The third and latest edition of Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO-3) was released on May 10, 2010 by the United Nations Environment Programme, and the news is not good. UNEP states that numerous ecosystems are in danger of passing critical tipping points, and that humanity will feel the pain, if urgent action is not taken immediately.
A tipping point is the level of degradation at which an ecosystem will begin as a whole to function at a less diverse and productive level, and at which it may be unable to recover. The report states that large areas of tropical rainforest, many freshwater lakes, and coral reef ecosystems are currently at greatest risk. The risks to all of these ecosystems, including burning, pollution, and overfishing, are being exacerbated by the combined impact of biodiversity loss and climate change.
Targets for Stopping Loss of Biodiversity Not Met
Eight years ago, in April 2002, the Convention on Biological Diversity committed most countries on the planet to “achieve by 2010 a significant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity loss at the global, regional and national level.” Despite the historic and critical nature of this commitment, today's report reveals that not a single country has fulfilled their goals of stopping the loss of biodiversity.
Endangered species continue to move closer to extinction, with amphibians at greatest risk. The population of vertebrate species as a whole decreased by approximately one third between 1970 and 2006. Natural habitats continue to degrade, with water habitats of all kinds experiencing the most severe damage.
GBO-3 identifies the five greatest threats to biodiversity as habitat change, over-exploitation, pollution, invasive species, and climate change. All five are either remaining constant or increasing in severity.
The report predicts increasing levels of extinction, loss of habitat, and changes in the numbers and distributions of species, all of which will be worse if ecosystems pass the aforementioned tipping points. Previous neglect of the impact of tipping points has caused earlier reports to underestimate the severity of many of these factors.
Solutions to Biodiversity Loss
GBO-3 is not lacking in solutions for these profound problems. The report calls for an expansion of protected areas, focusing on vulnerable species and habitats, taking action against invasive species, and working to make fishing, logging, and agriculture more sustainable. In addition, it calls for greater efficiency in nearly all aspects of human endeavor, including land use, energy use and water consumption.
Markets need to be retooled to encourage responsible practice, and government subsidizing of destructive practices needs to be ended. Perhaps most importantly, the human race needs to be educated about the critical importance of biodiversity, and why it is in their own interest to protect and expand it.
The situation is severe enough that individuals at the highest level are clearly getting the message. In the foreword to GBO-3, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon states that “biodiversity cannot be an afterthought once other objectives are addressed - it is the foundation on which many of these objectives are built."
Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, gives a hint of the changes to come: "Business as usual is no longer an option if we are to avoid irreversible damage to the life-support systems of our planet.”
The dire nature of the findings in GBO-3 raise the question of whether it will be heeded more fully than the 2002 report. Should the human race find itself, in 2018, eight years farther along on the same destructive path, there will no longer be a question of whether it is too late.
Source
United Nations Environment Programme: New Vision Required to Stave Off Dramatic Biodiversity Loss, Says UN Report Press release: Unep.org, Accessed May 2010.
