Isra-Mart srl: Protected areas "insufficient" to stem biodiversity loss

www.isra-mart.com

Designating increasing amounts of land and sea as protected areas has failed to halt a "steep decline" in biodiversity, leaving an urgent reduction in man's ecological footprint as the only option for preserving the natural environment.

That is the conclusion of a new study published yesterday in the Marine Ecology Progress Series journal, which calculates that levels of consumption and population growth mean we will need the productivity of up to 27 Earths by 2050 in order to halt recent declines in biodiversity.

Talks at Nagoya last year saw nations agree to protect more than 17 per cent of the world's land mass and 10 per cent of the oceans - a huge increase on the 5.8 per cent of land and 0.08 per cent of oceans that are currently protected.

But the researchers say that even if the Nagoya targets are met they will not bring a halt to the rapid rate of species loss.

They estimate that 30 per cent of the world's ecosystems will have to be covered for protected areas to stem biodiversity loss, a level which given current rates of expansion is not likely to be realised for 185 years on land and 80 years at sea.

Meanwhile, climate change, habitat loss and resource exploitation, it is predicted, will cause mass extinctions within 50 years.

Moreover, the report warns that even if there were, a political drive to protect 30 per cent of land this would bring zones into conflict with other human interests that are likely to outweigh those of biodiversity.

The report also claims that protected areas are seriously underfunded. The researchers estimate that $24bn is needed to manage them, but just $6bn is being spent.

Dr Peter Sale, assistant director of the United Nations University's Institute for Water, Environment and Health, which produced the report, said the international community could take one of two paths: "One option is to continue a narrow focus on creating more protected areas with little evidence that they curtail biodiversity loss. That path will fail.

"The other path requires that we get serious about addressing the growth in size and consumption rate of our global population."