On 26 May 2021 at 7pm Bangkok time, Marine Alliance Science Technology Scotland (MASTS) will present a webinar on Zoom hosted by The University of St. Andrews, Scotland, the United Kingdom, on The Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework and its Implications to International Ocean Governance.
The Thamamsat University Library collection includes many books on different aspects of biodiversity.
As students at the Faculty of Science and Technology, Thammasat University know, biodiversity refers to the biological variety and variability of life on Earth.
Biodiversity is how we measure how many different aspects are present at the genetic, species, and ecosystem level.
On earth, more biodiversity is usually found near the equator, due to the warm climate and other factors.
For this reason, tropical regions have the most biodiversity. Although tropical forest ecosystems cover less than ten percent of earth’s surface, they contain about ninety percent of the world’s species.
Marine biodiversity is usually higher along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest.
Rapid environmental changes typically cause mass extinctions.
Estimates on the number of Earth’s current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described.
Since humans appeared on earth, biodiversity has continually been reduced as well as genetic diversity. This is mainly due to destruction of habitats, for example deforestation.
This continues to happen although biodiversity has been show to positively influence human health in many ways.
The United Nations designated 2011–2020 as the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity and 2021–2030 as the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration.
According to a 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), fully one-quarter of all plant and animal species are threatened with extinction as the result of human activity.
An October 2020 IPBES report found the same human actions which drive biodiversity loss have also resulted in an increase in pandemics.
In 2020, the fifth edition of the UN’s Global Biodiversity Outlook report, which served as a “final report card” for the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, a series of 20 objectives set out in 2010, at the beginning of the UN’s Decade on Biodiversity, most of which were supposed to be reached by the end of the year 2020, stated that none of the targets – which concern the safeguarding of ecosystems, and the promotion of sustainability – have been fully met.
So it is especially timely to take a look at how oceans will be managed internationally, given the biodiversity situation after the 2020 goals were not met.
The speaker at the 26 May webinar will be Dr. Daniela Diz, Associate Professor at the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society, Heriot Watt University, The United Kingdom.
Heriot-Watt University is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
It was named in honor of the Scottish inventor James Watt and Scottish philanthropist and goldsmith George Heriot.
Students are cordially invited to register for the Zoom webinar at this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_0aNJ8OheT-ee4EpcsD_wrw
For further information or with relevant questions, kindly write to
As the University of St. Andrews website explains,
The Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are currently negotiating the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) for adoption at their next Conference of the Parties (COP) scheduled for October 2021 in China. The GBF will entail a set of global goals, targets and a monitoring framework that will replace the well-known Aichi Biodiversity Targets (2011-2020) as a means to achieve the 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature. The GBF will therefore constitute an important tool for the implementation of the objectives of the CBD related to the conservation and sustainable use of marine and coastal biodiversity.
In this webinar, we will explore the state of play of the GBF negotiations with a focus on the draft GBF targets that are applicable to marine biodiversity, compare those with the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, and discuss their interface with the Sustainable Development Goal 14 on oceans and coasts, and other relevant policy and legal instruments. Special attention will be given to the GBF draft targets related to marine spatial planning, ecological connectivity, marine protected areas and other effective area-based conservation measures, fisheries, and nature-based solutions.
As an example of Dr. Diz’s research on biodiversity, an Edinburgh School of Law Research Paper, Unravelling the Intricacies of Marine Biodiversity Conservation and its Sustainable Use: An Overview of Global Frameworks and Applicable Concepts was posted online in 2016.
Here is the abstract for that research:
Conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity under international law is marked by a myriad of treaties and soft-law instruments applicable to areas within and beyond national jurisdiction. The most relevant global treaties in this context are the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, its Fish Stocks Agreement, and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. In order to assess the state of play of conservation, including with respect to the creation of marine protected areas, and the sustainable use of marine biodiversity under international law, this chapter examines the inter-relationship between these conventions in light of recent developments in international policy and law. Some of these developments include the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems by regional fisheries management organisations, the CBD description of ecologically or biologically significant marine areas, as well as relevant Aichi Biodiversity Targets. In this context, governance gaps, especially concerning marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, are also highlighted, along with opportunities for achieving and mainstreaming marine biodiversity conservation in a comprehensive manner towards sustainable development.
The paper notes:
Current rates of marine biodiversity loss induced by human activities are unprecedented. The 2014 Living Planet Report suggests a decline of 39% in marine species populations between 1970 and 2010, with the sharpest declines observed in the tropics and the Southern ocean. Another recent study suggests that although defaunation has been less severe in the oceans than in terrestrial ecosystems, humans have considerably modified all major marine ecosystems. It also cautions that even though terrestrial defaunation started 50,000 years earlier than marine, ‘[m]arine extinction rates today look similar to the moderate levels of terrestrial extinction observed before the industrial revolution [sic]. Rates of extinction on land increased dramatically after this period, and we may now be sitting at the precipice of a similar extinction transition in the oceans.’ Marine species’ decline can pose severe threats to marine ecosystems. Conversely, species’ recovery contributes to healthier and more productive ecosystems, enabling essential services to be delivered to humanity such as food, disaster risk reduction, oxygen provision. Roman et al identify important ecosystem services played by great whales, including in nutrient and carbon cycles. The authors conclude that ‘[t]he continued recovery of great whales may help to buffer marine ecosystems from destabilizing stresses and could lead to higher rates of productivity in locations where whales aggregate to feed and give birth.’ Other species groups also play a key role in ecosystem structure and function through regulating mechanisms – a role played by keystone forage species such as capelin in the Northwest Atlantic.
(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)