March 2012: One of the nine policy briefs produced by the scientific community to inform the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20), titled “Rio+20 Policy Brief: Biodiversity and Ecosystems for a Planet Under Pressure – Transition to Sustainability: Interconnected Challenges and Solutions,” sets out the main challenges facing the international community as it seeks to protect and enhance biodiversity and its human benefits, also suggesting pathways leading to a more sustainable future.

Commissioned by the Planet Under Pressure international scientific conference, which convened in March 2012, in London, UK, the brief was compiled by the Scientific Committee of Diversitas and the UN Scientific and Technical Advisory Panel (STAP) to the Global Environment Facility (GEF), with the collaboration of the GEF and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Its main recommendations include: incorporation of the multiple values of biodiversity and ecosystems into policy and management decisions; creation of green economies based on inclusive wealth; incorporation of biodiversity and ecosystem services into water- and land-use planning at all levels; implementation of policies that ensure benefit-sharing; restructuring of ecosystem governance and management to recognize that ecosystems transcend political boundaries; development of global governance institutions to address global drivers of biodiversity change; and implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and its Aichi targets. [Publication: Rio+20 Policy Brief: Biodiversity and Ecosystems for a Planet Under Pressure – Transition to Sustainability: Interconnected Challenges and Solutions]