Blue and green biodiversity and ecosystem services are being lost at an unprecedented rate and scale in human history, with potentially far-reaching implications for economies and livelihoods. The root causes are the pace at which economies produce, consume and build and the ways that they do so, which are often inefficient not only from an environmental perspective, but also from an economic and inclusion standpoint. Akin to climate change, the economic and financial risks associated with biodiversity loss are systemic.
This report is part of a series of World Bank papers that outlines the development challenges and opportunities associated with blue and green biodiversity and ecosystem services. It makes the case that the rapid global decline in nature is a development issue and proposes six global response areas intended to guide governments and inform broader discussions on how to integrate nature into development agendas.
As countries formulate a set of new global biodiversity targets, the paper also offers insights that could inform the design and implementation of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, as well as the World Bank Group’s ongoing support to this agenda.