Protecting biodiversity: Essential for people and nature

At first glance, biodiversity does not appear to be an issue that directly affects our everyday lives. However, preserving biodiversity is crucial in the fight against climate change and important for reducing the risk of natural disasters. Healthy ecosystems not only stabilise our planet, but also indirectly protect economy by helping to minimise damage and safeguard our lives. Protecting our environment means preserving our quality of life and our standard of living. Biodiversity therefore affects us all - and is therefore of crucial importance for our common future.

The decline in biodiversity has reached an unprecedented peak over the past 50 years. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), up to one million species are now threatened with extinction. Many of these could be lost forever within the next few decades. The speed at which this loss is progressing is alarming. The impact this could have on us humans, our well-being and our prosperity has so far received comparatively little attention in the public debate.

This is surprising when you consider that without short-term countermeasures, our natural resources could be lost at a rapid pace. And this has long-term consequences for almost all areas of life - from food, water availability and global warming to air quality and our economy. Specifically, according to UN figures, the loss of biodiversity threatens around half of global economic output. Expressed in figures, this amounts to an estimated 44 trillion US dollars per year.

What healthy ecosystems do for us

The World Economic Forum has even labelled the decline in biodiversity as one of the five greatest risks to the global economy. One reason for this is the so-called ecosystem services, i.e. the services we receive from nature. This "free" contribution from nature includes the following aspects, among others:

• Natural pollination
  Pollination by insects is essential for the production of many fruits.

• Clean water
  Natural filtering of precipitation through forests and wetlands provides us with clean drinking and irrigation water.
  
  
• Renewable raw materials
  Forests and other ecosystems provide us with natural, sustainable and healthy building materials and raw materials.
  
  
• Fresh fish for consumption
  Intact bodies of water support the natural reproduction of fish populations as an important source of food.
  
  
• Functional climate regulation
  Forests and moors bind greenhouse gases and thus help to reduce CO² emissions.
  
  

Global effort to save biodiversity

As part of the World Biodiversity Conference, the 196 members of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) met in Montréal, Canada, in December 2022 for COP 15 and adopted the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). In it, the signatory states set the following goals to significantly improve biodiversity:

• Protection of terrestrial and marine areas: At least 30 per cent of the world's land and marine areas are to be placed under protection by 2030. Currently it is 17 per cent of land areas and 10 per cent of marine areas.
  
  
• Restoring degraded ecosystems: The aim is also to have restored 30 per cent of degraded terrestrial and marine ecosystems by 2030.
  
  
• Reduction of biodiversity loss: The loss of areas with high biodiversity significance and ecological integrity is to be reduced to almost zero. This includes measures against overexploitation, pollution and habitat destruction.
  
  
• Financing: At least 200 billion US dollars per year from public and private sources should be mobilised for biodiversity-related measures.
  
  
• Subsidy reforms: Financial incentives that harm biodiversity are to be reduced by at least 500 billion US dollars per year by 2030. At the same time, positive incentives for the protection of species and sustainable use will be created.
  
  
• Food waste: The aim is to reduce this by 50 per cent.
  
  
• Corporate transparency: Transnational companies and financial institutions must be obliged to monitor, to evaluate and transparently disclose the impact of their activities on biodiversity. This includes, for example, the evaluation of supply chains.

The latter in particular, i.e. the ability to categorise biodiversity risks along supply chains, has long presented companies and financial institutions with major challenges. With the WWF's Biodiversity Risk Filter (BRF) which was presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos at the beginning of 2023, it is now possible to recognise risks in the biodiversity context at company sites, value chains and investments and make them more resilient.

Engagement für die Artenvielfalt als Überlebensversicherung für uns alle

The protection of biodiversity is not only an ethical task, but also the basis for a future worth living on this planet. Various initiatives offer the opportunity to contribute to the preservation of biodiversity. The insurance industry is involved here via the German Insurance Association (GDV). Organisations and individuals alike can make a valuable contribution to safeguarding biodiversity by making more conscious decisions and making their everyday lives more sustainable.

Author: Alexa Brandt