The international community has failed to meet the conservation targets set for 2020, with individual countries, too, failing to successfully meet any for the second consecutive decade. The report acknowledged that countries are showing “examples of progress which, if scaled up, could support the transformative changes necessary to achieve the 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature.” 170 countries had agreed to use the strategic goals and targets enumerated in it, as a guiding framework for their national commitments towards biodiversity conservation, sustainable use, and equitable sharing of benefits. But only six targets, including the eradication of invasive species, and preservation of biodiversity on protected areas, have been achieved.
The global rate of deforestation has, reportedly, fallen by a third, when compared to the previous decade, and countries have introduced policies around the management of fisheries and clamped down on illegal and unreported fishing. “Without such actions, extinction of birds and mammals in the past decade would likely have been two to four times higher,” the report notes. In fact, a recent study found that 48 bird and mammal extinctions have been prevented on account of concerted conservation efforts.
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