Two-decade-long analysis shows rising biodiversity threats and responsibility gaps in global supply chains

Biodiversity loss has become one of the most pressing global environmental challenges1. Minimizing extinction rates is a core objective of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework2, as a response to the global biodiversity crisis by 2050. Appropriate conservation action plans and policies to slow and reverse rates of population decline require us to understand the status of species—including their risk of extinction and especially specific threats to them.Biodiversity threats are not only driven by local activities, but also induced from distant economic activities that require resources and services traded across habitats via global supply chains3. Gaining an accurate picture of both local and distant causing activities is a prerequisite to address threats, reduce biodiversity loss, and recover threatened species. It involves identifying where these activities occur, which threats they cause, and how they change over time.This study maps biodiversity threats across global supply chains to both local and telecoupled human activities. Results show that international trade induces one quarter of global species under threat, equivalent to 5,908 species, with agricultural exports from Madagascar, and manufacturing, construction, and services imports to the United States and China as major contributors. Temporally, we examine changes in threat and threatened species in two periods, and show escalating threats over time, with heterogeneous impacts across taxonomic groups especially to birds and mammals. Identified contributors, hotspot sectors and areas along global supply chains that are responsible for impacts on species are consistent with previous findings, while our analysis also advances understanding by revealing temporal dynamics of biodiversity threats and supply chain-wide impacts on different taxonomic groups. References:1. Leclère, D. et al. Bending the curve of terrestrial biodiversity needs an integrated strategy. Nature 585, 551–556 (2020).2. Hughes, A. C. & Grumbine, R. E. The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework: what it does and does not do, and how to improve it. Front. Environ. Sci. 11, 1281536 (2023).3. Lenzen, M. et al. International trade drives biodiversity threats in developing nations. Nature 486, 109–112 (2012).