Drivers of biodiversity loss

N.	Question	Answers
1	Have the drivers of global biodiversiy loss been defined?	Yes, major drivers of global biodiversity loss were defined in the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), and actions to mitigate driver impacts have been formalized by multilateral agreements, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.[[1]]
2	Is climate change published research equally reach as pollution or overexploitation research?	According to a research dated 2018 , in stark comparisong with climate change research, only 5.4% of published articles addressed pollution and 5.0% addressed overexploitation. However, recommended caution is needed because the methods adopted may underrepresent pollution as a driver of biodiversity loss by focusing on ecology- and conservation-based journals rather than environmental science journals. Nonetheless, results suggest that more ecological and conservation research into pollution is needed given the misalignment between the projected high impact and relatively low research effort.[[2]]
3	How severe is the overexploitation threat to biodiversity?	Regarding overexploitation, Policy documents predict overexploitation to have a less severe impact compared with other drivers, yet evidence using the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List (which favours larger organisms, especially vertebrates) suggests that overexploitation is the biggest current threat to biodiversity.[[3]]
4	How are research priorities determined?	According to a 2018 research, research priorities into biodiversity drivers differ across systems . Differences across systems predominantly reflect historic and predicted impacts, as well as UN 2030 SDGs4. For example, the terrestrial literature focuses more on habitat change impacts compared with other systems presumably due to the severe effects of agriculture, logging and urban development on biodiversity.[[4]]
5	What is the alignement between SDG14 and marine-related research?	marine literature prioritizes research into overexploitation, which is consistent with expectations given the historical impacts of overfishing, and aligns with SDG 14.[[5]]
6	Is there a mismatch between research and SDGs goals with reference to pollution and invasive species?	Research into pollution and invasive species was prominent in the freshwater literature , reflecting historical impacts. However, United Nations SDGs 15.8 and 14.1 focus on the effects of invasive species in terrestrial systems and pollution in marine systems.[[6]]
7	How can biodiversity loss mitigation strategies can better leverage research?	Only 12% of classified articles address multiple drivers despite biodiversity loss often occurs in response to synergistic or antagonistic. A better understanding of driver interactions can result in improved mitigation strategies; for example, reducing the impact of global stressors such as climate change19 by targeting local stressors that synergistically affect biodiversity loss.[[7]]
8	Why multi-disciplinary research on biodiversity is hard to rectify?	This may be related to the increased difficulty and expense of multifactorial and multi-disciplinary experiments, as well as the limited consideration of interacting effects between different stressors identified in major international conventions.[[8]]
9	What should be done to better address biodiversity loss	It is imperative that more studies address multiple drivers, given that interacting threats intensify biodiversity loss.[[9]]
10	What prioritized in marine research?	The marine literature prioritizes research into overexploitation, which is consistent with on the most severe drivers of environmental change. [[10]]
11	What can slow down the path to achieving the SDGs goal?	Aligning research and policy on global drivers of biodiversity loss is undoubtedly the first step in achieving the goals. [[11]]
12	What was the name of the agreement that established the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment?	Convention on Biological Diversity.[[12]]
14	What factors are there that may be contributing to the lack of progress towards Aichi targets?	Drivers that are more responsive to local management actions .[[13]]
13	What are the Aichi targets?	The Aichi Biodiversity Targets were established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in an effort to protect and conserve the biodiversity that underpins global food security, health and clean water. [[14]]
	What target has Europe committed to achieving by 2030?	Europe has committed to reduce its carbon emissions by 55% (from 1990 levels) by 2030.

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