Of the various environmental problems, the loss ofbiodiversity is the most serious one, the greatest threat to world stabilityand security today
Two days earlier (on May 22nd) we celebrated theInternational Day for Biological Diversity (IDB). It is a UnitedNations-sanctioned international day for the promotion of biodiversity issuesmarked every year. The main aim of celebrating this day is to make people awareabout the vital importance of biodiversity on one hand and its unprecedentedloss on the other hand, so as to refocus our attention and reaffirm theendeavor to promote its conservation and sustainable use. Each year a specifictheme related to biodiversity is chosen by the United Nations to lay focus on.The theme for 2019 is “Our Biodiversity, Our Food, Our Health”. This year’stheme is relevant because both food and health are dependent on biodiversityand there is need to spread awareness about changing our homogenized foodsystems and improve human health.
While we celebrate the World Biodiversity Day, it would be pertinent to have a look on the new IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. This is because the Report is alarming and its knowledge may help us realize comprehending the factors responsible for the increase in current unprecedented loss of biodiversity and the urgency to take steps to address to it. This report, besides corroborating the findings on biodiversity previously made known by organizations and entities like IUCN, CBD, UNEP, WWF, WHO, FAO, UNESCO, and UNICEF, covers many additional issues in its studies that are relevant to and important in biodiversity and ecosystem analyses, and also useful to policymakers and all others interested in the field.
IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body comprisingmore than 130 member Governments. Established in 2012, it provides policymakerswith objective scientific assessments about the state of knowledge regardingthe planet’s biodiversity, ecosystems and the contributions they make topeople, as well as the tools and methods to protect and sustainably use thesevital natural assets. Its Global Assessment Report is the most comprehensiveassessment on biodiversity and ecosystem services compiled by 145 expertauthors from 50 countries over the past three years, with inputs from other 310contributing authors. The Report asserts that the nature is facing dangerousdecline and that the unprecedented species extinction rates are accelerating,with grave impacts on people around the world. The health of ecosystems isdeteriorating more rapidly than ever, and around one million species of animalsand plants are threatened with extinction, many within decades.
The Summary of the Report was approved at the 7th session ofthe IPBES Plenary meeting held 29 April – 4 May 2019 in Paris, and released onMay 6, 2019. The full 6-chapter Report is expected to exceed 1,500 pages andwill be published later this year. The Summary presents the key messages andpolicy options. The notable findings of the Report include:
General
• 75%terrestrial and 66% marine environments are “severely altered” till now byhuman actions.
• +/- 60billion tons of renewable and non-renewable resources are extracted globallyeach year, up nearly by 100% since 1980.
• 15%increase in the global per capita consumption of materials since 1980.
• >85%of wetlands present in 1700 have been lost by 2000; wetland loss is currentlythrice more in percentage than forest loss.
Species,Populations and Varieties of Plants and Animals
• Theextent of current rate of global species extinction is 10s to 100s of timeshigher compared to average over the last 10 million years, and the rate isaccelerating.
• Up to 1million species are threatened with extinction, many within decades.
• >500,000of the worlds estimated 5.9 million terrestrial species have insufficienthabitat for long-term survival without habitat restoration.
• > 40%amphibian species are threatened with extinction.
• Almost33% reef-forming corals, sharks and shark relatives, and >33% marine mammalsare threatened with extinction.
• 25%average proportion of species are threatened with extinction acrossterrestrial, freshwater and marine vertebrate, invertebrate and plant groupsthat have been studied in sufficient detail.
• A least680 vertebrate species have been driven to extinction by human actions sincethe 16th century.
• >20%decline in average abundance of native species in most major terrestrialbiomes, mostly since 1900; around 560 domesticated breeds of mammals wereextinct by 2016, with at least 1000 more threatened.
• 3.5%domesticated breed of birds were extinct by 2016.
• 70%increase since 1970 in numbers of invasive alien species across 21 countrieswith detailed records.
Foodand Agriculture
• 300%increase in food crop production since 1970.
• 23% landraces have seen a reduction in productivity due to land degradation.
• >75%global food crop types rely on animal pollination; but US$235 to US$ 577billion annual value of global crop output is at risk due to pollinator loss.
• 5.6gigatons of annual CO2 emissions are sequestered in marine and terrestrial ecosystems,equivalent to 60% of global fossil fuel emission.
• +/- 11%world population is undernourished.
• 100million hectares of agricultural expansion in the tropics from 1980 to 2000.
