LIFE’S DIVERSITY …BEING DEPLETED

[Anonymous]

Life’s diversity ‘being depleted’
Virtually
all indicators of the likely future for the diversity of life on Earth
are heading in the wrong direction, a major new report says.The
Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO) is published as national delegates
gather in Brazil under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
The Convention commits governments to slow the decline in the richness of living systems by 2010.
The GBO says “unprecedented efforts” will be needed to achieve this aim.
It
sets out 15 indicators of progress towards the 2010 target, ranging
from trends in the extent of wildlife habitats to the build-up of
nutrients such as nitrogen which can harm aquatic life.Only one of the
15 – the area of the world’s surface officially protected for wildlife
– is moving in the right direction for biodiversity.

GLOBAL ECOLOGIAL FOOTPRINT
Resource demand challenges Earth’s regeneration capacity
Fish are harvested faster than their natural replacement rate
Water is being withdrawn faster than aquifers are replenished
The biosphere takes one year and nearly three months to renew what humanity exploits in one year, on this analysis
Even
here, however, most areas still fall far short of targets to protect
10% of each region with distinctive combinations of species.
The
other indicators point to an accelerating decline, which has seen the
rates of species extinctions surge to their highest levels since the
demise of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
Forests continue to be
lost at a rate of six million hectares a year – that’s about four times
the size of the English county of Yorkshire – and similar trends are
noted for marine and coastal ecosystems such as coral reefs, kelp beds
and mangrove forests.
The abundance and variety of species continue
to fall across the planet, according to an index measuring the
percentage of species with good prospects for survival; bird variety is
on the decline in every ecosystem type from the oceans to the forests.
Less
complete indications are available for other groups of animals and
plants, but it is feared they would show a similar picture.
Within reach
The
report stresses that despite the gloomy trends, the target set by the
Convention – involving a stabilisation, not a reversal of these losses
– is still within reach.
“Meeting the 2010 target is a considerable challenge, but by no means an impossible one,” the GBO notes.
“Unprecedented
additional efforts are needed, and these must be squarely focused on
addressing the main drivers of biodiversity loss.”
These “drivers” are identified as:
    * the loss of habitat, largely through the expansion of agriculture
    * climate change
   
* the introduction of alien species which can badly disrupt ecosystems
after being carried across the world, often accidentally in ship
ballast tanks
    * over-exploitation of wildlife, for example through overfishing
    * the build-up of nutrients through chemical fertilisers, sewage and air pollution
The
great challenge in meeting the biodiversity target comes in the fact
that these pressures are currently projected to remain constant or to
accelerate in the near future – so slowing the extinction slide would
involve major changes over wide areas of human activity.
In the
jargon, this requires “mainstreaming” of biodiversity concerns into
areas of policy well beyond the remit of the environmental officials
and ministers from more than 180 countries meeting in the Brazilian
city of Curitiba over the next fortnight.
Unless they can convince
their colleagues responsible for agriculture, energy, world trade and
industry that losing biodiversity threatens people and economies across
the planet, the decisions and pledges they make will do little to
reverse the trends identified in this report.

ECONOMIC BENEFITS UNDER ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
The full economic value of sustainable ecosystem management is rarely recognised and frequently ignored
Converting mangroves to shrimp farms brings immediate monetary benefit but diminishes other important ‘services’
For example, mangroves provide timber, boost fisheries and provide storm protection – all of value to a much wider community
If these ‘externalities’ are properly taken into account, the benefits of ecosystem conversion look weaker

[Author]

March 21, 2006 at 10:16 AM