Safeguarding freshwater life beyond 2020: Recommendations for the new global biodiversity framework from the European experience

Abstract

Plans are currently being drafted for the next decade of action on biodiversity—both the post‐2020 Global Biodiversity Framework of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and Biodiversity Strategy of the European Union (EU). Freshwater biodiversity is disproportionately threatened and underprioritized relative to the marine and terrestrial biota, despite supporting a richness of species and ecosystems with their own intrinsic value and providing multiple essential ecosystem services. Future policies and strategies must have a greater focus on the unique ecology of freshwater life and its multiple threats, and now is a critical time to reflect on how this may be achieved. We identify priority topics including environmental flows, water quality, invasive species, integrated water resources management, strategic conservation planning, and emerging technologies for freshwater ecosystem monitoring. We synthesize these topics with decades of first‐hand experience and recent literature into 14 special recommendations for global freshwater biodiversity conservation based on the successes and setbacks of European policy, management, and research. Applying and following these recommendations will inform and enhance the ability of global and European post‐2020 biodiversity agreements to halt and reverse the rapid global decline of freshwater biodiversity.

We thank the organizers of the ALTER‐Net/EKLIPSE Post‐2020 Biodiversity Workshop for discussions that led to this collaboration. CBvR was supported by a Fulbright Early Career Scholar Award from the Fulbright Spain Commission, SJT by the NERC Highlight Topic “Hydroscape” (NE/N006437/1), SCJ and GK by the “GLANCE” project (01LN1320A) from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), HPG by the BMBF “BIBS” project (01LC1501G1), KAW by the Rural & Environment Science & Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government (2016–2021 Strategic Research programme), SD by the Leibniz Competition (J45/2018), AIL by FCT (CESAM; UID/AMB/50017/2019), IJ by the J. E. Purkyně Fellowship of the Czech Academy of Science, and VH by a Ramon y Cajal Contract (RYC‐2013‐13979).