THE MORE VARIETY, THE BETTER SOCIETY

-Rashmi Yadav | 20 November 2022

BIODIVERSITY LOSS , a risk to the environment and humanity. Human beings are the main root cause of loss in biodiversity. It is one of the greatest challenges faced by the world at present. As a planet, we are failing to meet all the targets set for slowing down biodiversity destruction by 2020. This is the devastating conclusion of the fifth Global Biodiversity Outlook by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). The document not only warns of the alarming degradation of nature but points to it as a variable that increases the risk of future pandemics.

WHAT DOES IT MEANS BY BIODIVERSITY LOSS?

It is the decrease in biodiversity within a species, an ecosystem, a given geographic area, or Earth as a whole. Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is a term that refers to the number of genes, species, and individual organisms within a given species, and biological communities within a defined. Likewise, biodiversity loss describes the decline in the number, genetic variability, variety of species, and biological communities in a given area. This loss in the variety of life can lead to a breakdown in the functioning of the ecosystem where the decline in has happened.

GENESIS OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS

Biodiversity has declined at an alarming rate in recent years, largely as a result of human activity. Some of the major reasons are as follows:

• CLIMATE CHANGE

Climate change is associated with global warming—which is the modification of Earth’s climate caused by the burning of fossil fuels—caused by industry and other human activities. Fossil fuel combustion produces greenhouse gases that enhance the atmospheric absorption of infrared radiation (heat energy) and traps heat, influencing temperature and precipitation patterns.

• INVASION OF ALIEN SPECIES

Invasive alien species are the second biggest cause of loss of biodiversity in the world, according to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). These are non-native species that significantly modify or disrupt the ecosystems they colonize—may outcompete native species for food and habitat, which triggers population declines in native species.

• OVEREXPLOITATION OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

It is the harvesting of game animals, fish, or other organisms beyond the capacity for surviving populations to replace their losses—results in some species being depleted to very low numbers and others being driven to extinction overexploitation of natural resources, i.e, their consumption at a speed greater than that of their natural regeneration, has an obvious impact on the planet's flora and fauna.

BIODIVERSITY STATS

Global biodiversity is in steep decline, the WWF has warned in its flagship Living Planet Report 2020. The number of mammals, birds, fish, plants, and insects has fallen an average of 68 percent from 1970 to 2016, which is more than two-thirds in less than 50 years. Humans are destroying nature at a rate never seen before, and the slide shows no signs of slowing, the report said.

Biodiversity is fundamental to human life on earth, and the evidence is unequivocal — it is being destroyed by us at a rate unprecedented in history,” said the WWF report published once every two years. “The way we produce and consume food and energy, and the blatant disregard for the environment entrenched in our current economic model, has pushed the natural world to its limits,” said Marco Lambertini, director general, of WWF International. “COVID-19 is a clear manifestation of our broken relationship with nature.

The Living Planet Report is based on data from the Living Planet Index produced by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). The index is statistically created from journal studies, online databases and government reports for 20,000 populations of 4,200 species of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, and fish, or approximately 6 percent of the world’s vertebrate species.

ALARMING DECLINE

The rate of decline is not uniform. The Freshwater Living Planet Index shows that freshwater biodiversity is declining far faster than that in oceans or forests, with an alarming 84 percent decline in freshwater species, which is equivalent to 4 percent per year since 1970.

In the tropical sub-regions of the Americas, there is a catastrophic 94 percent decline, the largest fall observed in any part of the world in the past 50 years.

Land conversion for agriculture has caused 70 percent of global biodiversity loss and half of all tree cover loss, and of the total amount of water withdrawn from available freshwater resources, 75 percent is used for crops or livestock. Since 2000, 1.9 million square km of previously wild and undeveloped land – an area the size of Mexico – has been lost through conversion, mostly in tropical and subtropical grasslands, savanna and shrubland ecosystems, and Southeast Asian rainforests.

In the marine environment, overfishing in wild capture fisheries is the primary driver of change, with one in three fish stocks being overfished. Pollution, coastal development, and climate change are also affecting ocean productivity.

INDIA’S SITUATION

India’s ecological footprint, according to the index, is lower than 1.6 global hectares per person, which is the lowest bracket and is smaller than that of many large countries. However, its high population levels make it likely for the country to face a widening ecological deficit even if current per-capita levels of resource consumption remain the same.

