Mercedes Bustamante
mercedesmcb@gmail.com
Departamento de Ecologia, Universidade de Brasília, DF, Brazil.

The climate and nature crises are deeply connected. A changing climate negatively impacts biodiversity, while the loss of nature amplifies the climate breakdown, reducing adaptation potential. Despite these interactions, global strategies to halt these crises are formulated separately within two international conventions (the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) and often within different departments or ministries. Highlighting the synergies in the responses to climate change and biodiversity decline can support bridging the implementation gaps between the global convention and governmental and social actions. Consideration of the mutual effects is also central to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as goals related to nature conservation provide the basis for social, economic, and institutional goals. Human societies’ well-being depends intimately on the living components of natural and managed systems. Designing synergistic solutions that conserve biodiversity and ecosystem functions and fight climate change demands strong evidence and special attention to local contexts and vulnerable social groups. Focusing on the synergies in the responses to climate change and biodiversity decline can support bridging the implementation gaps while achieving the SDGs.

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