Stretching our safety net almost to breaking point

MARTIN- LOPEZ, BERTA; DÍAZ, SANDRA

WWF Living Planet Report

WWF

Lugar: Gland; Año: 2020; p. 78 - 82

Nature is essential for human existence and a goodquality of life, providing and sustaining the air,freshwater and soils on which humanity depends. Italso regulates the climate, provides pollination andpest control, and reduces the impact of natural hazards.While more food, energy and materials than everbefore are being supplied to people in most parts ofthe world, this is increasingly coming at the expenseof nature’s ability to provide them in the future, withthe overexploitation of plants and animals frequentlyundermining nature’s many other contributions 13, 99.Within the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platformon Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)conceptual framework, these contributions are referredto as ‘Nature’s Contributions to People’ 13, 99. This tablewas included in the IPBES Summary for Policymakersand it presents the global trends for some of thesecontributions from 1970 to the present day: we explorethese concepts in more detail in the final section ofthis chapter.