Targets are increasingly being used in various areas of public policy. Clear, long-term outcome-oriented targets that are adopted by the international community can help shape expectations and create the conditions in which all actors, whether Governments, the private sector, or civil society, have the confidence to develop solutions to common problems. By establishing targets and indicators, progress can be assessed and appropriate actions taken.

Biodiversity is crucial

As demographic pressures and consumption levels increase, biodiversity decreases, and the ability of the natural world to continue delivering the goods and services on which humanity ultimately depends may be undermined.

"Failure to conserve and use biological diversity in a sustainable manner would result in degrading environments, new and more rampant illnesses, deepening poverty and a continued pattern of inequitable and untenable growth," United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned in August 2005 in a message to an international forum on biodiversity and health. In the same statement Mr. Annan added, “The (Millenium Development) Goals embody the hopes of all people for a world without hunger and poverty, where all live in freedom, with dignity and equity. Biodiversity is crucial to those hopes, especially in the area of health.”

Other CBD Targets

In addition to the 2010 Biodiversity Target, the Convention has established other targets in the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, and in the Programme of Work on Protected Areas.