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With billions of people depending on wild flora and fauna for food, medicine, and energy, a million species are at risk of extinction due to the combined impacts of climate change, other forms of pollution, overexploitation, and deforestation, warns a new report backed by the United Nations.
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The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) report said Friday that unless humanity improves the sustainable use of nature, the Earth is on its way to losing 12% of its wild tree species, over a thousand wild mammal species, and almost 450 species of sharks and rays, among other irreparable harms.
Humans make routine use of about 50,000 wild species, and one out of five of the world’s 7.9 billion people depend on those species for food and income, The Associated Press reports, citing IPBES. One in three people rely on fuel wood for cooking, and the proportion is even higher in Africa.
“It’s essential that those uses be sustainable because you need them to be there for your children and grandchildren. So when uses of wild species become unsustainable, it’s bad for the species, it’s bad for the ecosystem and it’s bad for the people`” report co-chair Marla R. Emery told AP.
The report provides recommendations for policy-makers and examples of the sustainable use of wild fauna and flora. A central goal should be to secure tenure rights for Indigenous and local peoples, who have historically made sustainable use of wild species, the report said.
According to the study, Indigenous peoples occupy around 38,000,000 square kilometers (14,600,000 square miles) of land in 87 countries, equivalent to about 40% of terrestrial conserved areas. “Their lands tend to be doing better in sustainability than other lands. And the common thread is the ability to continue to engage in customary practices,” said Emery, a researcher with the U.S. Forest Service.
Emery said it’s essential to secure national and international systems, such as education, that promote the preservation of Indigenous languages, which maintain the ability for older members to transfer traditional knowledge about sustainable practices to new generations.
An example of good practice is fishing arapaima, one of the world’s largest freshwater fish, in Brazil’s Amazon, said report co-chair Jean-Marc Fromentin.
“It was a move from an unsustainable to a sustainable situation,” he told AP. “Some communities in Brazil created community-based management and then called some scientists to learn more about the fish’s biology and to put in place an efficient monitoring system. It worked so well that the model went to other communities and countries like Peru.”
Gregorio Mirabal, head of Coordinator of the Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, said several UN studies have already stressed the importance of biodiversity and the threats posed by climate change, but they don’t bring about solutions.
The Indigenous leader mentioned growing problems in the region, such as water contamination from mercury used in illegal mining and oil spills. Moreover, those who oppose these practices face violence, such as the recent murder of an Indigenous warrior in a mining area in Venezuela.
“There is irrational exploitation of natural resources in the Amazon, but there is no social investment to improve the health, educational, cultural, and food situation of the Indigenous peoples,” Mirabal said.
The report was approved by representatives of 139 member countries gathered this week in Bonn, Germany. It involved dozens of experts, from scientists to holders of Indigenous knowledge. IPBES is an independent intergovernmental body and is not part of the UN system. But it has the support of the United Nations Environment Programme and other bodies, and is informally known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for biodiversity.
This Associated Press story was republished by The Canadian Press on July 8, 2022.
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