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Humans main culprits in biodiversity damage

FOR many of us long involved in the biodiversity issue, it has been exasperating to feel that the gravity and consequences of species extinction and the decline of nature have not been fully realised and understood by the public.

It was music to the ears, therefore, during the launch of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Global Assessment study in Paris last week, to hear Unesco director-general Audrey Azoulay say that, “following the adoption of this historic report, no one will be able to claim that they did not know”.

“We can no longer continue to destroy the diversity of life. This is our responsibility towards future generations”, adding that protecting it “is as vital as fighting climate change”.

In the same way that the Intergovernmental Platform on Climate Change has helped put the climate crisis on the political agenda — most recently warning that the world has less than 12 years to avoid catastrophic levels of global warming — IPBES hoped to help thrust nature loss into the global spotlight.

And it appears that is starting to happen. At the Élysée Palace, President Macron of France received the report immediately after it was launched and, meeting simultaneously elsewhere in France, G7 environment ministers adopted a “biodiversity charter”. The biodiversity issue will also be high on the agenda when France hosts G7 heads of government later this year.

Vetted line by line and approved unanimously by the government delegations at the week-long IPBES meeting, the summary of the new report warns that humans are the main culprits of biodiversity damage, altering 75 per cent of earth’s land and 66 per cent of marine ecosystems since pre-industrial times.

Up to one million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history. And the rate of species extinctions is accelerating.

According to the new report, the average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20 per cent, mostly since 1900. More than 40 per cent of amphibian species, almost 33 per cent of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened.

“The picture is less clear for insect species, but available evidence supports a tentative estimate of 10 per cent being threatened. At least 680 vertebrate species had been driven to extinction since the 16th century and more than 9.0 per cent of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture had become extinct by 2016, with at least 1,000 more breeds still threatened.”

“Ecosystems, species, wild populations, local varieties and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating or vanishing. The essential, interconnected web of life on earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed,” said report co-chair Josef Settele of Germany.

“This loss is a direct result of human activity and constitutes a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.”

Drawing on 15,000 references, as well as indigenous and local knowledge, the report emphasises the disastrous impact of population growth and rising demand. It notes that the world’s population has more than doubled (from 3.7 billion to 7.6 billion) in the last 50 years, and gross domestic product per person is four times higher.

The new global assessment was completed by 400 experts from at least 50 countries. It is only the second of its kind ever attempted; the first was the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005, in which IPBES found its roots.

And the experts say, it is not too late to make changes but they must be “transformative... a fundamental, system-wide reorganisation”, and all parts of our government structure must work together.

Continuing along as we have been simply isn’t an option. The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture, said outgoing IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. He also said the health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.

IPBES member nations — Malaysia included — have now acknowledged that, by its very nature, transformative change can expect opposition from those with interests vested in the status quo, but also that such opposition can be overcome for the broader public good, said Watson.

The first IPBES Global Assessment now constitutes a global consensus of scientists and policymakers from 132 nations on the problems we face and what can be done to address them. The fullsummary can be found at ipbes.net

When he gavelled down the report’s adoption last week, Watson realised an ambition expressed in 2007 alongside 18 other distinguished scientists and policy experts.

In an essay co-signed by the group and published in Nature magazine, they warned that earth is on the verge of “a major biodiversity crisis”, and called for “a new global coordinating mechanism to provide a united, authoritative scientific voice to inform government decision-making internationally”.

IPBES has realised that mission. We have found international agreement on the facts. We must now use that knowledge to act.

The writer is the founding chair of IPBES (2013 – 2016), and co-Chaired with Sir Robert Watson theMillennium Ecosystem Assessment of 2005

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