Where does this issue fit into the Millennium Goals?
Millennium Development Goal 7 focuses on ensuring environmental sustainability and includes four targets.
1. Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources
2. Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss
3. Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation
4. Achieve, by 2020, a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers
How does this issue affect people?
Nearly 17,000 species of plants and animals are known to be threatened with extinction. Based on current trends, the loss of species will continue throughout this century, with increasing risk of dramatic shifts in ecosystems and erosion of benefits for society. Despite increased investment in conservation planning and action, the major drivers of biodiversity loss—including high rates of consumption, habitat loss, invasive species, pollution and climate change—are not yet being sufficiently addressed.
Biodiversity is vitally important for human well-being since it underpins a wide range of ecosystem services on which life depends. Billions of people, including many of the poorest, rely directly on diverse species of plants and animals for their livelihoods and often for their very survival. The irreparable loss of biodiversity will also hamper efforts to meet other MDGs, especially those related to poverty, hunger and health, by increasing the vulnerability of the poor and reducing their options for development.
Information on this page was sourced from the United Nations website.