Global targets that reveal the social–ecological interdependencies of sustainable development

ABSTRACT We are approaching a reckoning point in 2020 for global targets that better articulate the interconnections between biodiversity, ecosystem services and sustainable development. The

Convention on Biological Diversity’s (CBD’s) post-2020 global biodiversity framework and targets will be developed as we enter the last decade to meet the Sustainable Development Goals

(SDGs) and targets. Despite recent findings of unprecedented declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services and their negative impacts on SDGs, these declines remain largely unaccounted for

in the SDG’s upcoming ‘decade of action’. We use a social–ecological systems framework to develop four recommendations for targets that capture the interdependencies between biodiversity,

ecosystem services and sustainable development. These recommendations, which are primarily aimed at the CBD post-2020 process, include moving from separate social and ecological targets to

social–ecological targets that: account for (1) the support system role of biodiversity and (2) ecosystem services in sustainable development. We further propose target advances that (3)

capture social–ecological feedbacks reinforcing unsustainable outcomes, and (4) reveal indirect feedbacks hidden by current target systems. By making these social–ecological

interdependencies explicit, it is possible to create coherent systems of global targets that account for the complex role of biodiversity and ecosystem services in sustainable development.

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BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS ROLES OF THE RED LIST OF ECOSYSTEMS IN THE KUNMING-MONTREAL GLOBAL BIODIVERSITY FRAMEWORK Article 08 February 2024 ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION NOT AVOIDED WITH THE

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Social-Ecological Systems_ (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015). Download references ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We are grateful to have been part of the Global Assessment of the Intergovernmental

Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) where the initial ideas for this Perspective were born. AUTHOR INFORMATION Author notes * These authors contributed

equally: Belinda Reyers, Elizabeth R. Selig. AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Future Africa, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa Belinda Reyers * Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm

University, Stockholm, Sweden Belinda Reyers * Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA Elizabeth R. Selig Authors * Belinda Reyers View author publications You can

also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Elizabeth R. Selig View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CONTRIBUTIONS B.R. and E.R.S.

contributed equally to this work as co-lead authors. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Belinda Reyers. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing

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PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Reyers, B., Selig, E.R. Global targets that reveal the social–ecological interdependencies of sustainable

development. _Nat Ecol Evol_ 4, 1011–1019 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1230-6 Download citation * Received: 07 November 2019 * Accepted: 14 May 2020 * Published: 20 July 2020 *

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