Optometrists can calculate a measure of your individual visual acuity by testing one eye at a time from a specific viewing distance using a Snellen eye chart. Visual acuity is the term used to express how sharp your vision is. Let’s examine some of the aspects around how we measure your vision when you come in for your annual exam. Having 20/20 vision is the gold standard of visual acuity or “clarity,” and it’s the level of quality in vision we aim to achieve with each patient by providing the highest possible level of comprehensive eye care and vision correction. The term 20/20 vision represents a benchmark in visual acuity that means a person has excellent vision. Which brings up an interesting question: What exactly do we mean when we say someone has 20/20 vision? Why? Because we want to help all of our patients to enjoy 20/20 vision both in the year 2020 and for many years into the future. As we approach the final phase, and commence the ‘super year of biodiversity’, there is still much to play for.It sounds so futuristic it’s a new decade and a year we’ve been eagerly anticipating here in your optometrist’s office. As a journal, we hope to provide a forum for stakeholders to engage with each other as they hone the final framework, and for the whole research community to keep engaged with the process. Yet, most such researchers are only a few connections away from someone who is directly engaged and who can channel ideas and concerns. For many researchers, these policy discussions will feel a world away from their on-the-ground experience of both conservation successes and failures. Compromise, personality and political developments way beyond the control of biodiversity professionals will all play a role. The landscape of feeder meetings and science and policy stakeholders is complex, and confusing even to the initiated. The process is already well under way, with inter-sessional working groups established at previous meetings and a draft document to be commented on in the first half of the year. This combination of specific progress and increased engagement suggests that there is a great opportunity to be seized with the post-2020 framework. On top of these developments, public recognition of the importance of environmental issues in general, and biodiversity in particular, continues to rise. There is now a much deeper appreciation of the importance of stakeholder diversity in environmental policymaking, for example in terms of gender, geography and traditional knowledge, which strengthens outcomes. Related to this, biodiversity is starting to become better integrated into other environmental efforts, such as the recognition of nature-based solutions for climate mitigation or the importance of biodiversity for food security and health. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are gaining traction in policy discussions at all levels, and embed biodiversity in the wider context of social and economic strategies. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) published its first global assessment in 2019, providing a prominent statement of environmental priorities. The CBD no longer stands alone as the international face of biodiversity policy. But there are also changes that allow us to be cautiously optimistic.
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