) integrating biodiversity conservation into multifunctional rural development, and

4) developing ‘new nature’. 

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Biodiversity policies to combat poverty

Historically, increasing economic growth and human well-being have caused biodiversity loss. This relationship shows a consistent pattern; in the initial phase, increased human well-being causes biodiversity loss, however, if biodiversity falls below a critical level, human well-being starts to decline as well. To reduce the future rate of biodiversity loss, economic growth must be decoupled from environmental pressures and expanding land use.

In the designing of strategies to link economic development and biodiversity conservation, it is useful to distinguish between three poverty–biodiversity mechanisms.

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What can countries do?

In view of the post-2010 target, and especially the planning, monitoring and evaluation process, we need a better understanding of how biodiversity relates to economic and social development, backed by quantitative data. Strategies for halting the loss of biodiversity must encompass three important linkages: the development of sustainable production, trade and consumption chains; integrating biodiversity into land-use planning for multifunctional and multi-stakeholder landscapes; and biodiversity-inclusive poverty strategies.

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