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UN launches initiative to save global biodiversity

abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/17/2008 1:07 AM

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Following the move to respond to global warming and climate change, steps are now being undertaken internationally in order to protect biodiversity and ecosystems.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has established the Inter-governmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) with the goal of saving the remaining global biodiversity in a regime of protection that likewise promotes economic gain.

"The value of services generated by the world's 100,000 protected areas is estimated to be worth over $5 trillion annually," UNEP said in a statement.

There is great economic benefit in biodiversity. For one, mangroves are valued at more than $900,000 per square kilometer, while coral reefs cost as much as $100,000 to $600,00 per square meter. Reefs in Indonesia are worth $1 million per square kilometer, based on the cost of maintaining sandy beaches, and pollination services of insects such as bees and animals like bats are worth up to $90 billion annually.

The IPBES is now looking at capital-generating incentives to boost biodiversity conversation, in the same way that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has given its support to mechanisms such as carbon trading under the Kyoto Protocol.

"A similar bridge between the scientific and political worlds may be the solution to the decline of the planet's natural assets," UNEP said.

The IPBES is also considering its engagement in a worldwide education project such as informing people of the role of animals, plants, and other organisms in the ecosystem. This initiative aims to orient consumers on the loss of economies from "dead zones" in the sea or in forests, as reported by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and UNEP's Global Environment Outlook-4.

"We are facing a serious challenge to nature-based assets. Global GDP (gross domestic product) has more than doubled in the past quarter century. In contrast, 60 percent of the world's ecosystems have been degraded," said UNEP executive director Achim Steiner.

In the past, the Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and the Ramsar convention on Wetlands have attempted to solve global biodiversity degradation.

UNEP said, however, that such initiatives were either inadequate or inappropriate. Having said this, UNEP mentioned some of the consequences for the lack of programs responding to biodiversity. By 2025, for instance, close to two billion people are likely to live with absolute water scarcity. 

as of 11/17/2008 1:07 AM