The over-exploitation of natural resources has accelerated recent human development, but also put in jeopardy the very systems upon which sustainable and just futures for people and nature depend. The emphasis on enhancing sector-specific productivity (for example in agriculture, forestry, mining) has come at significant cost to natural ecosystems (Whitmee et al. 2015). Recent international reports on climate, land and biodiversity have highlighted the extent of these costs resulting from human appropriation of nature; the WWF Living Planet report (WWF 2020) showed a 68 percent decline in global wildlife populations; warming over land has occurred at a faster rate than the global mean (IPCC 2019); and over a quarter of all species are now threatened with extinction (IPBES 2019).

Authors: Reed, J.; Ros-Tonen, M.; Sunderland, T.C.H.

Subjects: landscape

Publication type: Chapter-R, Publication

Year: 2020