The world has adopted the Aichi Biodiversity targets as quantitative outcome targets for biodiversity and ecosystems. These 20 targets include outcome objectives to be achieved by 2020. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) targets cannot replicate the full set of Aichi targets, and it strikes us as impossible to pick one ecosystem or one quantitative target over the others. Countries therefore need to set their own quantitative targets under the Sustainable Development Goals, which should ideally be consistent with the Aichi targets. It was proposed to distinguish between ecosystem management at the national and subnational level (first target) and regional or global efforts (second target). The latter are inherently more complex and require different institutional arrangements. Both are critical for sustainable development.

The proposed Sustainable Development Goals targets call for policies to ensure resilient and productive ecosystems. A central objective of such policies must be to address the drivers of ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss, which includes applying the “polluter pays” and “payment for ecosystem services” principles. Suitable indicators, including halting the loss of biodiversity, can and should be constructed at national/local and regional/global levels to measure the achievement of this target across a broad range of ecosystems.