The objective of the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is to provide Governments, the private sector, and civil society with scientifically credible and independent up-to-date assessments of available knowledge to make informed decisions at the local, regional and international levels.

This regional and subregional assessment of biodiversity and ecosystem services for Africa has been carried out by 127 selected experts, including 7 early career fellows, assisted by 23 contributing authors, primarily from Africa, who have analyzed a large body of knowledge, including about 2,400 scientific publications. The Report represents the state of knowledge on the Africa region and subregions. Its chapters and their executive summaries were accepted, and its summary for policymakers was approved, by the Member States of IPBES at the sixth session of the IPBES Plenary (18 to 24 March 2018, Medellín, Colombia).

This Report provides a critical assessment of the full range of issues facing decision-makers, including the importance, status, trends and threats to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, as well as policy and management response options. Establishing the underlying causes of the loss of biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people provides policymakers with the information needed to develop appropriate response options, technologies, policies, financial incentives and behavioral changes.

The Assessment concludes that biodiversity and nature’s contributions in Africa are economically, socially and culturally important, essential in providing the continent’s food, water, energy, health and secure livelihood, and represent a strategic asset for sustainable development and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the Assessment also notes that the current loss and decline of biodiversity, which is due to human activities, is reducing nature’s contributions to people, and undermining human well-being. Unregulated land cover change, i.e., habitat change and over-exploitation, has been the primary cause of biodiversity loss to date, but given Africa’s extreme vulnerability to the impacts of climate change, climate change is likely to be a dominant driver of change in the future. The likely doubling of Africa’s population by 2050, coupled with rapid urbanization, will place tremendous additional pressure on the continent’s biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people.

The Assessment notes that many African countries are implementing their national biodiversity strategies and action plans and are making some progress in meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, but that progress in many of these actions is insufficient. For example, there has been some degree of recovery of threatened species through the establishment of effective management of terrestrial and marine protected areas. Africa is also progressively addressing both direct and indirect underlying threats to biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people through a range of existing policies, strategies, plans and programmes at the national, subregional and regional levels. The Assessment identifies a range of possible options for more effective multi-stakeholder and multi-level adaptive governance, recognizing the value of local and indigenous knowledge.

While much is known about Africa’s biodiversity and nature’s contributions to people, there are still significant scientific uncertainties that need to be addressed through national and regional research programmes.