This report provides an overview of financial transaction mechanisms and related enabling frameworks that aim to protect and restore nature. The true value of the benefits that humans gain from nature is usually not reflected in economic transactions.

Soil pollution is a chemical degradation process that consumes fertile soils, with implications for global food security and human health.

To launch the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, UNEP has released this synthesis report as a call to action for anyone and everyone to join the #GenerationRestoration movement to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems worldwide.

Climate change will increase the risk of pests spreading in agricultural and forestry ecosystems, especially in cooler Arctic, boreal, temperate and subtropical regions warns this scientific review of the impact of climate change on plant pests released by FAO

This policy brief highlights how human health is directly linked to the state of biodiversity and climate change in the Asia-Pacific region. Improving human health and mitigating against future health disasters requires simultaneously addressing these causative factors in an integrated fashion.

The report addresses the extent and future trends of soil pollution, considering both point source and diffuse soil pollution, and describes the risks and impacts of soil pollution on health, the environment and food security – including land degradation and the burden of disease resulting from exposure to polluted soil.

Coral reefs have exceptional levels of biodiversity and provide important social and ecological services, including food, coastal protection, recreation, tourism, and cultural connections.

Arctic wetlands play a number of crucial environmental roles, but they continue to be degraded and lost, with potentially dire global consequences. This report offers insights and identifies knowledge gaps, with the aim of supporting sustainable development and resilience in these areas.

A drastic drop in caribou and shorebird populations is a mirrored image of the dire modifications unfolding on the Arctic tundra, based on a new report from the Arctic Council. The terrestrial Arctic spans roughly 2.7m sq miles (7m sq km), marked by excessive chilly, drought, sturdy winds and seasonal darkness.

The UNEP report is the final “report card” on the goal of protecting at least 17 per cent of land and inland waters, and 10 per cent of the marine environment, by 2020. Progress currently stands at 16.6 per cent on the first target, while the marine target stands at 7.74 per cent. One-third of key biodiversity areas– whether on land, inland waters or the ocean –are not protected at all.