Biodiversity loss represents one of the biggest global risks and challenges of our time due to the high rate of depletion and irreversible loss of flora and fauna, habitats, and vital crops. Biodiversity loss threatens the disruption of the entire ecosystem and the global economy that depends on the integrity and health of our planet’s ecosystem. Although biodiversity loss is a multi-faceted problem with many causes, we can differentiate between direct and indirect drivers, and the consequences of their interactions on development, business, climate change, and the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. These consequences have severe implications for food and water security, climate change adaptation, disasters reduction, risk management, and human health. One of the key findings from our literature review is that biodiversity continues to decline. This is in part driven by the fact that a variety of indirect drivers influence the direct drivers responsible for biodiversity loss and that the interlinkages between nexus elements (water, food, health, and climate change) have negative impacts on biodiversity. The prioritization of GDP growth disrupts ecosystems and is a main driver of biodiversity loss. However, given the negative impacts of biodiversity loss on businesses, global development, climate change, and the 2030 Agenda, there are many global and national efforts, initiatives and response options including the green growth policy, nature-based solutions, biodiversity disclosures, initiatives and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework that aim to reverse biodiversity loss and restore biodiversity. A transformative system-wide approach comprising the “whole of society” and “all facets of government” is thus required to tackle the problem of biodiversity loss.
