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also Environmental News Network website, 20 May 05 World's Biodiversity Declining at an Alarming Rate By Phil Couvrette, Associated Press Channel NewsAsia, 21 May 05 Unprecedented effort needed to save world's biodiversity: study BBC News website, 21 May 05 Earth's species feel the squeeze IUCN website (PDF file), 20 May 05 BIODIVERSITY NEEDS YOU Millennium Ecosystem Assessment releases Biodiversity Report Conservation Coalition Statement | Millennium Ecosystem Assessment The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment releases its Biodiversity Report today at the occasion of World Biodiversity Day. The report sends an unequivocal message to the world: we can no longer afford the extinction of plants and animals. The continuing loss of species means we risk losing nature’s services that are essential for humanity such as food, clean water, fuel, wood and fibre, pharmaceuticals and control of diseases, and the regulation of our climate and water. “Biodiversity is where the human hunger for resources is taking its heaviest toll, and the inclusion of 15,589 species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the clearest sign that we need to change the way we produce and consume,” says Mr. Jeff McNeely, Chief Scientist of the World Conservation Union and contributor to the Report. The facts and figures of the Report mostly come from the 2004 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Global Species Assessment. But the Report provides considerable detail on the sources of threats, the implications of biodiversity loss for human welfare, and what can be done to halt the rate of loss. Immense value The report and its findings have clear implications for people and economies, for wealthy nations and developing countries alike. With ecosystem services valued up to US$30 trillion - nearly the total gross domestic product of all countries - it shows that sustaining ecosystems through biodiversity conservation and sustainable development offers a more lasting investment than exploiting them for short-term benefit. “What we do to save biodiversity today will increase our options to adapt to change in future. It is up to each government, organisation and individual to sustainably manage our natural wealth,” says Mr. Achim Steiner, Director General of the World Conservation Union. “The more biodiversity we manage intelligently, the more services we secure,” he added. Against the odds All of the likely future scenarios in the Report lead to a further decline in biodiversity, contrary to the agreed global target to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. This points to the need for a massive shift in political will and unprecedented efforts at the global, regional, and national levels to implement the various tools that are available to conserve biodiversity. These efforts will have to tackle the drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem change such as habitat change, climate change, invasive alien species, over-exploitation, and pollution. With biodiversity loss expected to increase and the associated costs falling disproportionately on the poor, the Report’s findings are also critical for guiding efforts towards the Millennium Development Goal on eradicating poverty. Early warning systems The Report states that improved, and more widely applicable, measures of biodiversity would help decision making at all levels. The World Conservation Union (through its Species Survival Commission and Species Programme and with partners such as Conservation International, BirdLife and NatureServe) has already devised a system for monitoring trends in extinction risk. IUCN RESPONSE TO THE MILLENNIUM ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT Extracts: The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) recognises that the current body of knowledge on the contribution of conservation and ecosystem services to poverty reduction and economic development is still not sufficiently conclusive to convince decision-makers. We need to improve understanding of the multiple links between ecosystems and human well-being, and especially the social, economic, and political factors that need to be in place. Addressing this knowledge gap is a key challenge. We note, with concern, that the Scenarios Working Group was unable to come up with any scenario whereby biodiversity does not continue to be lost in future, thus reinforcing the need for urgent action. Greater effort should be devoted to using our creativity to determine what kinds of steps need to be taken to reverse the alarming, and continuing, loss of biodiversity. The statement on traditional knowledge systems is minimal, and certainly needs to be expanded as one of the key messages of the MA. The value of traditional knowledge for ecosystem management and conservation of biodiversity has been widely documented and acknowledged, yet cultural diversity is being lost at a rate faster than that of biological diversity. More attention in the MA to this issue would have been appropriate. Whereas the MA does provide guidance on measuring the drivers of loss of ecosystem services, it fails to move forward on the work done to date to agree on a set of indicators of sustainability. Such indicators are of great importance to measure progress. Providing knowledge and information A key challenge is the dissemination of findings and methods to ensure they are used more widely. IUCN will promote the findings, tools and methods of the MA. Working together with various member and partner organisations, the development of communication and education tools has considerable potential. Improving knowledge and governance IUCN is working to improve our knowledge of human impacts on ecosystem services. We need to be more systematic in our monitoring and assessment of positive and negative human impacts. A major challenge will be to convert the global findings of the MA to the management level. Building bridges between sectors Bringing together different sectors and stakeholders, from the local to the international level, is one of the strengths of IUCN, and it is a necessary precondition to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Environmental News Network website, 20 May 05 World's Biodiversity Declining at an Alarming Rate By Phil Couvrette, Associated Press MONTREAL — The world's biodiversity is declining at an alarming rate, threatening human well-being and future development and requiring