Financial Costs of Meeting Global Biodiversity Conservation Targets: Current Spending and Unmet Needs

This paper published in the journal Science (October 2012) provides robust estimates of the total and additional financing needed for achieving the Aichi Targets. World governments have committed to halting human-induced extinctions and safeguarding important sites for biodiversity by 2020, but the financial costs of meeting these targets are largely unknown. The authors estimate the cost of reducing the extinction risk of all globally threatened bird species (by ≥1 IUCN Red List category) to be US$0.875-1.23 billion annually over the next decade, of which 12% is currently funded.

Suggested citation:
McCarthy et al. (2012) Financial Costs of Meeting Global Biodiversity Conservation Targets: Current Spending and Unmet Needs. Science Vol. 338 no. 6109 pp. 946-949 DOI: 10.1126/science.1229803