Breaking Boundaries for Biodiversity. Expanding the policy agenda to halt biodiversity loss.

Biodiversity loss can only be reduced by international and intersectoral co-operation

Integrated assessments help us to understand the underlying causes of biodiversity loss and support decision-making on post-2010 biodiversity policies. Stocktaking on biodiversity - making inventories of what is still present - will not be sufficient to prevent future los. PBL advocates looking beyond three traditional frontiers of biodiversity stocktaking:

1. Looking beyond national borders to include the impacts of domestic consumption and economic activities on biodiversity outside national territories;
2. Looking beyond biodiversity policies by integrating these into economic sectors, spatial planning, transport and urban development;
3. Looking beyond the impacts of development and economic growth and enhancing the positive outcomes of biodiversity policies for distributing wealth and reducing poverty.

Strategies for reaching more effective biodiversity policies

In view of the post-2010 target, and especially the planning, monitoring and evaluation process, we need a better understanding of how biodiversity relates to economic and social development, backed by quantitative data. Integrated assessments that focus on the linkages between biodiversity and communities, economies, trade flows and policies will provide insights for supporting decision-making on sustainable development with minimised trade-offs. Strategies for halting the loss of biodiversity must encompass three important linkages:

1. The development of sustainable production–trade–consumption chains;
2. Integrating biodiversity goals into land use planning for multifunctional and multistakeholder landscapes;
3. Biodiversity-inclusive poverty strategies.

These interlinkages would operate on multiple geographical scales: between the periphery of rural areas and the urban centres iwithin a single country and between countries through international trade.

Countries are invited to accept the challenge of pushing back traditional frontiers to support the post-2010 international biodiversity policies.