MADRID, March 1 (IPS) – Real wildlife is more than just a hunt or a ‘strange’ ornament: as many as four billion people – or an entire half of the world’s population – are based on into wild species for income, food, medicine and wood fuel for cooking.
Despite this, one million species of plants and animals are facing extinction due to over-profitability, over-exploitation, illegal trade and the constant depletion of biodiversity. live on Planet Earth.
In fact, billions of people, both in developed and developing countries, benefit every day from the use of wild species for food, energy, materials, medicine, recreation and much more. other important contributors to human well-being, such as a valid United Nations report on the occasion of 2023 World Wildlife Day (3 March).
So many that 50,000 wild species meet the needs of billions of people worldwide. And 1 in 5 people in the world rely on wildlife for income and food, while 2.4 billion people depend on fuelwood for cooking.
The world’s major multilateral body reminds us of the “urgent need to step up the fight against wildlife crime and human-caused species decline, issues that have economic, environmental and social activities on a large scale”.
Diverse life, lost at “alarming speed”
A world leader in wildlife conservation and the protection of endangered species: the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) warning unfortunately, we are losing biodiversity — the rich variety of life on Earth — at an “alarming rate”.
“We have seen the number of birds, amphibians, mammals, fish and reptiles decrease by an average of 69% since 1970, according to Living Planet Report 2022.
“One million species of flora and fauna are threatened with extinction, we’ve lost half of the world’s corals and we’re losing an area of forest the size of 27 football fields every minute.”
WWF outstanding the following findings, among several others:
- Wildlife populations have decreased by an average of 69% since 1970,
- Wildlife populations in Latin America and the Caribbean plummeted at an astounding 94%,
- Populations of freshwater species have been reduced by 83%.
The main causes
The Living Planet Report 2022 pointed out some of the main causes leading to the terrible decline of the world’s biodiversity.
“The biggest cause of biodiversity loss is the way people use the land and sea. The way we grow food, harvest materials like wood or minerals from the ocean floor, and build our towns and cities all have an impact on the natural environment and living biodiversity. there.”
Food system: biggest cause of natural loss: According to findings provided by WWF, food production has caused 70% of biodiversity loss on land and 50% in freshwater. It is also responsible for about 30% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
As a global population, what we are eating and how we produce it right now is not good for us or the planet. While more than 800 million people are hungry, more than two billion of those with enough food are obese or overweight.
The findings provided by WWF also indicate that meat tend to have the highest environmental impact, partly because livestock produce methane emissions through their digestion – something called gut fermentation – but also because most meat comes from animals. reared by plants.
And around 850 million people around the world are thought to rely on coral reefs for food and livelihood.
The WWF report also mentions invasive non-native species: Invasive non-native species are those that come to places where they were not previously inhabited and compete for local biodiversity for resources such as sunlight and water. This causes native species to die out, causing a structural change in the natural ecosystem.
The future depends on reversing the loss of Nature
“The world is waking up to the fact that our future depends on reversing natural loss as well as on tackling climate change. And you can’t solve one without solving the other.” speak Carter Roberts, president and chief executive officer of WWF-US.
“This decline in wildlife populations could have dire consequences for our health and our economy.” speak Rebecca Shaw, WWF’s global chief scientist.
“When wildlife populations decline to this extent, it means drastic changes are impacting their habitats and the food and water they rely on. We should be deeply interested in unraveling natural systems because it is these resources that sustain human life.”
In view of all of the above, the causes of the rapid destruction of the diversity of life have been scientifically identified as well as the dangerous consequences. However, the dominant private enterprise continues to derive more profit from destruction than from savings.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
