Environment at a Glance Dashboard

Biodiversity, which encompasses species, ecosystems, and genetic diversity, provides invaluable ecosystem services (including raw materials) and plays an essential role in maintaining life-support systems and quality of life. The loss of biodiversity is a key concern as it reduces ecosystem resilience and increases vulnerability to threats such as the negative impacts of climate change. Pressures can be physical, chemical or biological. The main challenge is to ensure effective conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. This implies strengthening the degree of protection of species, habitats and terrestrial, marine and other aquatic ecosystems, including oceans.

Land use and land cover statistics are essential to monitor pressures on biodiversity. Forests, especially naturally-grown, are not only a carbon sink, they provide essential ecosystem services and sustain biodiversity. Agricultural areas under intensive farming deplete soils, pollute air and water and encroach on natural habitats.

These indicators provide data on country-level protected area coverage for terrestrial, marine and coastal domains. They are disaggregated by International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) management objectives: strict nature reserves and wilderness areas, national parks, natural monuments or features, habitat or species management areas, protected landscapes or seascapes, and protected areas with sustainable use of natural resources.

These indicators provide data on the percentage of mammals, vascular plants, freshwater fish, birds and amphibians that are threatened of extinction. 

Beyond conservation, regulatory and voluntary measures, major policy levers include taxation, fees and charges, payments for ecosystem services, biodiversity offsets and tradable permits (such as transferable quotas for fisheries).