Biodiversity Cons. and Threats_Brazil_Oct05.ppt

#environmental science

1. Biodiversity:
Conservation and Threats
By
Jeffrey A. McNeely
[email protected]
III Brazilian Congress on Agroecology
19 October 2005

2. For millions of years, the Americas
were wilderness, left to wildlife

3. Once people arrived, things
started to change

4. Fire and technology helped early human immigrants
into the Americas drive some species to extinction,
such as the mammoth, giant ground sloth, and an
entire complex of edentates. Our lives are
impoverished for having lost these species.

5. But the hunting and gathering people who
arrived in the Americas also adapted, learning
how to conserve their natural resources in the
wilderness where they lived.

6. Agriculture developed independently in
several parts of the Western Hemisphere,
giving people greater control over nature,
even domesticating many species.

7. Later, mechanized agriculture --often forced by
colonial or global sources of demand --moved
across the land, replacing more wilderness,
further threatening wild biodiversity and
expanding the human population

8. We are consuming more food
Resource
Per capita increase
(1950-1990)
Grain
40%
Beef and mutton
26%
Fish
100%

9. Theprocess of land conversion
continues to accelerate, sometimes
encroaching on legally protected areas.

10. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell
Why do we need biodiversity?

11. Ecosystem Services: the benefits
people obtain from ecosystems
Regulating
Benefits obtained from
regulation of ecosystem
processes
• climate regulation
• disease regulation
• flood regulation
Provisioning
Goods produced or provided
by ecosystems
• food
• fresh water
• fuel wood
• genetic resources
Cultural
Non-material benefits from
ecosystems
• spiritual
• recreational
• aesthetic
• inspirational
• educational
Supporting
Services necessary for production of other ecosystem services
• Soil formation
• Nutrient cycling
• Primary production

13. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell
FORESTS
BENEFITS
•Absorption of carbon dioxide, a
greenhouse gas
•Wood and other forest products
•Biodiversity: drugs from plants

14. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell
FORESTS
Indicative costs if lost
•$7 millionLikely cost to plant enough trees to offset one
million tons of carbon emitted annually from a medium-
size coal-fired power plant.
•$135 millionAnnual value of US and Canadian maple
syrup products. Pollution from midwestern power plants
threatens sugar maples in both countries.
•$1.6 billionAnnual Sales of Taxol, an anticancer agent
first dervied from the bark of Pacific yew trees.

15. GRASSLANDS
BENEFITS
•Soil formation and
retention
•Gene pool for
crossbreeding grains
•Animal habitat

16. GRASSLANDS
Indicative costs if lost
•$9 trillionValue today of 200 million tons of topsoil blown
off US Great Plains in one 1934 dust storm. Prairie had
been ploughed to plant wheat.
•$14 millionAnnual value of California’s barley crop;
Ethiopian wild barley genes provide virus protection.
•$256 millionKenya’s annual tourism revenue. Black
rhinos, a major wildlife attraction, have been poached
nearly to extinction.
Source: members.aol.com/ MVNick/snature.htm

17. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell
OCEANS AND COASTS
BENEFITS
•Major source of food protein
•Protection against coastal flooding
and erosion
•Tourist and recreational revenue

18. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell
OCEANS AND COASTS
Indicative costs if lost
•$51 millionValue of Canada’s annual Atlantic cod catch,
down from $148 million in 1989. Catch fell from 426,000
to 47,000 tons due to overfishing.
•$100,000Yearly cost to some Bali hotels to combat
beach erosion caused by destruction of coral reefs.
•$33,500Annual value of a single shark to diving industry
in Maldive Islands; value to a fisherman: $32.

19. Biodiversity
includes wild
relatives of
domestic plants
and animals

20. Biodiversity can help ecosystems
adapt to climate change

22. The main threats to biodiversity

23. Rain forest burning

25. Where is the risk of extinction greatest?
Areas of threatened species richness
Threatened Mammals Threatened Birds
Threatened Turtles Threatened Amphibians

26. 0
20,000
40,000
60,000
80,000
100,000
1873 1878 1883 1888 1893 1898 1903 1908 1913 1918 1923 1928 1933 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 1963 1968 1973 1978 1983 1988 1993 1998 2003
Year
Number of Sites
0
2,000,000
4,000,000
6,000,000
8,000,000
10,000,000
12,000,000
14,000,000
16,000,000
18,000,000
20,000,000
Area in Km
2
Cumulative area sites of known date
Cumulative no. of sites of known date
Note: 38,427 PAs covering approxim ately 4 m illion km ² have no date and are not
included in the cum ulative graph So what can be done to conserve biodiversity?
Protected areas provide one important answer.

27. The World Database on Protected Areas
Protected Areas in
IUCN Categories I through VI

28. Key Problems: Addressing the eternal
conflict between people and nature

29. Key Problems:
Land use change

30. Key Problems:The increasing
homogenization of biodiversity: how do
we keep invasive alien species out of
wilderness areas?

31. Many people are working to find
common ground
between farmers and biodiversity

32. So what options do we have for
linking biodiversity to agriculture?

33. 1. Maintain non-domestic habitats
within production landscapes

34. 2. Use
economic
incentives to
encourage
farmers to
conserve wild
biodiversity

35. 3. Compensate farmers for
economic damage from wild
species

36. 4. Recognize the value of traditional
farming systems to conserve
domestic and wild biodiversity

37. 5. Remove trade
barriers to
farmers in
developing
countries

38. 6. Apply modern technology to
mainstreaming biodiversity in
agroecosystems

39. 7. Recognize rights of farmers for
genetic resources

40. 8. Recognize indigenous land
rights for biodiversity
conservation

41. 9. Use market
instruments
to support agro-
biodiversity

42. 10. Adopt a landscape approach
when mainstreaming biodiversity

43. Conservation of biodiversity is an expression
of human culture.
Biodiversity needs active management if it is to
provide us with the goods and services we
desire.
This management needs to include some areas
where natural ecosystems are enabled to
continue their evolution.
The biological impacts of climate change will
require new approaches to conserving
biodiversity.