New Scientist magazine publishes “A Rescue Plan for Nature” in partnership with UNEP and GRID-Arendal 04 Mar 2021

New Scientist, a respected weekly science magazine, is publishing a series of feature articles on the links between biodiversity and zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, with a focus on how ecosystem restoration can prevent future pandemics and make human communities healthier and more resilient. The articles are being produced in association with the UN Environment Programme and GRID-Arendal, while New Scientist retains full editorial control over the content.

The first feature article - a cover story entitled 'Rescue plan for nature: How to fix the biodiversity crisis ', by Graham Lawton - begins like this: 'We have repeatedly been pressing the snooze button on the issue, but COVID-19 has provided perhaps the final wake-up call. '2021 must be the year to reconcile humanity with nature,' said António Guterres, the UN secretary general, in an address to the One Planet Summit of global leaders in Paris last month. 'Until now, we have been destroying our planet. We have been abusing it as if we have a spare one.''

The article goes on to paint a picture of the myriad threats to biodiversity, featuring quotes from renowned scientists, and then outlines the global efforts to combat the problem, including the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the soon-to-launch UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. Fact boxes highlight what ecosystems do for humans and ways that we can restore ecosystems.

'Things are in dire straits and action is really, really needed now, but we're not in a catastrophic situation - yet,' ecologist Paul Leadley tells New Scientist. Leadley, of the University of Paris-Saclay in France, is a co-author of the 2019 IPBES global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services. 'If we go towards sustainable consumption and production, set out enough protected areas and handle climate change, there's no reason why biodiversity can't have a positive outlook. We're not beyond the point of no return.' Read the whole story.

The 20 February issue of New Scientist also includes other pieces on related themes:

- Leader: 'Covid-19 is a wake-up call to stop abusing the ecosystems we depend on'

- Q&A with executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity: 'Elizabeth Mrema interview: We have to be optimistic about biodiversity'- Data visualization: 'Our impact on Earth's ecosystems and biodiversity - in graphics< /a>'- Positive profiles: 'Ten conservation success stories when species came back from the brink '

The latest feature article in the series, appearing in the 6 March issue of the magazine, is 'How our abuse of nature makes pandemics like covid-19 more likely,' by Adam Vaughan. It explores how human activities, ranging from habitat degradation to squalid animal treatment, encourage zoonotic diseases to leap from animals into humans. 'We need to fundamentally rethink our interactions with animals and how we are changing their habitats,' Vaughan writes.

Future articles in the series, to be published in March and April, will explore additional aspects of biodiversity as it relates to human communities and climate change.

These themes will be addressed further in a New Scientist podcast and in a free live online event scheduled for 15 April, details to come.

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Photo at top: Peter Prokosch / GRID-Arendal

Release date: 04 Mar 2021

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