Antarctica and the strategic plan for biodiversity

• 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

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.