Rapid extinction

The world has collectively failed in its bid to halt the rapid loss of the planet's species, a milestone UN report found this week.

Since the presentation of the Convention on Biological Diversity in 1992 at the United Nations "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, 168 countries have signed the document. Yet according to the third Global Biodiversity Outlook, no single government has met its full range of ecological protection targets.

"The consequences of this collective failure, if it is not quickly corrected, will be severe for us all," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the report. "Biodiversity underpins the functioning of the ecosystems on which we depend."

Dr. Manfred Niekisch, director of the Frankfurt Zoo and a member of the German Advisory Council on the Environment, lamented the conclusions outlined in the UN's latest outlook. "It shows beyond question that we haven't made progress in protecting biological diversity," he said.

Climate at a crossroads

The third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook underscored the role of biodiversity in promoting healthy, functioning ecosystems - which provide mankind with food and drinking water. "Current trends are bringing us closer to a number of potential tipping points that would catastrophically reduce the capacity of ecosystems to provide these essential services," Secretary-General Ban's statement read.

But Dr. Niekisch said the world is nearing another pivotal juncture - when monetary solutions will no play an effective role in remedying ecological destruction.

"Choosing not to safeguard biodiversity long-term entails significantly higher costs," he said. "And it won't just be extremely expensive - there are also many problems that money can't fix."

The loss of fertile soil poses a similar dilemma. "You can't just buy the soil," Dr. Niekisch told Deutsche Welle. "It has to accumulate and emerge; it has to be cared for."

A lot of talk, but little action

Disruption of natural ecosystems due to climate change and the introduction of invasive animal species has increased the risk of extinction for amphibians and other wildlife - and contributed to the decline of tropical forests, wetland regions and coral reefs.

Despite outlining 21 sub-targets toward slowing the loss of biodiversity under the UN convention, countries have failed to turn promises into anything more concrete than "many, many international meetings," said Dr. Anantha Kumar Duraiappah, executive director of the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change in Bonn.

Dr. Duraiappah said diverting those resources toward real activities would achieve more than talks and deliberations on biodiversity, which are hampered by countries' strategic self-interests.

"I guess (that's) part of the process," he said. "But it's not a very productive process. I keep emphasizing that biodiversity is a global common."

Biodiversity on the brink

Today, an estimated-80-percent of the world's known species are found in the developing world. Human progress has devastated biodiversity in the developed world, and is rapidly doing the same in nations trying to emerge from poverty.

Though Europe was once home to a number of intact ecosystems, Elsa Nickel, Nature Protection Director at the German Environment Ministry, said industrialized countries like Germany have few pristine natural spaces left today.

She described the Rhine River - once lauded in literature of the Romantic era - as a prime example of biodiversity lost. "It's (become) a conduit - it's a commercial body of water," she said. "It's far from a natural river."

The UN's report stressed that preserving natural resources, species and areas will require serious action: "We can no longer see the continued loss of biodiversity as an issue separate from the core concerns of society," the outlook said.

The international community is due to adopt new biodiversity goals for next year and onward at a UN summit in Nagoya, Japan, in October.

Author: Helle Jeppesen (arp)
Editor: Nathan Witkop