A paper published in Science today outlines a new “Global Deal for Nature,” officially launching an effort to establish science-based conservation targets covering all of planet Earth, including terrestrial, freshwater, and marine ecosystems.

A Ghanaian consortium that focuses on nature conservation have emerged winners of the first African Biodiversity Challenge (ABC) a regional initiative that seeks to collect primary data on biodiversity to enhance its information management. 

Extractive activities such as mining are causing profound ecological and social damage in Africa. 

Many businesses will welcome the UK’s new emphasis on integrating biodiversity into investment decisions, but action needs to be accelerated and investment expanded if we are to attain the sustainable societies that we envy in some of our northern European neighbour countries, argues Malcolm Robertson, principal ecologist and James MacGregor, environmental economist, at Ramboll.

Nature provides people with everything from food and water to timber, textiles, medicinal resources and pollination of crops. 

Something fundamental may be shifting in the way we see our relationship with the natural world.

Depletion of natural capital is an irreversible process and steps to assess and combat this are needed urgently.

The plants, animals, and micro-organisms that are the bedrock of food production are in decline, according to a UN study.