important efforts and new thinking on conservation, a sweeping international report released on Thursday says. The report is the second of seven reports billed as the world's largest study of changes to Earth's ecosystems and their impact on humans. It is the result of five years of collaboration between 1,360 experts from 95 countries around the world. Human activity is responsible for a reduction of biodiversity, which degrades ecosystems and penalizes other groups of people, especially the poorest who depend most on them, according to the report presented at McGill University in Montreal to mark the International Day for Biological Diversity. Entitled "Ecosystems and Human Well-being: the Biodiversity Synthesis Report," it was prepared by the U.N. Millennium Ecosystem Assessment with the cooperation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. "The loss of biodiversity is a major barrier to development already and poses increasing risks for future generations," said Walter Reid, the director of the Millennium Assessment, "However, the report shows that the management tools, policies, and technologies do exist to dramatically slow this loss." According to the report changes in biodiversity due to human activities were more rapid in the past 50 years than at any time in human history, and over the last 100 years species extinction caused by humans has multiplied as much as 1,000 times. Some 12 percent of birds; 23 percent of mammals; 25 percent of conifers and 32 percent of amphibians are threatened with extinction, and the world's fish stocks have been reduced by an astonishing 90 percent since the start of industrial fishing. "We will need to make sure that we don't disrupt the biological web to the point where collapse of the whole system becomes irreversible," warns Anantha Kumar Duraiappah, of Canada's International Institute for Sustainable Development, one of the co-chairs of the report. The report notes that while efforts have helped reduce the loss of biodiversity more action is needed as little progress is foreseen in the short term. "The magnitude of the challenge of slowing the rate of biodiversity loss is demonstrated by the fact that most of the direct drivers of biodiversity loss are projected to either remain constant or increase in the near future," the report says. The report blames biodiversity change on a number of factors including habitat conversion, climate change, pollution and over-exploitation of resources. Channel NewsAsia, 21 May 05 Unprecedented effort needed to save world's biodiversity: study MONTREAL : An unprecedented effort is required between now and 2010 to stop further deterioration of the planet's fragile biodiversity, according to a UN report that compiled the work of 1,300 researchers. In fact, 2010 may be too late, say the authors of the report, pleading with governments, NGOs, international organizations and companies to immediately put in place long-term conservation plans. According to the report published this week in Montreal, "The world in 2100 could have substantial remaining biodiversity or it could be relatively homogenized and contain low levels of diversity." "Changes in biodiversity due to human activities were more rapid in the past 50 years than at any time in human history," the report stated. Dubbed the Second Millennium Ecosystem Assessment report, it is part of a massive study launched by the United Nations in 2001 meant to fill in scientific gaps to better measure ongoing environmental changes and understand their global impact. Thirty-five percent of mangroves -- tropical shrubs that grow on muddy sea shores -- have disappeared in the past two decades, and 20 percent of coral reefs have been destroyed, while 25 percent of conifers and 35 percent of amphibians are in danger of extinction, say scientists. These tragic circumstances are due to the over-exploitation of natural resources, as well as growing demand for oil and natural gas that pollute the atmosphere, putting increasing pressure on ecosystems and biodiversity. Proposed solutions aim to link economic development and the protection of biodiversity. "I think this report is saying we can have a balance, but we need to reduce some of the influence, we need to also move away from just pure conservation, the 'don’t touch' kind of policy and a little bit more sharing," economist and co-author of the report Anantha Kumar Duraiappah told AFP. Making a link between the economy and the protection of biodiversity is even more important in developing countries because they tend to rely mostly on the exploitation of natural resources to sustain their fragile economies. Poor communities, particularly those in rural areas of developing countries are more dependent on biodiversity. They rely more on ecosystems and so are most vulnerable to their degradation, according to the report. "If you tell developing countries 'sorry but you have to conserve your ecosystem therefore you should not grow economically.' So they keep their ecosystem and they all starve," Duraiappah said. In addition to more conventional solutions like creating or expanding protected natural areas, the report recommends the elimination of agricultural subsidies estimated at 350 billion dollars annually for countries that are members of the international Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. "A significant proportion of this total involved production subsidies that lead to overproduction, and reduce the profitability of agriculture in developing countries," the report stated. - AFP BBC News website, 21 May 05 Earth's species feel the squeeze By Jonathan Amos BBC News science reporter If we continue with current rates of species extinction, we will have no chance of rolling back poverty and the lives of all humans will be diminished. That is the stark warning to come out of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA), the most comprehensive audit of the health of our planet to date. Organisms are disappearing at something like 100 to 1,000 times the "background levels" seen in the fossil record. Scientists warn that removing so many species puts our own existence at risk. It will certainly make it much harder to lift the world's poor out of hardship given that these people are often the most vulnerable to ecosystem degradation, the researchers say. "Biodiversity and human well-being just cannot be separated" Dr Kaveh Zahedi, World Conservation Monitoring Centre The message is written large in Ecosystems and Human Well-being: the Biodiversity Synthesis Report. It is the latest in a series of detailed documents to come out of the MA, a remarkable tome drawn up by 1,300 researchers from 95 nations over four years. The MA pulls together the current state of knowledge and in its latest release this week focuses specifically on biodiversity and the likely impacts its continued loss will have on human society. Even faster
