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website 30 Mar 05 Earth's health is deteriorating as growing human demands for food, water strain ecosystems, U.N. study finds TOKYO (AP) _ Growing populations and expanding economic activity have strained the planet's ecosystems over the past half century, a trend that threatens international efforts to combat poverty and disease, a U.N.-sponsored study of the Earth's health warned on Wednesday. The four-year, US$24 million (euro18.57 million) study--the largest-ever to show how people are changing their environment--found that humans had depleted 60 percent of the world's grasslands, forests, farmlands, rivers and lakes. Unless nations adopt more eco-friendly policies, increased human demands for food, clean water and fuels could speed the disappearance of forests, fish and fresh water reserves and lead to more frequent disease outbreaks over the next 50 years, it said. ``For some time, the changes have been good to us: Food output has increased,'' said A.H. Zakri, director of the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies in Japan. ``The problem is these changes have been achieved at growing costs.'' U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan stressed that the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment ``tells us how we can change course,'' and urged nations to consider its recommendations. Eliminating trade barriers and subsidies, protecting forests and coastal areas, promoting ``green'' technologies and lowering greenhouse gas emissions thought to contribute to global warming can all help to slow environmental degradation, Zakri said. The study was compiled by 1,360 scientists from 95 nations who pored over 16,000 satellite photos from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and analyzed reams of statistics and scientific journals. Their findings highlight the planet's problems at the end of the 20th century, as the human population reached 6 billion. A fifth of coral reefs and a third of the mangrove forests have been destroyed in recent decades. The diversity of animal and plant species has fallen sharply, and a third of all species are at risk of extinction. Disease outbreaks, floods and fires have become more frequent. Levels of carbon dioxide--a greenhouse gas--in the atmosphere have surged, mostly in the past four decades. Zakri said sub-Saharan Africa, one of the world's poorest areas, represents one of the biggest challenges for policymakers. ``The millions of people there have the lowest levels of human well-being but they have only less than 10 percent of the world's water supply,'' he said. As the desertlands expand, fewer people there will have access to food and water, making it more difficult for policymakers to raise living standards for those inhabitants, he said. Zakri said that could hinder progress toward goals adopted at the U.N. Millennium Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2000: halving the proportion of people without access to clean water and basic sanitation by 2015 and improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. Worldwide, some 1.1 billion people still lack access to safe drinking water, with 3 million to 4 million people dying each year from waterborne diseases, according to U.N. statistics. The ecosystem assessment was designed by the U.N. Environment Program, the U.N. Development Program, the World Bank, the World Resources Institute, the Global Environment Facility and others. Governments, non-governmental organizations, foundations, academic institutions and the private sector also contributed their expertise. UNEP website 30 Mar 05 Earth’s Ecosystems Crucial for Economic, Social, & Spiritual Stability UNEP Urges Better Conservation of the Planet’s Life-Support Systems for Fighting Poverty, Delivering Growth and Meeting the Millennium Development Goals full report (PDF) | Ecosystem Assessment Will Enable Policymakers to Make Informed Decisions about Earth’s Life Support (PDF) | Beijing/Nairobi, 30 March 2005 - The value of the world’s forests, wetlands, coral reefs and other ecosystems for fighting poverty and delivering sustainable development is spotlighted today in an international report. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment makes the case that ecosystems and the services they provide are financially significant and that to degrade and damage them is tantamount to economic suicide, said Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Assessment, in which UNEP has played a key role, makes it clear that humankind is running down its ‘natural capital’. It argues that the loss of natural services, such as the purification of the air and water, protection from disasters and provision of medicines, as a result of damaged and degraded ecosystems have become a significant barrier in the quest to meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Mr. Toepfer, attending the launch of the report in Beijing, China, said: "There are many pressing reasons to value ecosystems and the extraordinary range of services they provide. The habitats, wildlife and landscapes of this planet are sources of beauty, focuses of spirituality and culturally significant for people, communities and countries”. “They are also, and this is especially true for the poor, the basis of livelihoods from forestry and fishing to farming and tourism. For too long their economic value has been ignored. Ecosystem services have been treated as free and their exploitation, limitless,” he said. “The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment gives us, in some ways for the first time, an insight into the economic importance of ecosystem services and some new and additional arguments for respecting and conserving the Earth’s life support systems. I am not one of those who believe everything in this world should be boiled down to dollars and cents. But these estimated values are a good start and are a useful and additional reason to care for and respect natural capital alongside financial and human capital,” said Mr. Toepfer. He also praised the methodology of the Assessment noting that it was a departure from the traditional methods that focus on counting individual species and then monitoring their ups and downs. Mr. Toepfer said he believed that assessing ecosystems offered a better way of meeting the targets and timetables of the World Summit on Sustainable Development’s Plan of Implementation. This calls for a reversal of the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010. Some Highlights The report, the work of over 1,300 experts, claims that intact and healthy ecosystems are often worth more than altered, damaged and degraded ones. Wetlands are important habitats for fish, birds and plants. They are