Oceansand fishing
• >55%ocean area is covered by industrial fishing.
• 3-10%decrease is projected in ocean net primary production due to climate changealone by the end of the century.
• +/-50% oflive coral cover of reefs lost since 1870s.
• 100-300million people in coastal areas are at increased risk due to loss of coastalhabitat protection.
Forests
• 45%increase in raw timber production since 1970.
• 50%agricultural expansion has occurred at the expense of forests.
• 68%global forest area today compared with the estimated pre-industrial level.
• 7%reduction in intact forests from 2000-2013 in both developed and developingcountries.
• 290million ha (+/-6%) of native forest cover lost from 1990-2015 due to clearingand wood harvesting.
• >2billion people rely on wood fuel to meet their primary energy needs.
Urbanization,Development and Population
• >100%growth of urban areas since 1992.
• 25million km length of new paved roads foreseen by 2050, with 90% of constructionin least developed and underdeveloped countries.
• 105%increase in global human population (from 3.7 to 7.6 billion) since 1970unevenly across countries and regions.
Health
• +/- 4billion people rely primarily on natural medicines.
• 70% ofcancer drugs that are natural or synthetic products are inspired by nature.
• +/- 821million people face food insecurity in Asia and Africa.
• 40% ofglobal population lacks access to clean and safe drinking water.
• 100%increase in greenhouse gas emissions since 1980, raising average globaltemperature by at least 0.7 oC.
• >80%global wastewater is discharged untreated into the environment.
• 300-400million tons of heavy metals, solvents, toxic sludge, and other wastes fromindustrial facilities are dumped annually into the world’s waters.
• 10 timesincrease in plastic pollution since 1980.
All the above and other issues in the Report have a director indirect influence on biodiversity and accelerate tremendously its loss,telling upon ecosystem functioning and health. Thus, there is a very seriousbiodiversity crisis. Scientific evidences clearly highlight the disturbing factthat the Earth is in the midst of unprecedented loss of biodiversity, being1,000 to 10,000 times higher than the natural extinction rate. Of the variousenvironmental problems, the loss of biodiversity is the most serious one, thegreatest threat to world stability and security today.
Footprints of climate change on the biodiversity are alreadyquite visible. In the Swiss Alps, plant species have been migrating upwards by1-4 m per decade. Some plants previously found only on the mountaintops havedisappeared. Most of the world’s endangered species may become extinct over thenext few decades as climate change conditions alter the forest, grassland andwetland ecosystems. Over the last three decades, the loss of biodiversity hasemerged as an issue of global concern. The Rio Earth Summit (1992), under theaegis of UNEP, was the first global-scale event that ascended biodiversity tothe status of a global issue. It led to the CBD that has provided the internationalinstitutional framework for the countries to deal with issues related tobiodiversity. Now, all the member countries have formulated their own NationalBiodiversity Action Plans. In India, a new legislation under the IndianBiodiversity Act, 2002 has come into force.
Future concerns:
So what should be our response? IPBES Chair – Sir RobertWatson – emphasized that the current global response is insufficient;transformative changes are needed to restore and conserve nature; and thatopposition from vested interests can be overcome for larger public good. Bytransformative change is meant a fundamental, system-wide reorganization acrosstechnological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals andvalues.
Big challenges also force us to search for solutions. Onlythose nations will succeed who have the capacity, both institutional and human,to manage biodiversity in the sustainable way. Biodiversity is a crisisdiscipline that needs a response of an efficient crisis management. The issuesof biodiversity loss are not a matter best left only to academic debates andresearch topics. It should be everybody’s concern, because biodiversitysustains the life on the planet Earth. Precious the conservation ofbiodiversity is for the human survival, the perilous the loss of biodiversityis for human existence!
In conclusion, the international events such asInternational Day for Biodiversity and UN Decade on Biodiversity remind all thestakeholders involved to pledge using all our knowledge, vision and wisdom inproper care of biodiversity, so as to ensure its judicious and sustainable useand conservation for generations to come.”We can no longer see the continuedloss of biodiversity as an issue separate from the core concerns of society: totackle poverty, to improve the health, prosperity and security of present andfuture generations, and to deal with climate change. Each of those objectivesis undermined by current trends in the state of our ecosystems, and each willbe greatly strengthened if we finally give biodiversity the priority itdeserves”. [CBD’s ‘Global Biodiversity Outlook 3’ report].
(The author is Former Head Department of Botany, Universityof Kashmir)