Ecology

Human activities are driving the Amazon towards the limits of survival.Credit: Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters

Earth is at the start of a mass extinction event: estimates show that species are disappearing at 100–1,000 times the rate of naturally occurring extinctions1,2. It will be the sixth such event in Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history. Unlike the previous five, this one has been precipitated by the actions of one species — humans.The 15th of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agreed by the United Nations, which Nature is covering in a special series, aims to reverse this looming crisis on land. SDG 15’s aims are “to protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss”.
Progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals
As we have already reported in this series, progress towards a similar goal — SDG 14, to protect life below water — is going backwards. SDG 15 is also nowhere near on track. In 2019, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) — an organization similar to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — reported3 that ecological communities on land have lost more than 20% of their original biodiversity, and that millions of terrestrial species are likely to become extinct by 2100.The greatest driver of this loss is conversion of land on an industrial scale for human use, especially by agribusiness and industry. Every year, human activities are costing the world around 100 million hectares of natural land — and about that much forest was lost between 2000 and 2020.There is a small silver lining: the number of countries that are tracking biodiversity as part of their official statistics has been steadily increasing, one of SDG 15’s targets. Tracking is necessary — but on its own, it is only a partial answer. A bigger issue is that the costs of environmental damage, such as biodiversity loss, rarely factor into countries’ official calculations of income and wealth. If anything, clearing a forest to build housing, grow crops or construct infrastructure to exploit fossil fuels is considered a net economic gain. An analysis of progress towards the 17 SDGs in 99 lower-income nations, published this year, confirms this: gains in reducing poverty and improving human welfare have come at a high price to the environment4. The current system is weighted towards destruction, not preservation. Now is an important moment to make a quiet revolution louder.Margins to mainstreamFor decades, researchers and policymakers have worked painstakingly to integrate environmental indicators more closely with economic ones. Their project, the System of Environmental Economic Accounting (SEEA), has become the world’s standard for measuring nature’s contribution to the economy and the impact of economic activity on the environment. It was adopted by the UN in 2012, was updated in 2021 and is now in use in 92 countries and rising. The SEEA measures stocks of environmental assets, such as a country’s forest and mineral resources, along with ‘flows’, such as the quantity of water consumed by industry.
What scientists need to do to accelerate progress on the SDGs
Most countries report these results in ‘satellite’ accounts, which measure economic sectors that are not considered industries in national accounts. Australia, for instance, publishes a national state of the environment report every five years. Canada publishes annual ecosystem accounts covering 30 variables, from road density to the numbers of people using cultural services. Uganda measures how much land is covered by grasslands, woodlands and commercial farmlands, as well as the extent of suitable habitat for important species, such as the shea tree (Vitellaria paradoxa) and the African cherry (Prunus africana).This hard work has paid off: these data, watched and used by researchers and policymakers in conservation-related fields, are now on the radar of those in finance and economic decision-making roles.The UN Statistics Division, based in New York City, is seeking expert comments on the next revision to the System of National Accounts (SNA). This is the international statistical standard used to measure economic activity — consumer and government spending and investments by businesses. There have been just 3 revisions in the SNA’s 70-year history. Now, questions about how the SNA can account for environmental sustainability, along with well-being, are being considered. If the SEEA and the SNA can be linked more closely, this could lead economic policymakers to pay closer attention to biodiversity loss, climate impacts and other costs. This revision is the chance for researchers and others who care about these issues to have their say (see go.nature.com/3tiucxt). The deadline is 9 October.Make no mistake, the costs of failing to account for the environment are high, and they are here now — but they are hidden from our daily lives and concerns. A systematic approach to addressing these trade-offs is not the only answer to achieving the SDGs, but it is necessary. Properly resourcing national statistical offices to coordinate environmental accounts is also essential. Those who make economic policy decisions need to see the environmental wealth that is being whittled away as a direct result of those decisions. Only then do we stand even a remote chance of halting the sixth mass extinction event. More

Corals are, in many ways, the trees of the seas. They generate oxygen, provide habitats for animals and protect their environments from extreme weather. They also bring many benefits to humans, including creating livelihoods such as tourism.But bleaching and death are widespread as a result of higher ocean temperatures, low oxygen and increased carbon dioxide — all caused by climate change. Rising sea levels and more frequent extreme weather speeds up coastal erosion and the flow of minerals and nutrients into sea water, causing algal blooms that harm corals.I was captivated by the beauty of coral reefs when I went scuba diving for the first time on Phuket Island, Thailand, in 2016. In this picture from last year, I was collecting coral samples (which I do several times a year) at Kham Island in southern Thailand, to study how low oxygen levels affect them. Those levels, and the impacts of ocean acidification, are the subject of the PhD I’m doing at Prince of Songkla University. After I graduate, I hope to keep investigating corals so that I can help to better protect them and the marine environment.In a study published this year, my colleagues and I measured the effects of increasing the water temperature by 3 °C, lowering the oxygen content, or both, on the growth rates of three coral species. In most cases, growth slowed (T. Jain et al. J. Mar. Sci. Eng. 11, 403; 2023). Warmer water and low oxygen also mostly reduced the density of symbiotic algae in the coral and their ability to photosynthesize efficiently.Fishing and tourism can also harm corals, but we cannot just ban these pursuits, which provide important livelihoods. In the future, I hope that I and other scientists will be able to supply data on the consequences of various human activities, to be fed into models of coral stress and ocean health.Protecting ocean environments is a crucial job for everyone, not just those who live in coastal areas. More

