Protect Biodiversity and Reverse Soil Erosion

Protect Biodiversity and Reverse Soil Erosion Protect Biodiversity and Reverse Soil Erosion

Policies that ensure the protection of biodiversity and reverse soil erosion to be adopted based on the Future Policy Award 2010 winning best policies.

Biodiversity, the variety of different types of life found on earth, is essential to sustaining the living networks and systems that our lives depend on. However, our planet faces a severe biodiversity crisis caused by careless habitat destruction, pollution and climate change, despite the celebration of the International Year of Biodiversity in 2010. Over the past 40 years, the number of wild animals on Earth for example, has halved at a rate that is estimated to be 10,000 times higher than natural extinction.

In addition, soil supports countless species that create dynamic and complex ecosystems and is one the most precious of nature’s resources. Alarmingly, in the past 150 years, half of the Earth’s topsoil has been lost through soil erosion. As a form of land degradation, this occurs when soil is left exposed and unprotected, often due to poor land management including the inappropriate removal of vegetation and overgrazing.

A flourishing biodiversity and protection of soil from excessive erosion is key to ensuring the well-being of future generations, impacting on economic and food security as well as upon our social welfare. Comprehensive biodiversity legislation is indispensable to reaching global biodiversity targets, and there are many regional policy frameworks and international agreements which are already proving effective.

Spreading proven policy solutions is fundamental to halting the interconnected challenges of climate change, human well-being, and economies, through interdependent solutions which preserve the unique and diverse life that our planet possesses.

For training materials for decision makers on how to draft exemplary biodiversity policies please click here.

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