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STATE OF THE WORLD 2012 Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity POLICY BRIEFS Biodiversity: Combating the Sixth Mass Extinction Chapter 15 Bo Normander K ey M essag es 8 The rate at which species are becoming extinct is estimated to be up to 1,000 times higher today than in pre-industrial times. 8 The Living Planet Index estimates that since 1992, biodiversity has declined 12 percent globally, and 30 percent in the tropical regions. 8 At the 1992 Rio Summit, leaders made a commitment to preserve biological resources through the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. But extinction and biodiversity loss has continued, and there is a fundamental lack of political will to act on biodiversity threats. T he P ro b lem Biodiversity is being lost on all scales, from microorganisms to large mammals, at a rapid rate. The loss of biodiversity has not received the same amount of attention as climate change, in part because there is less scientific knowledge and consensus on the subject, but not because it is a less urgent threat to life on Earth. To understand the importance of biodiversity in a habitat or ecosystem, imagine biodiversity as a house of cards, with each card representing a single species or organism. A few cards may be removed without much happening to the house, but if certain cards or enough cards are pulled out, the whole house will collapse. Species are interlinked through food webs, pollination, predation, symbioses, antibioses, and many more interactions, many of which are unknown. Between 1980 and 2008, an average of 52 species per year were moved one category closer to extinction, and the rate of biodiversity loss shows no signs of slowing. As a result, scientists have called this period the “sixth mass extinction” in human history; the last extinction saw the end of the dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period, 65 million years ago. Human intervention is the cause of this period of extinction. The five main pressures driving biodiversity loss are habitat change, pollution, overexploitation of species, invasive alien species, and climate change—and all of these are almost exclusively human-driven. The world’s oceans and forests are particularly threatened. Industrial fishing with trawls from large vessels causes extensive damage to both marine health and species biodiversity. And coral reefs, which are great harbors of biodiversity, are showing increasing signs of stress: about one-fifth of the world’s coral reefs have already been lost or severely damaged, while another 35 percent could be lost in the next 10 to 40 years. Deforestation is another major cause of biodiversity loss. Between 1990 and 2010, the global forest area shrank by 3.4 percent, or 1.4 million square kilometers—an area roughly the size of Mexico. Deforestation continues at a high rate in many countries, mainly in the form of conversion of forests to agricultural land, much of which is done illegally. In Indonesia, approximately 12 million hectares of tropical forest are supposedly protected, but illegal logging, agricultural encroachment, and poaching continue to destroy forests. From an ethical perspective, it is not right for humans to decide which species survive and which do not. To take a more self-interested view, humans need intact ecosystems to meet their basic needs for food, clean water and air, medicine, fuel, biological materials, and more. These ecosystems are threatened, in part, because of the high rate of biodiversity loss: the 2005 Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reported that 15 out of 24 key ecosystem services are in decline, including clean air and water. There has been a lack of political success in conserving biodiversity, beginning with the ambiguity of the biodiversity targets set by the 1992 Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). In 2002, the CBD committed “to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss”—but delegates meeting in Nagoya, Japan, in 2010 concluded that the target had not been met, whether measured globally, regionally, or nationally. The target was renewed with the adoption of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020, with 20 new targets, known as the Aichi Biodiversity Targets. Some Aichi targets are ambitious, some less so, and some issues have been left completely unaddressed, such as urban biodiversity. The targets also impose weak legal obligations, and are often vague and unambitious. the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) with the aim of making the 2020 biodiversity targets reachable. But much greater resources must be invested in IPBES to make it effective, and allocating resources is an obvious task for the Rio+20 conference. M ov i n g F orward L ook i n g A head Innovations must occur both on the national and global level to halt biodiversity loss. On a national level, governments must address the forces behind overexploitation and other causes of biodiversity loss. To lessen deforestation, for example, governments should identify and alleviate the pressures behind encroaching on forests to produce timber, food, animal fodder, and biofuels. Workers engaging in illegal activities causing deforestation, such as unpermitted logging, should be assigned to jobs that help protect forest ecosystems rather than destroy them. Such an approach has been used in other areas: Brazil’s TAMAR sea turtle program, for example, pays former poachers to protect rather than exploit the turtle population, providing employment and other public benefits to coastal communities in the northeast. Cooperation between governments is also necessary to raise global awareness of biodiversity loss and to create targets to reverse this loss. In early 2011, an intergovernmental panel agreed to create The Rio+20 conference presents a great opportunity to renew and fortify global and national commitments to halt biodiversity loss. One area that needs particular focus is improved regulation of protected and reserved lands and marine areas. In Indonesia, for example, a joint analysis revealed that some 1.3 million hectares of forest are simultaneously protected and within logging concessions. Part of the task of the Rio+20 conference is to ensure that local and national authorities have the resources and means to protect the land and seas under their jurisdiction. But as important as the protection of natural habitats and the implementation of ambitious biodiversity targets are, lowering the unsustainable consumption rate per person, especially in industrial nations, is just as crucial. The current model of consumer societies is destroying the planet and its resources— thus, conserving biodiversity will require some fundamental changes in the way people consume natural resources and understand their surroundings. Red List Status of Species by Major Groups, 2011 Percent of Evaluated Species 100 Source: IUCN 80 Extinct Critically Endangered Endangered Vulnerable Near Threatened Least Concern Data Deficient 60 40 20 Bi r Se Cor ds a A als ne an m d on es St ur ge Pa on dd an Cy les d ca fis d h Pl a Am nts ph ib ian s M am m als 0 This brief is based on Chapter 15, “Biodiversity: Combating the Sixth Mass Extinction,” by Bo Normander, 2.0 published in Worldwatch Institute’s State of the World 2012: Moving Source: Toward Sustainable Prosperity. WWF To order a copy of the report, visit www.worldwatch.org/stateoftheworld2012. Additional policy briefs, essays, and select report chapters are available at http://sustainableprosperity.org. 1.5 dex Value Temperate Living Planet Index 1.0 Global Living Planet Index