Biodiversity, biocapacity and better choices

Preserve Natural CapitalNatural capital – biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services– must be preserved and restored as the foundation of humansocieties and economies. Efforts must particularly focus onprotecting and restoring key ecological processes necessary for food,water and energy security, as well as climate change resilience andadaptation. The Earth’s diversity of species and habitats must alsobe preserved for their intrinsic value.i. Significantly expand the global protected areasnetwork• Protect 20 per cent of representative land, freshwater andmarine areas, including areas key for ecological processesnecessary for biodiversity, food, water and energy security,and climate change resilience and adaptation.• Implement adequate funding mechanisms for effectiveprotected area management.Halting forest degradation and deforestationAchieving Zero Net Deforestation and Degradation (ZNDD)would not only stem the depletion of forest-based biodiversityand ecosystem services, but also eliminate the second-largestsource of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. WWFadvocates ZNDD by 2020 to reflect the scale and urgency ofthese threats.WWF defines ZNDD as: no net forest loss throughdeforestation and no net decline in forest quality throughdegradation; and stresses that: (a) most natural forest shouldbe retained – the annual rate of loss of natural or semi-naturalforests should be reduced to near zero; and (b) any gross loss ordegradation of pristine natural forests would need to be offsetby an equivalent area of socially and environmentally soundforest restoration.WWF’s Living Forests Model projects that it is possibleto achieve ZNDD by 2020, and warns that the longer it takes toachieve this goal the harder it will become to stem forest loss.But major changes in land and resource use will be needed; theimplications and options for this are explored in WWF’s LivingForests Report (WWF, 2011a; b; c).Efforts must focuson protectingand restoring keyecological processesnecessary for food,water and energysecurity, as wellas climate changeresilience andadaptationii. Halt loss of priority habitats• Achieve Zero Net Deforestation and Degradation by 2020 andmaintain thereafter.• Halt fragmentation of freshwater systems.• Increase the area of effectively managed marine protected areasfrom 5 per cent to at least 20 per cent.iii. Restore damaged ecosystems andecosystem services• Prioritize restoration of ecosystems and ecosystem servicesnecessary for food, water and energy security, and climatechange resilience and adaptation.Water reserves: Securing water resources forpeople and natureThe Mexican National Water Commission(CONAGUA), with support from WWF and the FundacionGonzalo Río Arronte, is working to manage freshwaterecosystems. In 2011, a national environmental flow standardwas approved, and 189 basins were identified as potential “waterreserves”: watersheds with high biological richness and relativelyhigh water availability. These basins are the main targets of theNational Water Reserves Program (CONAGUA, 2011) that iscreating conditions to safeguard the natural flow regimes thatsustain critical ecosystems, secure the services they supportand maintain buffering capacity against climate uncertaintyand water scarcity risk.WWF Living Planet Report 2012 page 110 Chapter 4: Better choices for a living planet page 111