The United States faces significant challenges in biodiversity and ecosystem protection following the Trump administration's recent withdrawal from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, known as IPBES. Carbon Brief reports that this decision, announced last month, has triggered aftershocks across global nature-science efforts, with the first IPBES meeting since the exit occurring last week in Manchester, England, where no official US government delegation attended for the first time in the panel's 14-year history. IPBES chair David Obura stated that the move harms everyone, including the US itself, due to lost expertise from thousands of leading American scientists.

Financially, IPBES chief executive Luthando Dziba noted impacts on funding and scientist involvement, though US academics like Rutgers University professor Pam McElwee are pushing bottom-up initiatives to keep contributions flowing, similar to efforts for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, from which the US also withdrew. Beyond Pesticides highlights calls for Congress to fund such international bodies and for 14 US states plus Guam, through the new Governors Public Health Alliance, to expand support for IPBES, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and climate efforts to safeguard ecosystems vital to public health.

Domestically, the administration repealed the 2009 Environmental Protection Agency endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, prompting lawsuits from 17 groups including the Environmental Defense Fund and Natural Resources Defense Council, as reported by The Guardian on February 18. Earth.Org notes environmental organizations decry the move as unlawful, predicting risks to communities from pollution.

In water-stressed regions, negotiators from seven Colorado River basin states met in Washington DC before a February 14 deadline to plan reservoir management, affecting cities, agriculture, hydroelectric power, and endangered species, according to The Colorado Sun. South Carolina launched a sea-level rise mapping platform for its Lowcountry marshes and islands, aiding preparation for saltwater intrusion, per Governing Magazine on February 13.

Emerging patterns show businesses undervaluing nature as a systemic risk, with IPBES's new business and biodiversity report, finalized in Manchester, urging action across sectors to avert economic threats. Mongabay cites $7.3 trillion in 2023 funding harming nature versus just $220 billion for conservation. US agriculture sees USDA aid, including $150 million for sugar farmers on February 20 and $1 billion for specialty crops, amid market disruptions. These developments underscore tensions between federal pullbacks and state, scientific, and business pushes for ecosystem resilience.

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