Download the 29 September Long Read podcastAustralia’s swamp tortoise is one of the most endangered species in the world. This species lives in wetlands that are under threat due to rising temperatures and a reduction in rainfall.In an effort to save the tortoise, researchers are trialling a controversial strategy called assisted migration. This approach has seen captive-bred tortoises released in other wetlands some 330 kilometres south of where they are naturally found. The aim is to see whether the animals can tolerate cooler climates, and whether this new habitat might ensure the species’ future as the planet warms.While many conservation biologists and land managers have long resisted the idea of assisted migration, attitudes are changing and other projects are beginning to test whether it can protect protect animals at risk from climate change.This is an audio version of our Feature: These animals are racing towards extinction. A new home might be their last chanceNever miss an episode. Subscribe to the Nature Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or your favourite podcast app. An RSS feed for Nature Podcast is available too. More

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Writing on behalf of participants in a workshop on conservation (see go.nature.com/48sfhkh), we are concerned that you overlook the crucial issue of urban biodiversity when making the case for sustainable cities (Nature 620, 697; 2023).
Competing Interests
The author declares no competing interests. More

World leaders this week vowed to redouble their efforts on an ambitious plan to end poverty and protect the environment, which is woefully behind schedule.None of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), outlined in 2015, will be met by the self-imposed 2030 deadline. Governments and leaders are better at making promises than at keeping them, scientists have told Nature. However, there are signs that the SDG agenda is having an impact, they say.A 12-page “political declaration”, approved during the UN SDG Summit in New York on 18 and 19 September, declares that the goals remain the world’s “overarching roadmap” for the future. “We will act with urgency to realize its vision as a plan of action for people, planet, prosperity, peace and partnership, leaving no one behind,” the agreement states.“The SDGs need a global rescue plan,” UN secretary-general António Guterres declared at the opening of the summit. Guterres is proposing to increase funding for sustainable development by at least US$500 billion to help countries to achieve the goals, as well as other financial aid, including debt relief for the poorest nations so they can survive and thrive after economic shocks.The political declaration arrives amid evidence and analysis suggesting that governments are falling well short of the goals.There is hope for the SDGs yetResearchers involved in the four-yearly Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) analysed 36 of the 169 detailed targets that accompany the overarching goals. Of these, the scientists found that the world is on track to achieve only two targets — those aimed at increasing access to the Internet and to mobile-phone networks.Twelve targets showed little or no progress. In some cases, such as food security, vaccine coverage and greenhouse-gas emissions, trends are going in the wrong direction. The research suggests that without further action and resources, the world will be unlikely to achieve the goals even by 2050, two decades late.Paula Caballero, the former Colombian diplomat who was instrumental in creating the SDGs’ framework, says that the world needs to take bold and transformational action now to accomplish the SDG agenda.At the same time, she says that 2030 should not be seen as a final ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ deadline. “Let’s not think that 2030 is an end goal,” says Caballero, who is now responsible for the Latin American activities of The Nature Conservancy, a conservation organization based in the United States. “It’s a milestone.”Sociologist Shirin Malekpour, one of the GSDR authors, agrees. “What needs to change is what we are doing, not the targets and the goals,” says Malekpour, who is at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.Malekpour sees some hope in the political declaration, which says that countries will not only continue to integrate the SDGs into national policies, but also “develop national plans for transformative and accelerated action”.“If, outside of everything else, they just do this one thing, I think we will actually see huge progress,” she says.Focus on integrated actionFor Caballero, the SDG summit is also evidence that the goals are focusing minds on the integrated nature of the challenges facing humanity. But she says that the UN system is still making the mistake of treating sustainable development and climate as separate issues, including by holding separate SDG and climate summits in New York this week.“The only way you’re going to deliver on climate mitigation and adaptation is through the SDGs, and you can’t meet the SDGs unless you deal with climate,” she says.Although the Paris climate agreement and the SDGs were born of separate political processes in 2015, she says, the two agendas are in fact “one and the same”. More

Chaco Seco is the largest subtropical dry forest in South America. It has many trees, such as Prosopis alba, which bears a nutritious fruit, and Aspidosperma quebracho blanco, which produces a hard wood. The forest has cactus species and Bromelia plants, which are traditionally used to make a textile fibre for clothes and crafts.Project Quimilero is a non-profit group, created in 2015, that aims to protect Chacoan peccaries (Catagonus wagneri), a pig-like animal endemic to Chaco. We work with Indigenous and creole communities to preserve the region’s culture and biodiversity. We meet with the Indigenous Wichí people to record places, animals and plants that are important to them.In this picture from last April, I’m standing near the village of Nueva Población, Argentina, holding a map of the area that was drawn with the help of elder Wichí members. This exchange of knowledge was invaluable for our work. We now understand that the Western concept of ‘territory’, with its rigid boundaries, doesn’t make sense to these communities. Changes in seasons, soil-saturation levels and animal movements force these peoples to go beyond those boundaries to hunt and collect water.When I moved to Chaco in 2010, I realized that deforestation is a major threat to the biodiversity of plants and animals, and to the Indigenous communities. Chacoan peccaries cannot tolerate habitat loss. Our research has predicted they could become extinct in less than 30 years (M. Camino et al. Biodivers. Conserv. 31, 413–432; 2022). Deforestation is due to industrial agriculture and logging. Europe now forbids the import of deforestation products, a policy that could decrease this kind of destruction.More such initiatives are needed. I co-authored a study (M. Camino et al. Glob. Environ. Change 81, 102678; 2023) showing that there is less deforestation in the parts of Chaco Seco that Indigenous communities have the rights to than in other areas. More