Nations from across the globe adopted a series of biodiversity targets 10 years ago, including deforestation, plastic pollution, habitats and oceans and of all 20 of those targets not one has been met. As part of the Global Biodiversity Outlook study the UN issues a report card on the targets and found that none of the goals have been met in full and only six were ‘partially achieved’ The report shows that while global deforestation has decreased by about a third in the past half a decade, the degradation of ecosystems in the tropics remains high, and wilderness areas and wetlands have continued to disappear. Targets on the overfishing of marine stocks have been missed while 260,000 tonnes of plastic particles are thought to have accumulated in the oceans. “Earth’s living systems as a whole are being compromised. And the more humanity exploits nature in unsustainable ways and undermines its contributions to people, the more we undermine our own wellbeing, security and prosperity.” The UN report comes in the same month that the World Wildlife Fund found that 70 per cent of wild animals, birds and fish have been eradicated in the past 50 years.