"And when you look to the future, to various projections and scenarios, we expect those changes to continue and in some circumstances to accelerate. "Future models are very uncertain but all of them tell us that as we move into the next 100 years, we'll be seeing extinction rates that are a thousand to 10,000 times those in the fossil record." 'Invisible services' One feature that sets the MA apart from previous projects of its kind is the way it defines ecosystems in terms of the "services", or benefits, that people get from them. Some of these services are obvious - they are "provisional": timber for building; fish for food; fibres to make clothes. At another level, these services are largely unseen - the recycling of nutrients, pollination and seed dispersal, climate control, the purification of water and air - but without these "support" and "regulating" systems, life on Earth would soon collapse. And although we may be some distance away from an "end scenario", there is no doubt the rapid expansion of the human population and its high consumption of natural resources have taken a heavy toll on ecosystems and the organisms that inhabit them. "Biodiversity and human well-being just cannot be separated," said Dr Kaveh Zahedi, the officer in charge of the Unep World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge, UK. "We are befitting from a whole range of services that up until now have almost been invisible; we haven't considered them. And then they suddenly pop up on our radar screens - we have a tragedy in Asia with a tsunami and we realise that those mangroves that were cut down had a value; they provided a service in terms of coastal protection." Similar picture Land-use (habitat) changes, climate change, pollution and over-exploitation - they are all pushing down on biodiversity and the pressure shows little sign of easing. "The magnitude of the challenge of slowing the rate of biodiversity loss is demonstrated by the fact that most of the direct drivers of biodiversity loss are projected to either remain constant or increase in the near future," the MA biodiversity synthesis report says. If you do things the right way, if you chose the right options for poverty alleviation, you can also maximise biodiversity and sustainability Dr Georgina Mace, Institute of Zoology Removing huge swathes of forest has a blunt and clear impact on biodiversity by taking out the habitat formerly occupied by plants and animals. But there are subtle changes taking place, too. The distribution of species around the globe is becoming more homogenous, as invasive creatures hitch a ride on fast human transport and trade routes. Genetic diversity, also, is declining rapidly. This is most obvious in domesticated plants and animals where the pursuit of high yields and the pressures of global markets have pushed farmers towards a limited range of cultivars and breeds. And so it is not simply that species are fewer in number, their changed circumstances may also have reduced their resilience and their ability to cope with future change. Possible tensions In 2002, world governments, through the Convention on Biological Diversity, set themselves the target of making a "substantial reduction in the rate of loss of biological diversity" by 2010. The MA illustrates just how tough it will be to meet that target. What is more, there may even be occasions when progress towards that target conflicts with the even loftier 2015 Millennium Development Goals of cutting into world hunger and poverty, and improving healthcare.
A classic example is the development of rural road networks - a common feature of hunger reduction strategies - which are likely also to accelerate rates of biodiversity loss by fragmenting habitats and by opening up new areas to unsustainable harvests. This sort of thing has been well documented in Africa where the bushmeat trade that endangers many species follows the development of transport infrastructure. "This is a very important issue," said Dr Mace. "It's clear there are going to have to be trade-offs and compromises but it's not a simple relationship. It's not a case that you can have 20% poverty and 80% biodiversity. "If you do things the right way, if you chose the right options for poverty alleviation, you can also maximise biodiversity and sustainability." And Dr Neville Ash, another MA synthesis team member, added: "The bottom line is that you cannot achieve long-term poverty alleviation without sustainability. "In order to reduce hunger and poverty and increase access to clean water and sanitation, we need to have a strong base of environmental sustainability which is providing these services on which people rely for their well-being." Little time It is very evident, too, that we need to get a move on. The wheels of global governance turn slowly, as was seen with the Kyoto Protocol on climate change which finally entered into force in February after many years of negotiation. The MA has identified possible solutions - from significant shifts in consumption patterns and better education, to the adoption of new technologies and a large increase in the areas enjoying protection. And if some of the ideas sound "old hat", such as the abolition of farming subsidies that drive crop production to the detriment of field biodiversity - that is because they are. "Most of the approaches to achieving more sympathetic management of the natural environment and the conservation of biodiversity - I think we and governments know them already," commented Graham Wynne, the chief executive of the UK bird conservation group, the RSPB. "The real challenge is to deploy them more extensively and more intelligently. "And you can't get away from the fact that we simply need more money. "The sums of money we throw at the environment in the West are relatively modest; and the sums of money the West is prepared to devote to developing countries is pitiful." links Related articles on Global issues: biodiversity biodiversity loss, extinction threats, commercial applications of biodiversity |
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