Abstract
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) include economic, social and environmental dimensions of human development and make explicit commitments to all of life on Earth. Evidence of continuing global biodiversity loss has, at the same time, led to a succession of internationally agreed conservation targets.With multiple targets (even within one policy realm, e.g. the CBD Aichi Targets for biodiversity), it is possible for different indicators to respond in the same direction, in opposite directions or to show no particular relationship. When considering the different sectors of the SDGs, there are many possible relationships among indicators that have been widely discussed, but rarely analysed in detail.Here, we present a comparative cross‐national analysis exploring temporally integrated linkages between human development indicators and wildlife conservation trends.The results suggest that in lower income countries there are negative relationships between measures of human population growth and bird and mammal population abundance trends outside protected areas.The results also suggest a positive relationship between economic growth and wildlife population trends in lower income countries. We stress, however, the need for future research to further explore the relationships between economic growth and natural resource‐based imports.Our results highlight a clear potential for compatibility of the conservation and development agendas and support the need for further integration among sustainable development strategies. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Highlights
Over the past decades, national leaders have increasingly collabo‐ rated internationally to confront humanitarian and environmental challenges, such as eradicating poverty and hunger, slowing the rate of biodiversity loss and preventing further global climate change
The results suggest a positive relationship between economic growth and wildlife population trends in lower income countries
Two concurrent policy agendas are in place: (a) the Convention on Biological Diversity 2020 Aichi Targets for biodi‐ versity (CBD, 2010b) and (b) the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifying the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs; United Nations General Assembly, 2015)
Summary
National leaders have increasingly collabo‐ rated internationally to confront humanitarian and environmental challenges, such as eradicating poverty and hunger, slowing the rate of biodiversity loss and preventing further global climate change. These approaches have led to a succession of internationally agreed sustainable development agendas. Both of these global agendas were designed with more coherence in mind than their predecessors, the CBD biodiversity targets are in general not likely to be achieved by their deadline in 2020 (Tittensor, Walpole, Hill, & Boyce, 2014), leaving the broader policy objectives of the SDGs, which encompass some aspects of the CBD targets, at risk
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
