From both inside and outside of the negotiating hall at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP16, held in Cali, Colombia, mapping, monitoring and reporting on ecosystems have been a focal point for governments, businesses and other stakeholder groups to make progress on implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF).
During the convention, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), a partnership of more than 100 national governments and over 150 participating organizations, launched the official proof of concept for the Global Ecosystems Atlas, an open-access resource for mapping and monitoring ecosystems.
With high profile endorsers and partners, including the United Nations Environment Programme, the CBD itself and the Nature Positive Initiative, the Atlas combines existing and new maps with artificial intelligence, earth observation technology and field data to plug current knowledge gaps.
“The Global Ecosystems Atlas is the first intergovernmental effort to develop a collation of the best ecosystem data from countries and it will serve as a critical tool by providing high-quality, reliable data on ecosystems around the world,” said Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the secretariat of the CBD in a press briefing at COP16 on October 22.
The open and harmonized data from the Atlas can be used to support stakeholders reach nature and biodiversity related goals at a regional, national and global level.
This has never been more important, given nature’s interconnectivity and role in enabling us to reach broader climate targets. These seem increasingly out of reach with reports that current policies and plans would equate to 3.1 °C of global warming, far beyond the ambition of the 1.5 °C outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Elsewhere, according to the GEO, more than 55% of the world’s ecosystem types, including forest, grassland, tundra, aquatic and desert, are in areas where current knowledge about ecosystems distribution or change is lacking.
Closing these knowledge gaps is critical to ensure countries accelerate progress on member state reporting as well as submitting and implementing their National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs). Over 40 countries have submitted, as of November 1.