Biodiversity loss has been on the global agenda for decades now as nature’s diversity represents a life-sustaining base for humankind. The International Day for Biological Diversity, marked on 22 May, is an occasion to enhance understanding and awareness of biodiversity-related issues and to turn the spotlight on initiatives and those people working hard to restore biodiversity by addressing a variety of environmental and societal issues at the same time.
Biodiversity loss
Despite the gravity of the problem, biodiversity loss is not a recent issue having been on the global agenda for decades. Traditionally defined as genetic diversity and diversity of species, habitats, and ecosystems, biodiversity continues to be on a steep decline. Around 1 million animal and plant species are now threatened with extinction, many within decades, more than ever before in human history, according to a report from the UN Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. As many as 3.3 million hectares of forest area were lost annually from 2010 to 2015. Since 1980, the rate of man-made emissions has soared by 100%, leading to an increase in the global temperature of at least 0.7 degrees Celsius.
This list of negative effects is far from complete and human beings are the only ones responsible for this degradation which is due to excessive utilization of natural resources, chemical pollution, and the destruction of the natural environment, etc.
“By working with nature, we have the potential to reduce emissions by more than a third of what is needed by 2030, but we must start now. Without nature, we will not be able to achieve 1.5°C or net-zero emissions by 2050, nor will we achieve the Sustainable Development Goals,” the UN has warned.
Biodiversity is tightly linked to development
Since almost half of the human population is directly dependent on natural resources for its livelihood and many of the most vulnerable people depend directly on biodiversity to fulfil their daily subsistence needs, biodiversity and ecosystems contribute directly to human well-being and development priorities and obviously they are a direct precondition for the achievement of practically all the Sustainable Development Goals.
Apart from this, biodiversity, as part of healthy ecosystems, can help communities to adapt to an already changing environment by increasing the resilience of the natural systems they use as well as sustaining their livelihoods.
To recover biodiversity following centuries of harm and degradation, urgent action and specific tools are needed. Back in 2019, the President of the UN General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa Garcés, noted:
“Eleven years is all we have ahead of us to change our direction… We are the last generation that can prevent irreparable damage to our planet.”
Two years have passed since then, with the last one being totally unfavorable to the achievement of the SDG because of the coronavirus pandemic which actually reversed many positive pre-pandemic trends. This calls for even more concerted efforts to try to fix the situation.
Ecosystem-based Adaptation is part of the solution
In practice, restoring and preserving ecosystems and sustainably managing both them and their resources while addressing societal challenges is one of the ways to tackle biodiversity loss. It is also at the core of Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA):
“Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) is the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services to support communities to adapt to life in a less predictable climate system.” (International Union for Conservation of Nature)
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) is one of the organizations working with numerous partners to promote this approach. Together with leading executing agencies in Mexico, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, and Vietnam, it envisages strengthening “ecosystem-based adaptation in planning and decision-making processes”.
“The ecosystem-based approach does indeed have a huge potential to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and several societal challenges, including health,” says Ulrich Kindermann, an expert on ecosystem-based adaptation, working for GIZ.
When it comes specifically to communities, there are ecosystem-based solutions in a variety of areas of human activity – forestry, agriculture, tourism, fisheries, aquaculture to name just a few. For instance, in a project in Ha Tinh province, Vietnam, ‘Forest protection and restoration for buffering extreme droughts’ (EbA) helped to address the issue of quickly growing short-rotation plantations, leading to the erosion and reduction of services such as water resources and non-timber forest products while at the same time making forests less vulnerable to extreme weather events.
The beneficiaries of the project learnt how to retain the existing natural forests for a number of functions and benefits such as firewood, sprout, water for humans and forage for animals, the microclimate, underground water, and a habitat for other plants under the tree canopy. They also earn a stable income that supports them in the conditions of climate change making them more prepared for what the future will bring them. One of the beneficiaries confirmed that “planting native timber is not for his generation, but for the future, […] they would be happy to protect the ecosystems for his other crops, for nearby families and for the ecosystems themselves”.
