Biodiversity
Continual growth drives industrial expansion and accelerates communications and trade dynamics, resulting in overconsumption of materials and energy, conversion of large portions of land for human use, and an unsustainable increase in waste and emissions. Consumption and production patterns that fuel growth are responsible for the environmental degradation in the Anthropocene and have led to large increases in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change, a profound transformation of the planet, and huge negative impacts on biodiversity. Biodiversity loss and climate change are closely interconnected; they share common drivers (human activities) and have predominantly negative impacts on human well-being and quality of life.[1]
Although science and governmental policies have long strived for biological diversity protection, biodiversity has continuously declined. Ecosystems are deteriorating at unprecedented rates and approximately 1 million species are in danger of extinction. The last UN report, Global Biodiversity Outlook 5, concludes that, as in the case of the 2010 biodiversity targets, the 2020 Aichi Targets have not been met. The spiraling biodiversity loss will have multiple and multidimensional cascading effects that will lead to drastic changes in ecosystems dynamics and functioning. The growth-driven biodiversity collapse over the past century is causing the loss of ecological interactions, functions, redundancy, codependencies, structural complexity, and mechanisms of resilience that characterize natural systems. The COVID-19 crisis not only demonstrates the fragility of a socioeconomic system unaligned with nature, but also has resulted in the shutdown of conservation programs reliant on ecotourism for funding, which will affect biodiversity protection. This is strong evidence of the dependence of conservation funding on economic growth.[2]
Sources to expand upon
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-25637-5_10
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702436/
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1187512
Indigenous Biodiversity
For thousands of years, Indigenous communities have been caretakers of the environment, protecting their lands, respecting wildlife and utilizing traditional knowledge passed down through generations.
Today, they continue to safeguard some of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. Almost 50% of the world’s land mass (minus Antarctica) is occupied, owned or managed by Indigenous peoples and local communities, with roughly 40% of those landscapes labeled as protected or ecologically sound. And though Indigenous peoples comprise only around 6% of the global population, they protect 80% of biodiversity left in the world. Preserving biodiversity is also key to turning around the climate crisis, as these areas are major carbon sinks.
At the same time, many Indigenous communities – especially those in isolated regions – continue to face threats like disease outbreaks, poverty, environmental injustices and human rights violations. Some rural populations may even be facing extinction: one 2016 study followed eight Indigenous groups living in isolated areas in South America over the course of a decade, and found only one group to be growing, while the rest were small and sparsely populated.
“As go our peoples, so goes the planet,” says Nemonte Nenquimo, a leader in the Waorani community in Ecuador and founding member of Indigenous-led nonprofit organization the Ceibo Alliance. “The climate depends on the survival of our cultures and our territories.”[3]
See also
Agricultural Biodiversity | Sixth Mass Extinction | Industrial Agriculture | Anthropocene