The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Quantitative Assessment (2011)
This report is a response to evidence of a widespread loss of ecosystem quality at different scales (local, regional and global), a loss which is on-going and does not appear to be slowing down (Butchart et al., 2010). 2010 was the UN Year of Biodiversity. The most recent edition of the United Nations’ Global Biodiversity Outlook estimates that 17% of known species are ‘endangered’ or ‘critically endangered’ and a further 27% are in a ‘vulnerable’ or ‘near-threatened’ condition; further, the 2010 goal of ‘significantly reducing the rate of loss’ has not been achieved (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2010). The first Global Biodiversity Outlook (Convention on Biological Diversity, 2001), finds that the rate of species extinctions is in the order of 100 to 1000 times faster than natural rates.
The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity Quantitative Assessment (2011).pdf
