The latest global assessment of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warns that biodiversity loss can make ecosystems more vulnerable to the effects of climate change and other stressors. Economic growth has been identified as one of the key drivers of these losses, however, the impact pathway may depend on how society organizes economic activity and distributes its benefits. Here we use a global country-level dataset to show how the strength of national institutions and economic inequality in society can mediate the loss of biodiversity worldwide. We find that the interplay of institutions and inequality fully mediates the impact of economic growth on plant biodiversity, but only partially mediates the impact on animal biodiversity. Furthermore, in sustaining biodiversity, the effectiveness of institutions depends on inequality in society, such that biodiversity loss is ameliorated when institutions are strong and inequality low, but in regions with high inequality, institutions tend to lose their efficacy. The analysis also uncovers nonlinearities in inequality, institutions, and biodiversity interactions, which are important to investigate further and consider for policy purposes.

中文翻译：

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制度和不平等的相互作用塑造了经济增长对生物多样性丧失的影响

政府间生物多样性和生态系统服务科学政策平台（IPBES）的最新全球评估警告说，生物多样性的丧失可能使生态系统更容易受到气候变化和其他压力因素的影响。经济增长已被确定为造成这些损失的主要驱动力之一，但是，影响途径可能取决于社会如何组织经济活动和分配其利益。在这里，我们使用一个全球国家级数据集来显示国家机构的力量和社会中的经济不平等如何调解全世界生物多样性的丧失。我们发现，制度和不平等之间的相互作用充分调解了经济增长对植物生物多样性的影响，但仅部分调解了对动物生物多样性的影响。此外，在维持生物多样性方面，制度的有效性取决于社会上的不平等，因此，当制度强大而不平等程度低时，生物多样性的丧失将得到改善，但是在不平等程度高的地区，制度往往会失去其效力。分析还发现了不平等，制度和生物多样性相互作用中的非线性，这对于进一步研究和考虑政策目的非常重要。