Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2010 Jan 12;365(1537):31-9. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2009.0223.
The losses that are being incurred of the Earth's biological diversity, at all levels, are now staggering. The trend lines for future loss are steeply upward as new adverse drivers of change come into play. The political processes for matching this crisis are now inadequate and the science needs to address this issue are huge and slow to fulfil, even though strong advances have been made. A more integrated approach to evaluating biodiversity in terms that are meaningful to the larger community is needed that can provide understandable metrics of the consequences to society of the losses that are occurring. Greater attention is also needed in forecasting likely diversity-loss scenarios in the near term and strategies for alleviating detrimental consequences. At the international level, the Convention on Biological Diversity must be revisited to make it more powerful to meet the needs that originally motivated its creation. Similarly, at local and regional levels, an ecosystem-service approach to conservation can bring new understanding to the value, and hence the need for protection, of the existing natural capital.
地球生物多样性在各个层面上的损失现在令人震惊。随着新的不利变化驱动因素的出现，未来损失的趋势线急剧上升。应对这一危机的政治进程现在已经不够充分，而应对这一问题所需的科学工作庞大且进展缓慢，尽管已经取得了很大进展。需要采取更加综合的方法，根据对更大范围的社区有意义的标准来评估生物多样性，以便为社会所遭受的损失提供可理解的衡量标准。还需要更加关注预测近期可能出现的生物多样性损失情景的方法，以及减轻不利后果的策略。在国际层面上，必须重新审视《生物多样性公约》，使其更加强大，以满足其创建初衷所提出的需求。同样，在地方和区域层面上，采用生态系统服务方法进行保护，可以为现有自然资本的价值（因此也为保护的必要性）带来新的认识。
