View previous stories
	Life on Earth is being extinguished as fast as ever by UNEP & news agencies   May 2010   Biodiversity loss brings ecological systems closer to dangerous tipping point.   Despite repeated global commitments to protect the planet''s species and habitats, the variety of life continues to decline at an unprecedented rate, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today, urging action to curb the root causes of biodiversity decline.   “Biodiversity loss is moving ecological systems ever closer to a tipping point beyond which they will no longer be able to fulfil their vital functions,” he said in his message on the occasion of the International Day for Biological Diversity.   “Communities everywhere will reap the serious negative consequences, but the poorest people and the most vulnerable countries will suffer most,” he added, noting that this year''s theme is “biodiversity for development and poverty alleviation.”   Some 70 per cent of the world''s poor live in rural areas, and depend directly on biodiversity for their daily sustenance and income.   World leaders vowed in 2002 to significantly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. The commitment was incorporated into the seventh of the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the series of anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.   The Global Biodiversity Outlook report released earlier this month by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) showed that world leaders had failed to deliver on their target.   “The deadline has arrived, yet the deterioration of our natural resources continues apace,” the Secretary-General said.   He urged world leaders to create a new vision which promotes the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity and the equitable sharing of the benefits from its use. He also urged recognition of the close links between “our natural capital and our development objectives.”   May 2010 (The Guardian)   The economic case for global action to stop the destruction of the natural world is even more powerful than the argument for tackling climate change, says a major new report from the United Nations.   The Stern report on climate change, which was prepared for the UK Treasury and published in 2007, famously documented that the cost of limiting climate change would be around 1%-2% of annual global wealth, but the longer-term economic benefits would be up to 20 times that figure.   The UN''s biodiversity report - dubbed the Stern for Nature will highlight that the value of saving "natural goods and services", such as pollination, fertile soils, clean air and water, will be even higher - between 10 and 100 times the cost of saving the habitats and species which provide them.   This week the Natural History Museum''s director Michael Dixon warned that "the diversity of life, so crucial to our security, health, wealth and well-being is being eroded".   The UN report''s authors go further with their warning on biodiversity, by saying if the goods and services provided by the natural world are not valued and factored into the global economic system, the environment will become much more fragile and less resilient to shocks, risking human lives, livelihoods and the global economy.   "We need a sea-change in human thinking and attitudes towards nature: not as something to be vanquished, conquered, but rather something to be cherished and lived within," said the report''s author, the economist Pavan Sukhdev said.   These changes will require a wholesale revolution in the way humans do business, consume, and think about their lives, Sukhdev, told The Guardian. He referred to the damage currently being inflicted on the natural world as "a landscape of market failures".   The report advocates massive changes to the way the global economy is run so that it factors in the value of the natural world.   In future, communities should be paid for conserving nature rather than using it; companies should be given stricter limits on what they can take from the environment and fined or taxed more to limit over-exploitation. Subsidies worth more than US$1 trillion a year for industries like agriculture, fisheries, energy and transport need to be reformed; and businesses and national governments will be asked to publish accounts for their use of natural capital alongside their financial results.   The potential economic benefits are huge. Setting up and running a comprehensive network of protected areas and preserving the species richness within these zones could be worth as much as $4 trillion a year.   The report follows a series of recent studies showing that the world is in the grip of a mass extinction event as pollution, climate change, development and hunting destroys habitats of all types, from rainforests and wetlands to coastal mangroves and open heathland.   However, only two of the world''s 100 biggest companies believe reducing biodiversity is a strategic threat to their business, according to a report by the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is advising the team compiling the UN report.   "Sometimes people describe Earth''s economy as a spaceship economy because we are basically isolated, we do have limits to how much we can extract, and why and where," said Sukhdev.   The UN report shows that on average one third of Earth''s habitats have been damaged by humans – including 85% of seas and oceans. It also warns that in spite of growing awareness of the dangers, destruction of nature will "still continue on a large scale". The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has previously estimated that species are becoming extinct at a rate 1,000 to 10,000 times higher than it would naturally be without humans.   Apr 2010 (UNEP)   Only token efforts have been made to preserve species by designating more national parks and sanctuaries, according to the study by the UN Environment Programme’s World Conservation Monitoring Centre.   