Bending the Curve of Global Freshwater Biodiversity Loss: An Emergency Recovery Plan

By D. Tickner, J. Opperman, R. Abell, M. Acreman, A. Arthington, Stuart E. Bunn, S. Cooke, J. Dalton, W. Darwall, Gavin Edwards and 16 more. BioScience, 2020

1,003 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Despite their limited spatial extent, freshwater ecosystems host remarkable biodiversity, including one-third of all vertebrate species. This biodiversity is declining dramatically: Globally, wetlands are vanishing three times faster than forests, and freshwater vertebrate populations have fallen more than twice as steeply as terrestrial or marine populations. Threats to freshwater biodiversity are well documented but coordinated action to reverse the decline is lacking. We present an Emergency Recovery Plan to bend the curve of freshwater biodiversity loss. Priority actions include accelerating implementation of environmental flows; improving water quality; protecting and restoring critical habitats; managing the exploitation of freshwater ecosystem resources, especially species and riverine aggregates; preventing and controlling nonnative species invasions; and safeguarding and restoring river connectivity. We recommend adjustments to targets and indicators for the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Sustainable Development Goals and roles for national and international state and nonstate actors.

Subfields: Ecology, Nature and Landscape Conservation, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e71a972f4028bce7b7ea7eedf8850a15bf019175

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Ecology

1. Fabrice A. DeClerck
2. Marten Scheffer
3. Peter H. Verburg
4. Stuart E. Bunn
5. E. Bennett
6. R. Winkelmann

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

1. Fabrice A. DeClerck
2. Marten Scheffer
3. Peter H. Verburg
4. W. de Vries
5. Stuart E. Bunn
6. E. Bennett
7. Joyeeta Gupta

In Sociology and Political Science

1. J. Rockström
2. D. Liverman
3. Marten Scheffer
4. Nebojsa Nakicenovic
5. Joyeeta Gupta
6. C. Rammelt
7. Adam Rose

Citations in the corpus

• Safe and just Earth system boundaries (2023, positive): “Flow alteration of rivers and wetland systems is a primary cause of reductions in aquatic ecosystem health that lead to reduced water quality, habitat losses and subsequently biodiversity losses (Bunn and Arthington 2002; Tickner et al. 2020).”