Ensure Sustainable Harvesting and Trade of Wild Species
Ensure that the use, harvesting and trade of wild species is sustainable, safe and legal, preventing overexploitation, minimizing impacts on non-target species and ecosystems, and reducing the risk of pathogen spillover, applying the ecosystem approach, while respecting and protecting customary sustainable use by Indigenous peoples and local communities.
Why is this target important?
The first four targets cover fundamental and obvious threats to biodiversity. Target 5 is about our ability to find balance in our relationship with nature. At first, the target’s full title can feel a bit unsettling: “Ensure that the use, harvesting and trade of wild species is sustainable, safe and legal.” ‘Use’ is a tricky word. It sounds exploiting, one-directional and objectifying. But, actually, nature is also ‘using’ itself to survive. So must we, symbiosis is at the core of the co-dependency in biodiversity. Also good to know: ‘wild species’ includes plants, animals, both on land and under water, and other living organisms.
The main point is that we are overexploiting nature. It needs time to replenish or the population goes extinct. The target is central to finding a balance: benefitting from nature while also making sure that the ecosystems survive.
The target also warns about the impact on ‘non-target species.’ Good examples of this are how pesticides harm bees, butterflies and birds and the way that industrialized fishing indiscriminately catches non-intended species, so-called bycatch.