In 2010, 193 countries stepped up to halt the global decline of biodiversity by 2020 as part of their commitment to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

They agreed to take urgent action to make sure that we would continue to have resilient ecosystems that provide essential services, secure the myriad of life on the planet and contribute to human well-being.

But vowing to save biodiversity is a large and unwieldy goal.

To guide them on this endeavour, the countries established the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets. These targets range from addressing "the underlying causes of biodiversity loss (Targets 1-4)" to reducing "the direct pressures on biodiversity (Targets 5-10)," and more.

In order to meet these conservation needs, the global investment in biodiversity would have to increase fourfold from today's level of only about 0.002 per cent of global GDP. Hence, the overall investment required is still relatively small given the many benefits of doing so.

After extensive review, our team of international researchers came to the conclusion that meeting the Aichi Targets would have benefits far beyond biodiversity — it will improve human health and well-being via economic and environmental stability.

Read the full article about investing in biodiversity by Rashid Sumaila at Phys.org.