Twenty-three experts involved in the study “Antarctica and the strategic plan for biodiversity,” recently published in PLoS Biology, debunked the popular view that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are in a better environmental shape than the rest of the world. In fact, the difference between the status of biodiversity in the region and planet Earth as a whole is negligible.
Twenty-three experts involved in the study “Antarctica and the strategic plan for biodiversity,” recently published in PLoS Biology, debunked the popular view that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are in a better environmental shape than the rest of the world. In fact, the difference between the status of biodiversity in the region and planet Earth as a whole is negligible.
Coming from a wide array of disciplines such as Law, Zoology, International Affairs, and Marine Biology, the researchers reached their conclusion after evaluating empirical evidence and expert knowledge against the Aichi targets in the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity. The CBD provides the basis for taking effective action to curb biodiversity loss across the planet by 2020.
“People tend to think that Antarctica and the Southern Ocean are healthier ecosystems because they are remote and would (or should) have been less exposed to human impact,” Deng Palomares, who participated in the study as the Sea Around Us expert on catches in the Antarctic region, said. Due to that common belief, the Aichi targets have never been applied to those areas which, together, account for about 10 per cent of the globe’s surface.
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