Biodiversity – the variety of life on earth – underpins the well-being of billions of people every day. It provides a myriad of ecosystem services, such as the provision of food, clean water and air, nutrient cycling, and carbon sequestration. The economic value of these services, although often ignored in decision-making, are vast and should also be highlighted. Globally, they are estimated to range between 125 and 140 trillion dollars per year, far more than the world’s gross domestic product.

Biodiversity loss is among the top global risks to society. The planet is now facing its sixth mass extinction, with consequences that will affect all life on Earth, both now and for millions of years to come. Humans have destroyed or degraded vast areas of the world’s terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems. Natural forests declined by 6.5 million hectares per year between 2010 and 2015 (in total, an area larger than the U.K.), and natural wetlands declined by 35% between 1970 and 2015. Over 30% of corals are now at risk from bleaching, and 60% of vertebrate populations have disappeared since 1970. These striking changes are driven by land-use change, over-exploitation of natural resources, pollution, invasive alien species and climate change. They are occurring in spite of international efforts (such as the Convention on Biological Diversity) to conserve and sustainably use biodiversity.

2020 marks a critical juncture for one of the defining global challenges of our time: the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, which underpin nearly all of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Transformative changes are needed to ensure biodiversity conservation and sustainable use, and the delivery of the ecosystem services upon which all life depends. This report sets the economic and business case for urgent and ambitious action to halt and reverse global biodiversity loss. It presents a preliminary assessment of current biodiversity-related finance flows, and discusses the key data and indicator gaps that need to be addressed to underpin effective monitoring of both the pressures on biodiversity and the collective responses currently being implemented.

Biodiversity has declined rapidly over the last 50 years, with severe implications for human health and well-being, societal resilience and sustainable development. This chapter summarises the international policy context for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. Drawing on a range of data and indicators, it outlines the main pressures on biodiversity globally, and examines trends in the state of terrestrial, marine and freshwater biodiversity.

This chapter highlights the multiple benefits society derives from biodiversity and ecosystem services. It collates global, regional and national estimates of the economic value of these benefits, and the costs of policy inaction. Drawing on case studies and academic literature, the chapter then underscores the importance of biodiversity and nature-based solutions for achieving policy objectives on human health, food and water security, climate change mitigation and adaptation, and disaster risk reduction. Finally, the chapter discusses countries’ efforts to better understand and reflect biodiversity values in decision-making, through national ecosystem assessments and natural capital accounting.

There exists a strong business case for scaling up action on biodiversity. This chapter highlights how businesses depend on and impact biodiversity. It underscores the importance of acknowledging and measuring these dependencies and impacts for managing biodiversity-related risks, and harnessing new business opportunities. The chapter then discusses emerging tools, methodologies and initiatives to account for and integrate biodiversity into the decisions of business and financial organisations. Finally, the chapter recommends the creation of a multi-stakeholder advisory group on biodiversity, business and finance, to advise on the adoption of a common approach for measuring and integrating biodiversity in business and investment decisions in support of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

This chapter outlines the policy context and discusses opportunities for cost-effective ecosystem restoration. It highlights the multiple benefits that restoration can deliver, including climate change mitigation and resilience and inclusive economic growth – and that these benefits can far exceed the costs. The chapter also discusses the essential components for effective restoration, illustrated with short case studies.

Effective action for biodiversity requires improved knowledge of the state of, pressures on and policy responses for biodiversity. This chapter examines the status of data and indicators for biodiversity, highlighting how the current indicator suite does not effectively monitor progress towards the Aichi Targets. The chapter then discusses how new approaches to indicators in the post-2020 process, such as using headline indicators, could improve progress monitoring and the effectiveness of the new framework. Finally, the chapter explores the role of innovation and new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and remote earth observation, in creating new sources of data and indicators.

This chapter presents recent estimates of public and private expenditures on biodiversity, both domestic and international. It draws on multiple datasets including the OECD’s Policy Instruments for the Environment database and Creditor Reporting System, and country reports to the Convention on Biological Diversity. The chapter also presents estimates of public finance flows that are potentially harmful to biodiversity, such as fossil fuel subsidies and some agriculture and fisheries support.

Urgent action is needed to halt biodiversity loss and ensure the ongoing flow of ecosystem services vital to economies, human health and well-being. Building on the previous chapters, this chapter proposes ten priority areas where the G7 and other governments can focus their efforts to achieve more effective outcomes on biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

Biodiversity-related risks to businesses are categorised as:

Table A B.1. provides suggestions to translate international biodiversity goals into corporate biodiversity goals (Smith et al., 2018[24]).

Biodiversity goals and targets for businesses and financial institutions include:

Annex D discusses key business actions and elements of a framework for businesses and financial actors to integrate biodiversity into key areas, including governance; strategy; impact and dependency assessment and risk management; due diligence; disclosure and external reporting; voluntary industry standards, labels and certification schemes; and communication.

Policy makers, businesses, financial institutions and civil society need to co-operate to strengthen the business case for biodiversity and ecosystem services. Although additional analysis is needed on how to strengthen domestic policy frameworks for enhancing the business case for biodiversity and ecosystem services, preliminary research suggest that policy makers could notably:

The rapid development of technology has led to an explosion in the volume and types of data that can be collected across many sectors of the economy, society and environment. Biodiversity is no different and several novel, emerging or developing technologies have the potential to change the types of data that can be collected and the way existing data can be used by the public sector, private sector and private individuals. Table A F.1 provides a brief overview of four technologies that are likely to have significant impacts on the generation and usage of data for biodiversity.