Chasing the Biodiversity Crisis

How serious is the biodiversity crisis and what to do about it? In this talk I will argue that although we do not face yet a mass species extinction, a major biodiversity crisis is on-going with dramatic implications for the planet and for us. I will discuss recent assessments about the dimension of the biodiversity crisis and identify remaining knowledge gaps. I will present efforts by the Group on Earth Observations Biodiversity Observation Network to address some of these gaps, including by developing national biodiversity observation networks in Latin America and elsewhere. I will conclude my talk with a discussion of scenarios being developed for the future of biodiversity and ecosystem services in the next decades, and how they can be used to support policy-making in the Intergovernmental Platform for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

Speaker: Henrique Pereira, Tinker Visiting Professor