This report sets out to answer the question of why governments in the Global South have routinely failed to achieve biodiversity goals and targets. Rather than focus on the usual explanations of direct drivers of biodiversity loss like expanded mining and industrial agriculture, the report looks to the structural drivers that create the imperatives to approve and expand those extractive, ecologically harmful activities. Zooming in on five case studies around the world, the report looks at a range of structural drivers of biodiversity loss, including the international monetary system, the global debt architecture, transnational tax rules, and more. Ultimately, the report argues that Global South governments are currently locked into conditions of fiscal and monetary subordination- that is, the structure of the global economy, and the rules that govern it, radically restrict the ability of governments in the South to pursue sovereign policy priorities- like conservation, but also climate action, health, education, and more. Right now the extinction crisis is only deepening- significant reforms to the global economy are needed to create conditions under which people and landscapes can thrive.