Animal populations have fallen by 31 per cent since 1970, living corals by 38 per cent and mangroves and sea grasses by 19 per cent. The annual rates of loss have shown no improvement since 2002, according to the study of more than 40 international monitoring systems.   The main causes of species loss were all linked to human activities, including habitat destruction, hunting, the introduction of alien predators, the spreading of disease and climate change.   The study has found a rapid increase in the number of endangered species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported last November that 21 per cent of all known mammals, 30 per cent of amphibians, 12 per cent of birds and 70 per cent of plants were under threat. The rate of species loss is up to 1,000 times greater than the natural background rate.   Stuart Butchart, lead author of the UN study, published in Science, said: “Our synthesis provides overwhelming evidence that governments have failed to deliver on the commitments they made and the target has not been met. We found that the natural world is continuing to be destroyed as fast as ever.. the responses have been woefully inadequate and the gulf between the threats to biodiversity and government actions is growing ever wider.”   A growing number of studies have shown that it is almost impossible to calculate the value of the "ecosystem services" from the natural world, from food, rich soil and fuel for local people, to clean air and water, and plants used by the pharmaceutical industry.   "Since 1970 we have reduced animal populations by 30%, the area of mangroves and sea grasses by 20% and the coverage of living corals by 40%," said Professor Joseph Alcamo, chief scientist of the United Nations Environment Programme, one of the contributing organisations.   "These losses are clearly unsustainable, since biodiversity makes a key contribution to human well-being and sustainable development."   "Our analysis shows that governments have failed to deliver on the commitments they made in 2002: biodiversity is still being lost as fast as ever, and we have made little headway in reducing the pressures on species, habitats and ecosystems," said Stuart Butchart. Visit the related web page
	New partnership to curb forest loss by WWF / CARE / Greenpeace   27 May 2010   New partnership to curb forest loss to stop climate change, benefit people and environment. (WWF)   More than fifty governments have vowed to stem tropical forest loss in efforts to fight climate change by forming a major new partnership.   Government leaders meeting for the Oslo Forest and Climate Conference on Thursday agreed to increase efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+), pledging iover USD 4 billion for these activities.   They established a partnership to move REDD+ activities forward, creating crucial momentum for climate change mitigation efforts focused on halting deforestation ahead of the climate talks in Cancun in December.   REDD+ offers an opportunity to address both the adverse consequences of climate change and the underlying causes of ongoing forest loss and forest degradation around the world and in doing so, contributes to efforts to avoid dangerous levels of warming.   “Governments made a major step forward in efforts to fight climate change this week. This collaborative partnership is a very constructive start,” said Paul Chatterton, of WWF’s Forest Carbon Initiative, “but the challenge now is to turn these commitments into action and secure money to support these efforts in the long-run.”   To date, the clearest example of this kind of long-term financial support came from the climate change bill that passed the US House of Representatives last year. Unfortunately, the Kerry-Lieberman bill introduced in the US Senate this month eliminated that financing. If REDD+ is to succeed, the United States and other key countries need to step up with long term financing that builds on these successful fast start actions.   Countries must follow through on their commitments by upholding the elements of this partnership agreement, which will mean improving coordination, increasing transparency, and ensuring that funds and actions are in line with principles and safeguards outlined in the partnership.   WWF, CARE, and Greenpeace proposed a set of guiding principles ahead of this week’s meeting to ensure that the agreement acknowledged that the climate, biodiversity and people’s wellbeing are fundamental to any REDD+ efforts.   Meanwhile, WWF welcomed the announcement of Norway’s decision ahead of the conference to provide USD 1 billion to support Indonesia’s efforts to reduce emissions caused by deforestation in that country.   The two governments agreed to enter into a collaboration to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) in Indonesia’s forests and peat lands.   REDD+ offers a unique opportunity to address both the dire consequences of climate change and the underlying causes of ongoing forest loss and forest degradation around the world and in doing so, contributes to efforts to avoid dangerous levels of warming.   Tackling the problem of deforestation and forest degradation at the scale and pace needed to prevent catastrophic climate change must go hand in hand with protecting the planet’s climate and biodiversity, and benefiting local communities and indigenous peoples.   “World’s governments need to agree on strong rules to guide how this money is used so it benefits the people and wildlife living in forests,” said Paul Chatterton, of WWF’s Forest Carbon Initiative. “These principles ensure that any efforts to address climate change by stopping forest loss result in real benefits for people and the environment.”   * Deforestation is estimated to contribute 20% to Global Warming. The world"s forest cover shrunk by 3.1 per cent between 2000 and 2005, according to satellite observations detailed in a study published by the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Visit the related web page
	View more stories