Nature is disappearing: Here’s why it matters and what to do about it

The last few months have amounted to a crescendo of reminders that humanity’s relationship with nature is broken. Unprecedented floods inundated communities in Wyoming, Kentucky, and Pakistan. Hurricane Ian wreaked havoc along the East Coast. A megadrought is forcing tens of millions of people from Colorado to Arizona to face the prospects of drastic restrictions on water use.

These crises all share a connection to climate change. But our broken relationship with nature has triggered a parallel crisis as well: a rapid loss of biodiversity. This week brought more grim news on that front, detailed in World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) 2022 Living Planet Report. The report card is not good: Wildlife populations have now declined by an average of 69 percent globally since 1970. The numbers are more shocking among certain species and for certain regions. Freshwater ecosystems have seen an 83 percent drop in the abundance of species; and Latin America has been the hardest hit region, with a 94 percent overall decline. Driving this loss of nature are human activities, including over-exploitation of species and destruction of their habitats, particularly through conversion of forests and lands for agriculture, infrastructure and other forms of development.

But, to paraphrase President John F. Kennedy, since these problems are made by people, they can also be solved by people. Governments — particularly the U.S. government — have a series of opportunities in the coming months to make meaningful progress.

The first opportunity — the 27th conference of parties (COP27) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change — takes place in November in Egypt to continue advancing global action on climate change under the Paris Agreement. The second — the 15th conference of parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity — takes place in December in Montreal, where countries must agree on a set of targets and a framework to halt and reverse global nature loss by the end of this decade. Delayed by two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this second meeting could ultimately prove the more pivotal of the two.

While it has received less attention than climate change, global nature loss is a crisis in its own right and on a similar scale. As the Living Planet Report drives home, the rapid loss of biodiversity is a growing threat to all of us. Nature is essential to our health and our future prosperity. Conserving tropical forests and other species-rich ecosystems is also critical to slowing climate change and building resilience to its impacts, as well as preventing the spillover of wildlife-borne diseases that can spark pandemics. In the developing world in particular, nature and its resources are the foundation of food and water security, social stability and economic growth. By undermining this foundation, we not only risk the future of global development but America’s own national and economic security interests.

These stark findings have been echoed by both intergovernmental bodies and U.S. national security experts. In a 2021 study, the Council on Strategic Risks concluded that the loss and degradation of nature and natural systems is “arguably the 21st Century’s most underappreciated security threat.” In its 2022 Global Risks Report, the World Economic Forum ranks biodiversity loss as one of the three most severe long-term dangers facing the world.

Given these realities, the stakes are high for COP15. Nearly all of the countries of the world will have a seat at the table, with the notable exception is the United States — one of only four UN member states and the only major country not to have ratified the Convention on Biological Diversity. Nevertheless, the U.S. can do much to ensure strong outcomes in Montreal and beyond, using diplomatic influence, leading by example and mobilizing necessary resources to help developing countries achieve the goals of the emerging 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework.   

The Biden administration has taken a number of actions to demonstrate U.S. leadership on the issue, the latest being the recent appointment of Assistant Secretary of State Monica Medina as special envoy for biodiversity and water resources. This follows presidential directives to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands and waters, promote nature-based solutions to climate change, as well as drive global efforts to halt deforestation. On the latter, President Biden has issued a plan to conserve global forests — key storehouses of both biodiversity and carbon — accompanied by a $9 billion pledge by 2030. Meanwhile, Congress is considering bipartisan legislation, including the FOREST Act and the AMAZON21 Act, which would do much to deliver on these goals. Congress should work quickly to advance these bills into law. 

Perhaps the clearest role the U.S. can play in halting and reversing global nature loss by 2030 is in the assistance it provides to those countries where biodiversity is richest but the resources to protect it are most lacking, in addition to shifting domestic policies and trade practices away from those that destroy nature and toward those that support a “nature positive” world. The U.S. government has historically been one of the biggest contributors to conservation in the developing world, with longstanding bipartisan support across Congresses and administrations. By doubling down on that commitment this year, it can also help achieve a stronger overall outcome for nature at the UN biodiversity talks in Montreal.

Specifically, Congress should finalize end of year funding bills that include increased support for global conservation programs at USAID, the State Department and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as well as the Global Environment Facility, which is the main international mechanism supporting biodiversity conservation. The deadline to pass such a funding deal now lands during the COP15 negotiations, and a significant boost to these programs could be a welcome shot in the arm during the talks. Beyond the declarations coming out of Montreal, increased resources are essential if we are to reverse the dangerous trends detailed in the Living Planet Report and halt nature loss within this decade. It is clearly an investment worth making, and a leadership role the U.S. can and should play.

Will Gartshore is World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) senior director for policy and government affairs.