Biodiversity and systematics: how have we fared in the International Year of Biodiversity?

Abstract

The 2010 target to achieve a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biodiversity at global, regional and national levels was not met. However, progress was made and the International Year of Biodiversity has kept biodiversity in the spotlight—illuminating our limited successes as well as the failures. Much has been learned from the process and the new generation of 2020 targets, agreed at Nagoya, includes a range of more focused practical goals as well as the longer-term, aspirational changes that need to take place. We recognise that there is a shift in thinking towards increasing the management of all ecosystems – “gardening the planet” – but we are concerned that the science of ecosystem management is insufficiently developed to deliver. In particular, our knowledge of the components of biodiversity of many ecosystems, and of their interactions, is dangerously incomplete and for many natural systems we are ill-informed to make decisions on their management. Taxonomists must help to fill these gaps in the science underpinning the field of biodiversity and ecosystem services. We welcome the proposed Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) as a mechanism for integrating the relevant science, from taxonomy and ecology to earth system modelling. Its work will likely be subject to intense scrutiny, just like the reports of the International Panel on Climate Change, and its focus must similarly always be on the evidence base and on the clarity and transparency of its arguments.