The year 2021 offers a critical opportunity for concerted action to influence the future of freshwater biodiversity, ecosystem services and human well-being. The United Nations Decade on Biodiversity 2011–2020 has ended, and governments around the world are reviewing major international agreements relevant to biodiversity conservation, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)1, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)2, and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)3. A Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework4 is under development, with the grand mission to “Halt the loss of species, ecosystems and genetic diversity by 2030; restore and recover biodiversity to ensure a world of people “living in harmony with nature by 2050”.
