Earth Today | Big bucks in biodiversity - Marine scientist makes case for conservation

THE GLOBAL call for attention for natural systems, even in a time of COVID-19, continues to gain traction locally, with respected marine biologist and ecologist Professor Mona Webber noting their immense economic value as reason enough for prioritisation.

“As the world faces numerous challenges and populations become more marginalised, there is a tendency to disregard the issues of natural systems and their associated biodiversity. However, the services produced by natural ecosystems and their associated biota are valued at two times what humans produce each year,” she told The Gleaner.

“Forty per cent of the world’s economy depends on its biodiversity and 80 per cent of the needs of the poor/marginalised are derived from biological resources (biodiversity),” added Webber who heads the Centre for Marine Sciences at The University of the West Indies, Mona.

While recognizing the need for a continued robust response to the global pandemic, which has infected more than 38 million persons and claimed more than one million lives, Webber said there is a place for biodiversity conservation in that response.

“Biodiversity/ecosystem loss or degradation will only worsen the plight of the marginalised and compromise our ability to effectively respond to the pandemic. Conserving natural systems and their biodiversity needs to be seen as investing in the natural infrastructure that supports our economy, as well as the health and well-being of our people,” she said.

“Maintaining biodiversity improves resilience to this pandemic and other crises of the future,” Webber added.

Her comments come in the wake of the recent United Nations Summit on Biodiversity that was hosted under the theme, ‘Urgent Action on Biodiversity for Sustainable Development’.

That event also drew the comment of a number of other local and regional stakeholders who have come out as champions for biodiversity, including head of Caribbean Natural Resources Institute Nicole Leotaud.

“Protecting nature must be at the heart of Caribbean COVID-19 recovery and climate resilience, and we need strong leadership to prioritise biodiversity conservation as a central pillar in Caribbean development,” she has said.

“There is strong commitment and action by civil society and local communities to protect biodiversity and nature-based livelihoods, but more needs to be done at the political level,” Leotaud added.

Destroying habitats

Eleanor Jones, head of the consultancy firm Environment Solutions Limited who does work across the Caribbean, has herself weighed in on the subject.

“We need to understand what biodiversity is. It basically relates to species, which includes us, and the interaction with their habitats. The single biggest threat to biodiversity is the habitat, and what we are saying is that as we are destroying habitat, we are running wildlife out of their places and bringing them closer to humans and causing, for example, a jump of diseases from animals to humans,” she told The Gleaner some weeks ago.

“With COVID-19, food production becomes increasingly important and biodiversity is critical to food production, on sea and on land, for marine and terrestrial life. So when we are talking [about] biodiversity conservation, what we are talking about is food production, sustainable supplies of clean water, clean air, and preventing disease,” added Jones, who is also a member of the Private Sector Association of Jamaica.

“It is, therefore, critical that we do not destroy our forest cover, and that we pay attention to maintaining marine life and protecting sensitive areas,” she said further.

Representatives from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have themselves been vocal on the subject, as the seeming enhanced risks of plastics pollution associated with the global pandemic response, for example, put natural systems and species in jeopardy.

For her part, Ileana Lopez, Specially Protected Area and Wildlife/Marine Biodiversity programme officer with the UNEP, said climate change and land-use changes are widely recognised as being among the most important threats to biodiversity and ecosystem services; and should be addressed.

“Drastic modifications of biodiversity-rich ecosystems and many losses of species are occurring due to human interventions. Changes in the frequency, intensity, and extent of vegetation fires and habitat modification as a result of land-use change could negate natural adaptive processes and lead to extinction,” she said.

“The effect of these negative impacts could be deep and widespread because changes in ecosystems will affect water supply, fuelwood, and other ecosystem services,” Lopez said added.

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