Future human population pressure on biodiversity can be reduced and must be taken into account in the post 2020 GBF

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The 2019 IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services identifies population growth as one of the key indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, and states, “changes to the direct drivers of nature deterioration cannot be achieved without transformative change that simultaneously addresses the indirect drivers.’’[i]

While the current draft goals and targets for the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework[ii] do reference the impact of population growth on biodiversity loss in a small number of specific contexts, they do not sufficiently acknowledge the plasticity of future population growth and the policy options that can be utilised to reduce population pressures on biodiversity globally. 

Explicit recognition within the Global Biodiversity Framework of future projected population growth as something that is not fixed, but variable and which can be influenced through policy, would help to enable relevant action which could limit population pressure and protect biodiversity. This would be consistent with what the IUCN acknowledges in its Resolution 087, namely the importance for the conservation of nature of removing barriers to rights-based voluntary family planning.[iii] Issues highlighted in the goals and targets, such as demand for food and unsustainable production practices, can therefore be tackled through a suite of actions that must include ethical measures to deal with human population growth.

The proven human-rights based policy interventions which can reduce future population growth are consistent with and in many cases enshrined in the Sustainable Development Goals: ending poverty and reducing inequality (SDGs 1, 2 and 10); providing universal access to high quality education (SDG 4); women’s empowerment (SDG 5); and access to and uptake of modern family planning (SDGs 3 and 5). Recognition of their value and role in reducing population pressure is therefore appropriate and necessary for inclusion, where relevant, in the Status and trendsand Considerations sections of CBD/SBSTTA/24/INF/21.[iv]

by Andrew Howard, Population Matters

[i] IPBES (2019), Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services - Summary for Policymakers, 

https://www.ipbes.net/news/ipbes-global-assessment-summary-policymakers-pdf

[iii] IUCN (2020), Resolution 087 - Importance for the conservation of nature of removing barriers to rights-based voluntary family planning, https://www.iucncongress2020.org/motion/087

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