KOTA KINABALU: The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) believes that 60 per cent of ecosystems in the world are in an advanced state of degradation.
It says that at the same time, biodiversity is currently disappearing at the rate of up to 1,000 times the natural background rate of extinction.
These are some of the alarming highlights on the global situation presented by Sarat Babu Gidda, programme officer from CBD’s Secretariat, to participants at the Asian Wetland Symposium (AWS) current taking place here.
According to this CBD official, 20 per cent of coral reefs worldwide have disappeared during the past few decades and 75 per cent of food crop varieties have disappeared from the fields in the last century year.
On livestock, he said 21 per cent of the world’s 7,000 livestock breeds are classified as being at risk and more than 60 breeds are reported to have become extinct during the first six years of this century alone.
“Of the 7,000 species of plants that have been domesticated over the history of agriculture, a mere 30 account for 90 per cent of all the food that we eat every day,” he told the AWS delegates.
The situation for marine life is equally alarming. Gidda noted that around 80 per cent of global fish stocks are fully exploited or overexploited, which could lead to the collapse of global fisheries by 2050.
On forestry, he stated that over the past 8,000 years, around 45 per cent of forests initially present on Earth have disappeared, with most of them having been destroyed during the last century.
As for costs, he estimated that the annual global cost on biodiversity loss is close to USD3 trillion.
He said the value of the watershed protection provided by intact coastal ecosystems has been estimated at USD845 per hectare (ha) per year in Malaysia as compared to USD1,022 per ha per year in Hawaii.
Gidda believed that inaction is more expensive in the long run than investing in action now.
“The action taken over the next decade or two will determine whether the relatively stable environmental conditions on which human civilization has depended for the past 10,000 years will continue beyond this century.
“If we fail to use this opportunity, many ecosystems on the planet will move into new, unprecedented states in which the capacity to provide for the needs of present and future generations is highly uncertain,” he added.
In his power-point presentation, he gave examples of some of the possible “tipping points” that could occur, including the Amazon dieback, Eutrophication and coral reef collapse.
On the positive side, Gidda also presented facts and figures on how the global population has depended on the ecosystems.
He stated for instance some 80 per cent of people in developing countries rely on traditional medicines, the majority of which are derived from plants.
According to him, 1.6 billion people worldwide rely on forests for their livelihoods and another billion people depend on fish as their sole or main source of animal protein.
“Coral reefs provide food and livelihood for most of the estimated 30 million small-scale fishers in the developing world and of all the anti-cancer drugs available, 42 per cent are natural and 34 per cent semi-natural,” he said.
Another fact Gidda brought to light is that for more than 400 million indigenous and local community members, the Earth’s biodiversity is not only a source of wellbeing but also the foundation of their cultural and spiritual identities.
He also made the observation that over 50 per cent of the world’s population currently lives in cities and as high as 70 per cent would do so by the year 2030.
In his presentation, Gidda also touched on the Nagoya-Kuala Lumpur Protocol on Liability and Redress that provides for international rules and procedures in the field of liability and redress relating to living modified organisms.
This protocol, he said, contributes to the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking into account risks to human health.
The CBD official disclosed that the years 2011-2020 have been declared the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, with a view of contributing to the implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity that covers the same period.
He said the mission of that strategic plan for biodiversity is to take effective and urgent action to halt the loss of biodiversity in order to ensure that by 2020 ecosystems are resilient and continue to provide essential services.
This is done in order to secure the planet’s variety of life, and contributing to human well-being and poverty eradication.
In this regard, he said the UN Secretary-General has requested member states, to lead the coordination of the activities of the Decade on behalf of the UN system, with the support of the CBD secretariat and other biodiversity-related conventions, funds, programmes and agencies.
He said the UN secretary-general has also invited member states that are in a position to do so to contribute, on a voluntary basis, to the funding of the activities of the Decade.
The Convention on Biological Diversity came into force on Dec 29, 1993 shortly after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, the Rio “Earth Summit”, in June 1992.
It was inspired by the world community’s growing commitment to sustainable development.
This body also represents a step forward in the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.