also natural water pollution filters and water storage facilities. They also have high recreational value. The report claims that an intact wetland, in this case in Canada, is worth $6,000 a hectare whereas one that has been cleared for intensive agriculture is worth only around $2,000 a hectare. The same argument is made for intact mangroves versus the same area cleared for shrimp farming--$1,000 a hectare in Thailand versus about $200 a hectare when cleared for aquaculture. The report estimates the recreational value of ecosystem services by citing the case of Marine Management Areas in Hawaii. It claims that among six of these areas the recreational value ranges from $300,00 to $35 million. The 3,000 hectare Muthurajawela Marsh in Sri Lanka, a coastal peat bog, is valued at $5 million a year for the flood control services it provides locally. The report also looks at the costs of damaging and degrading ecosystems. It cites the collapse in the early 1990s of the Newfoundland cod fishery due to over-fishing. This put tens of thousands of people out of work and cost $2 billion in income support and retraining. Eutrophication in England and Wales as a result of the over-use of fertilizers and other sources such as waste water caused damage to freshwaters amounting to up to $160 million a year in the 1990s. The burning of 10 million hectares of Indonesia’s forests in the late 1990s, cost an estimated $9 billion in increased health care, lost production and lost tourism revenues, says the report. The net annual loss linked with invasive, ‘alien’, species in the Cape Floral region of South Africa is estimated at $93 million. The report says the costs of restoring ecosystems can be high, indicating that it is cheaper to conserve them rather than pollute and clean up afterwards. The State of Louisiana in the United States has put in place a $14 billion wetland restoration plan to protect 10,000 square kilometres of marsh, swamp and barrier islands in part to reduce storm surges generated by hurricanes. The report also argues that human security is also at risk from ecosystem decline. It argues that the severity and frequency of floods and fires has been aggravated by damage to the Earth’s natural capital. For example between 1990 and 1999, more than 100,000 people were killed by floods causing damages totaling $243 billion. This is partly blamed on the canalisation of rivers and other natural water bodies. IUCN website 30 Mar 05 Experts Warn Ecosystem Changes Will Continue to Worsen, Putting Global Development Goals At Risk full press release (PDF) Excerpts LONDON, March 30, 2005 – A landmark study released today reveals that approximately 60 percent of the ecosystem services that support life on Earth – such as fresh water, capture fisheries, air and water regulation, and the regulation of regional climate, natural hazards and pests – are being degraded or used unsustainably. Scientists warn that the harmful consequences of this degradation could grow significantly worse in the next 50 years. Although evidence remains incomplete, there is enough for the experts to warn that the ongoing degradation of 15 of the 24 ecosystem services examined is increasing the likelihood of potentially abrupt changes that will seriously affect human well-being. This includes the emergence of new diseases, sudden changes in water quality, creation of “dead zones” along the coasts, the collapse of fisheries, and shifts in regional climate. Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively in the last 50 years than in any other period. This was done largely to meet rapidly growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fiber and fuel. More land was converted to agriculture since 1945 than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined. More than half of all the synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, first made in 1913, ever used on the planet has been used since 1985. Experts say that this resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in diversity of life on Earth, with some 10 to 30 percent of the mammal, bird and amphibian species currently threatened with extinction. Ecosystem changes that have contributed substantial net gains in human well-being and economic development have been achieved at growing costs in the form of degradation of other services. Only four ecosystem services have been enhanced in the last 50 years: increases in crop, livestock and aquaculture production, and increased carbon sequestration for global climate regulation. Two services – capture fisheries and fresh water – are now well beyond levels that can sustain current, much less future, demands. Experts say that these problems will substantially diminish the benefits for future generations. The challenge of reversing the degradation of ecosystems while meeting increasing demands can be met under some scenarios involving significant policy and institutional changes. However, these changes will be large and are not currently under way. The report mentions options that exist to conserve or enhance ecosystem services that reduce negative trade-offs or that will positively impact other services. Protection of natural forests, for example, not only conserves wildlife but also supplies fresh water and reduces carbon emissions. The MA Synthesis Report also reveals that it is the world’s poorest people who suffer most from ecosystem changes. “Only by understanding the environment and how it works, can we make the necessary decisions to protect it. Only by valuing all our precious natural and human resources can we hope to build a sustainable future,” said Kofi Annan, secretary general of the United Nations in a message launching the MA reports. ”The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is an unprecedented contribution to our global mission for development, sustainability and peace.” The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) Synthesis Report is the first in a series of seven synthesis and summary reports and four technical volumes that assess the state of global ecosystems and their impact on human well-being. This report is being released together with a statement by the MA board of directors entitled “Living beyond Our Means: Natural Assets and Human Well-being.” Quotes “The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment confirms what the environmental movement has been saying for decades: protecting our planet and its resources is not a special interest, but a human interest." Peter Seligmann, chairman and CEO of Conservation International. More quotes (PDF) links Related articles on Global issues: biodiversity biodiversity loss, extinction threats, commercial applications of biodiversity |
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