{"id":28781,"date":"2022-12-22T16:14:55","date_gmt":"2022-12-22T23:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.footprintnetwork.org\/?p=28781"},"modified":"2023-01-17T16:35:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-17T23:35:21","slug":"footprints-monitoring-biodiversity-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.footprintnetwork.org\/2022\/12\/22\/footprints-monitoring-biodiversity-health\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s official: Footprints for monitoring biodiversity health"},"content":{"rendered":"

photo credit: UN Biodiversity<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>All five mechanisms that drive down biodiversity<\/a> are symptoms of ecological overshoot (see also the adjacent blue box). Overshoot is caused by the human economy’s demand for more resources from nature<\/a> than nature can regenerate.<\/p>\n

This insight was core to a proposal for the UN Biodiversity Conference COP 15. Several countries proposed and supported<\/a> the call for “halving the footprint of production and consumption by 2030”. The reason is simple: If we are to halt the loss of biodiversity<\/a> and maintain healthy ecosystems while also creating a resilient economy, ending overshoot is necessary. Unfortunately, the political momentum at the conference was not sufficient to explicitly recognize overshoot in the approved version of the framework. So this proposal did not make it as explicitly into the final texts of the UN Biodiversity Conference COP 15<\/a> that concluded on December 19, 2022 in Montreal.<\/p>\n

Still, the final version of the conference’s Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity <\/em>Framework<\/em><\/a> endorses much of what Ecological Footprint assessments have made obvious. In \u201cGlobal Targets\u201d<\/em>, the framework asks countries to \u201creduce the global footprint of consumption in an equitable manner [by 2030], including through halving global food waste, significantly reducing overconsumption and substantially reducing waste generation, in order for all people to live well in harmony with Mother Earth<\/em>\u201d (page 11: Target 16<\/a>). While falling short of acknowledging overshoot, it does recognize the need to reduce humanity’s demand on nature. We were also delighted to see Global Footprint Network’s original call for \u201call to live well, within the means of our planet\u201d reflected in that statement.<\/p>\n

Possibly even more significant is the \u201cmonitoring framework<\/a>\u201d for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It matters because it is designed to help scrutinize the agreement\u2019s implementation. In this monitoring framework, the Ecological Footprint is notably mentioned as:<\/p>\n