Human well-being at risk. Landmark reports highlight options to protect and restore nature and its vital contributions to people

Biodiversity – the essential variety of life forms on Earth – continues to decline in every region of the world, significantly reducing nature's capacity to contribute to people's well-being. This alarming trend endangers economies, livelihoods, food security and the quality of life of people everywhere, according to four landmark science reports released today, written by more than 550 leading experts, from over 100 countries. "The reports released today must spur governments into action and determination to design a bold strategy for setting biodiversity targets for the period after 2020. This is critical to bend the curve of biodiversity loss the science is clearly pointing toward," says WWF

The result of three years of work, the four regional assessments of biodiversity and ecosystem services cover the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Africa, as well as Europe and Central Asia – the entire planet except the poles and the open oceans. The assessment reports were approved by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), in Medellín, Colombia, at the 6th session of its Plenary. IPBES has 129 State Members.

"Biodiversity and nature's contributions to people sound, to many people, academic and far removed from our daily lives," said the Chair of IPBES, Sir Robert Watson, "Nothing could be further from the truth – they are the bedrock of our food, clean water and energy. They are at the heart not only of our survival, but of our cultures, identities and enjoyment of life. The best available evidence, gathered by the world's leading experts, points us now to a single conclusion: we must act to halt and reverse the unsustainable use of nature – or risk not only the future we want, but even the lives we currently lead. Fortunately, the evidence also shows that we know how to protect and partially restore our vital natural assets."

"These results are scientific evidence of what nature is telling us: we must enter a decade of ecological restoration, because the costs of policy inaction on climate change and nature conservation will be tremendous, irreversible and an unacceptable burden on future generations," says Günter Mitlacher, Director International Biodiversity Policy, WWF.

The extensively peer-reviewed IPBES assessment reports focus on providing answers to key questions for each of the four regions, including: why is biodiversity important, where are we making progress, what are the main threats and opportunities for biodiversity and how can we adjust our policies and institutions for a more sustainable future?

In every region, with the exception of a number of positive examples where lessons can be learned, biodiversity and nature's capacity to contribute to people are being degraded, reduced and lost due to a number of common pressures – habitat stress; overexploitation and unsustainable use of natural resources; air, land and water pollution; increasing numbers and impact of invasive alien species and climate change, among others.

Declining Biodiversity – Now and in the Future

Europe and Central Asia

A major trend is the increasing intensity of conventional agriculture and forestry, which leads to biodiversity decline. There are also examples of sustainable agricultural and forestry practices that are beneficial to biodiversity and nature's contributions to people in the region. Nature's material contributions to people, such as food and energy, have been promoted at the expense of both regulating contributions, such as pollination and soil formation, and non-material contributions, such as cultural experiences or opportunities to develop a sense of place.

"The people of the region consume more renewable natural resources than the region produces," said Prof. Markus Fischer (Switzerland), co-chair of the Europe and Central Asia assessment with Prof. Mark Rounsevell (UK), "Although this is somewhat off-set by higher biocapacities in Eastern Europe and northern parts of Western and Central Europe."