Antarctica and the strategic plan for biodiversity

The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, adopted under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity, provides the basis for taking effective action to curb biodiversity loss across the planet by 2020—an urgent imperative. Yet, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, which encompass 10% of the plane...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PLOS Biology
Main Authors: Chown, Steven L., Brooks, Cassandra M., Terauds, Aleks, Le Bohec, Céline, van Klaveren-Impagliazzo, Céline, Whittington, Jason D., Butchart, Stuart H. M., Coetzee, Bernard W. T., Collen, Ben, Convey, Peter, Gaston, Kevin J., Gilbert, Neil, Gill, Mike, Höft, Robert, Johnston, Sam, Kennicutt, Mahlon C., Kriesell, Hannah J., Le Maho, Yvon, Lynch, Heather J., Palomares, Maria, Puig-Marcó, Roser, Stoett, Peter, McGeoch, Melodie A.
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science 2017
Subjects:
Perspective
Antarctic
Southern Ocean
The Antarctic
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5369689/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28350825
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.2001656
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Summary:The Strategic Plan for Biodiversity, adopted under the auspices of the Convention on Biological Diversity, provides the basis for taking effective action to curb biodiversity loss across the planet by 2020—an urgent imperative. Yet, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, which encompass 10% of the planet’s surface, are excluded from assessments of progress against the Strategic Plan. The situation is a lost opportunity for biodiversity conservation globally. We provide such an assessment. Our evidence suggests, surprisingly, that for a region so remote and apparently pristine as the Antarctic, the biodiversity outlook is similar to that for the rest of the planet. Promisingly, however, much scope for remedial action exists.

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