What counts as an ecosystem worth protecting? --- You bring up good points, Veronica, which relates to an overall challenge with SDG 15 (and many SDGs). How then we define and measure a system impacts how we measure our indicators. For example, when measured from satellites, a natural forest can be hard to distinguish from a planted forest for pulp production, even though these forests likely have different ecosystem characteristics. The same is true for protected areas, just because an area is "protected" does not meant that the function of the ecosystem is being protected -- how the protection is enforced matters as well. Similarly, just because an area is not protected by law does not mean that it is not used sustainably -- this can be seen in many indigenous lands that are traditionally managed, which often have high biodiversity and valuable ecosystem functioning. So, depending on how we measure a system, and what we count, we might miss some of these dynamics.

Source author: Levi Helm lthelm@asu.edu