India is a highly biodiverse country, holding over 45,000 species of plants in only 2.4 percent of the world’s land area. Over 12 percent of wild mammal species are threatened with extinction in the country. In India, 3 percent of bird species face extinction, with the number increasing every year. As many as 19 percent of amphibians are threatened or critically endangered. Bee colonies are also collapsing drastically across the country.

Larger animals, particularly in freshwater habitats, are in greater danger of extinction, the report said. These include river dolphins found in India, giant catfish in the Mekong, and otters, and beavers, among others.

“We are heading to a point of no return,” said Sejal Worah, director of programs at WWF India.

Based on new research by a global group of scientists, published in Nature journal on September 10, the Living Planet report calls for action to halt and reverse the downward spiral of wildlife loss. The research shows that things can be turned around if ambitious conservation efforts to protect wildlife are combined with stopping habitat loss and deforestation.

It means transformative changes in farming and how we produce food, tackling more than 30 percent of the food that is currently wasted, and working to restore damaged habitats and landscapes.

EFFECT OF BIODIVERSITY LOSS

More than an environmental issue biodiversity loss has many consequences, not only for the environment but also for human beings at the economic and health level. During the presentation of the IPBES report, David Cooper, the Deputy Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, took the opportunity to warn about this amid the COVID-19 crisis: "As we degrade ecosystems, the risk of future pandemics increases." Other adverse effects are listed below:

• Extinction of plant and animal species

• Threat to Human beings

• Proliferation of pests

• Increase in carbon dioxide emission

Vulnerability: The world is experiencing an increase in human suffering and economic losses from natural disasters over the past several decades. Mangrove forests and coral reefs—a rich source of biodiversity—are excellent natural buffers against floods and storms. Their loss or reduction in coverage has increased the severity of flooding in coastal communities. Floods affect more people (140 million per year on average) than all other natural or technological disasters put together. Over the past four decades, the number of “great” disasters has increased by a factor of four, while economic losses have increased by a factor of ten. During the 1990s, countries low on the Human Development Index experienced about 20% of the hazard events and reported over 50% of the deaths and just 5% of economic losses. Those with high rankings on the index accounted for over 50% of the total economic losses and less than 2% of the deaths.

Energy security: Wood fuel provides more than half the energy used in developing countries. Even in industrial countries such as Sweden and the United States, wood supplies 17% and 3% of total energy consumption respectively. In some African countries, such as Tanzania, Uganda, and Rwanda, wood fuel accounts for 80% of total energy consumption (SG-SAFMA). In rural areas, 95% is consumed in the form of firewood, while in urban areas 85% is in the form of charcoal. In some provinces of Zambia where population densities exceed the national average of 13.7 persons per square kilometer, the demand for wood has already surpassed the local supply. In such areas, people are vulnerable to illness and malnutrition because of the lack of resources to heat homes, cook food, and boil water. Women and children in rural poor communities are the ones most affected by wood fuel scarcity.

WHAT INITIATIVES WERE TAKEN?

Market tools, such as direct payments for ecosystem services or transfers of ownership rights to private individuals, can provide economic incentives to conserve biodiversity and use ecosystem services sustainably. Tradable development rights, for instance, are marketable rights awarded to landowners in areas reserved for conservation. These rights can then be sold to the owners of land in developing areas who need to hold a certain number of these marketable rights before being granted permission to develop. Alternatively, they can be sold to organizations with conservation interests. Though these rights offer the potential to achieve a conservation objective at a low cost, they have been criticized for being complex and unable to protect specific sensitive habitats.

Prevention and early intervention have proven to be the most successful and cost-effective ways of tackling invasive species. Once an invasive species has become established, its control and particularly its eradication through the use of chemicals or the introduction of other species is not necessarily effective and is extremely difficult and costly. Some agricultural practices can contribute effectively to biodiversity conservation. Sustainable intensification, for instance, limits the land area needed for agricultural production, leaving a larger area available for biodiversity conservation. Other practices such as Integrated Pest Management, some forms of organic farming, and protection of field margins habitats can promote synergies between agriculture and both domestic and wild biodiversity. Further research is needed on these interactions.

International agreements need to include enforcement measures and take into account impacts on biodiversity and possible synergies with other agreements. Most direct actions to halt or reduce biodiversity loss need to be taken at a local or national level. Suitable laws and policies developed by central governments can enable local levels of government to provide incentives for sustainable resource management.

Compassion can be lost as easily as species, and when it goes, then plants and animals are sure to follow. It is not enough simply to bequeath biodiversity to future generations without also passing on a sense of its significance and, perhaps hardest of all, a genuine love of life on Earth.

-Charlie Elder