Life on land and water staggered between the rich and the poor

In the race to make the world more livable for people and nature, advances on land are outpacing successes on the seas, raising the red flag that the preponderance of rich nations may upset the balance, a Michigan State University study has shown.

Progress on the oceans slowed after UN member states adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. The measure aims to facilitate a global partnership between developed and developing countries on sustainable development.

But so far, a new study in an open access journal iScience reveals evidence that high-income countries are outpacing low-income countries, causing further global inequality.

“Maintaining a sustainability score is important,” said senior author Jianguo “Jack” Liu, MSU Rachel Carson Chair in Sustainability. “Making progress to sustain and enhance life on Earth is a delicate balance in a telecoupled world.”

In the “Global Decadal Assessment of Life below Water and on Land” the researchers found that efforts to conserve and use natural resources in a sustainable manner have had positive results on land, especially in countries with biodiversity hotspots, such as Ethiopia, Madagascar and Indonesia. .

“Surprisingly, however, progress on ocean sustainability slowed after 2015,” said Yuqian Zhang, lead author and PhD student in MSU’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability (CSIS). “A closer look shows that low-income countries are lagging behind, and the gap between high-income and low-income countries is widening over time. Preventing and reducing marine pollution and sharing the economic benefits derived from the sustainable use of marine resources with small island developing States has barely increased.”

Overall, the improvement of life on land and underwater is making progress, said Zhang. From 2010 and 2020, global biodiversity conservation and sustainable development made positive progress both on land and at sea. The sustainable use of natural resources and the benefits derived from them and halting resource degradation and loss of biodiversity doubled the decade’s estimated sustainable development goals.

But it is the widening gap between rich and poor countries that is cause for concern and demands attention. In particular, rich countries saw significant increases in life underwater metrics, including Croatia, Gambia, and Lithuania, while countries such as Pakistan, Fiji, and Tonga saw major declines in water metrics.

The study underscores the need for vigilance to understand global progress at the local and national levels and understand why some countries are successful while others are faltering.

“We need to look holistically and find the drivers of success in sustainability,” said Zhang. “This understanding can empower policymakers to design better-informed institutions for global biodiversity conservation and sustainable development.”

Yingjie Li, a former MSU-CSIS PhD student now at Stanford University, joined Liu and Zhang in writing the article. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation and Michigan AgBioResearch.