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"No net loss" is defined by the International Finance Corporation as "the point at which the project-related impacts on biodiversity are balanced by measures taken to avoid and minimize the project's impacts, to understand on site restoration and finally to offset significant residual impacts, if any, on an appropriate geographic scale (e.g local, landscape-level, national, regional)."
In the ocean, overfishing is a major cause of species loss. [ 16 ] [ 27 ] Some 300–400 million metric tons (660–880 billion lb) of heavy metals , solvents , toxic sludge , and other wastes per year enter the water cycle from industrial facilities.
The United Nations decade on Ecosystem Restoration began on World Environment Day, 5 June 2021.In a June 2021 report to help launch the decade, the UN called for nations to deliver on existing ecosystem restoration commitments, which in total add up to over 1 billion hectares, an area bigger than China.
Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) describes a variety of approaches for adapting to climate change, all of which involve the management of ecosystems to reduce the vulnerability of human communities to the impacts of climate change such as storm and flood damage to physical assets, coastal erosion, salinisation of freshwater resources, and loss of agricultural productivity.
Red list categories of the IUCN Demonstrator against biodiversity loss, at Extinction Rebellion (2018).. The current rate of global biodiversity loss is estimated to be 100 to 1000 times higher than the (naturally occurring) background extinction rate, faster than at any other time in human history, [25] [26] and is expected to grow in the upcoming years.
Habitat loss is perhaps the greatest threat to organisms and biodiversity. [40] Temple (1986) found that 82% of endangered bird species were significantly threatened by habitat loss. Most amphibian species are also threatened by native habitat loss, [ 41 ] and some species are now only breeding in modified habitat. [ 42 ]
The diversity of species and genes in ecological communities affects the functioning of these communities. These ecological effects of biodiversity in turn are affected by both climate change through enhanced greenhouse gases, aerosols and loss of land cover [citation needed], and biological diversity, causing a rapid loss of biodiversity and extinctions of species and local populations.
In fact, nearly all of the irreversible biodiversity loss to date has been caused by other anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction. [11] [12] [13] Yet, its effects are certain to become more prevalent in the future. As of 2021, 19% of species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species are already being impacted by climate change. [14]