Environmental ministers from around the world are wrapping up two weeks of meetings in Bonn, Germany, as part of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. Today, delegates made some of the best progress of the meeting, establishing plans to create an independent scientific panel to do what the IPCC did for climate change--bring it scientific credibility and urgency. However, some of the conference's biggest challenges remain unresolved, including financial commitments to follow through on this plan.
The convention was formed in 1992 at the Earth Summit, the same meeting that gave rise to the UN Convention on Climate Change. Nearly 200 countries are parties to the biodiversity convention--which encompasses ecosystem protection, technology transfer, biotechnology and invasive species, among other things--but crucially the United States never ratified it.
The biggest standing goal of the convention, and the most pressing one under discussion at this meeting, is its commitment to achieve "significant reduction" in biodiversity loss by 2010. This is the last meeting before that target date, and the last real opportunity to make strides toward the goal; yet, globally biodiversity loss continues at a dizzying rate. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that only 3/4 of species that were on the planet 35 years ago are still alive today. More species are threatened with the future prospect of extinction (see figure 1).
Figure 1. Species Threatened with Extinction
as a Percent of Total Number of Known Species
Source: IUCN Red List, 2008
And according to the WWF, governments are clearly not on track to reach the 2010 goal. The organization's new report, "2010 and Beyond: Rising to the Biodiversity Challenge," finds that the rate of biodiversity loss has leveled off over the last few years, but we've been losing species steadily since 1976 (see figure 2).
Figure 2. Global Living Planet Index, 1970-2005
The Living Planet Index measures population size of hundreds of species, to determine a global trend in biodiversity. It has declined 27 percent from 1970 to 2005.
Source: WWF, 2008
What's the Good of Biodiversity?
- Food Security -- We cultivate just a tiny percent of the world's edible plant species. However, all the others regularly provide genetic insight to disease resistance and plant resilience, which are becoming only more important. In the oceans, we're fishing most fish species to their capacity, a pace that can't be sustainable. Creating a network of marine reserves, one of the intentions of the Biodiversity Convention, is needed to protect areas where fish breed and grow.
- Water Supply -- Forests not only house species, but, as water shortages spread, are the most economic means of recapturing water. Protected forests also serve as filtration devices for the water they collect, and deposit it back in underground aquifers rather than into rivers which flow to the ocean.
- Human Health -- Herbal remedies and complex pharmaceuticals alike rely on the inspiration and genes of wild plants, animals, and microorganisms. A vast majority of the United States' most-used drugs are derived from these natural sources.
- Buffering Disasters -- Protecting natural areas like mangrove forests and coral reefs is a kind of insurance for coastlines in storms; forests and wetlands are critical in preventing floods and landslides. According to the FAO, loss of mangroves contributed to the destructiveness of Myanmar's recent cyclone.
In creating a scientific panel, the current conference seems to be making progress to bring public awareness to these benefits of biodiversity. But until financial and political commitments follow up on promises made, we continue to endanger not only other species but ourselves.
Top photo by coda via Flickr
RELATED LINKS:
WWF Report: "2010 and Beyond: Rising to the Biodiversity Challenge"
A reader-friendly guide to the Convention on Biological Diversity's 2006 Global Biodiversity Outlook
Convention on Biological Diversity
EarthTrends
Domesticating the World: Conversion of Natural Ecosystems
Still and Silent Ecosystems: Declining Grassland Biodiversity
