The United Nations released a report on Monday stating that biodiversity—the variety of the planet's animal and plant life—is in rapid decline. The report confirms what conservation groups have been shouting for years and urges the international community to take biodiversity loss seriously.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon states, “To tackle the root causes of biodiversity loss, we must give it higher priority in all areas of decision-making and in all economic sectors…Conserving biodiversity cannot be an afterthought.”
Ban Ki Moon argues that tackling biodiversity is just as critical as combating climate change.
The report, released by two U.N. environmental bodies, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), finds that several critical ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest, freshwater lakes and rivers, and coral reefs are approaching a "tipping point," beyond which recovery is unlikely or impossible.
Additionally, crop and livestock diversity, natural habitats, freshwater wetlands, salt marshes and hundreds of animal species are being lost at rapid rates. Amphibians are the closest to extinction, but corals are the most rapidly deteriorating species on the planet.
The pressures driving biodiversity loss—habitat change, over-exploitation, pollution, invasive species and climate change—are either constant or increasing in intensity, which is bad news for the environment, and for us.
The authors point out that for a fraction of the cost of the massive financial bailout packages, governments can invest in solutions to a much more life-threatening problem.
Preserving biodiversity is not just about loving nature—these ecosystems are critical to supporting humanity. According to the report, biodiversity provides food, medicine, fresh water, crop pollination (which is critical to our food supply), and protection from natural disasters. All of these essentials are threatened by the current rate of biodiversity decline.
Biodiversity loss is about jobs, too. According to the report, “natural systems that support lives and livelihoods are at risk of collapsing.”
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UNEP, stated, “Many economies remain blind to the huge value of the diversity of animals, plants and other life forms and their role in healthy and functioning ecosystems.”
Nick Nuttall, a UNEP spokesman, told CNN that the financial cost of ecosystems degradation is massive: "In terms of land-use change, it's thought that the annual financial loss of services ecosystems provide—water, storing carbon and soil stabilization—is about €50 billion [$64 billion] a year."
The report will be part of the discussions at the U.N. General Assembly’s high-level debate this September in New York.
Moral of the story? Preserving biodiversity isn’t a luxury concern left to animal lovers and environmentalists. It affects everyone every day. Global action cannot be delayed.
Quick Study: Biodiversity | Conservation | Climate Change | Endangered Coral
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