The challenge mankind can’t ignore

Date: 04/04/02

By David Morgan

THE concept of biodiversity has had something of a PR problem since the phrase was first popularised in the 1980s.

The term includes the full variation of genetic material in all living organisms and covers the ecological complexes of which they are part.

Some commentators have sought to extend this definition to include human cultural diversity, which is a reflection of the adaptation of our own species to environmental circumstances.

Although genetic variation within species is of great significance in crop science and agriculture, it is the concept of wild species that carries most resonance in the public mind. There are probably between 10 and 100 million species on the planet although only about 1.5 million of these have been named and described so far.

The scale of our ignorance on the subject is all the more shocking when it is remembered that these organisms make up the very fabric of our world. Apart from its ecosystem benefits such as its influence on our climate, soil fertility and water resources, biodiversity has significant economic value to society.

In the early 1990s imported wild species products (mostly timber and fish) had a value of some €175 billion. In addition, the importance of biodiversity to the pharmaceutical industry is enormous; most prescription drugs have their origins in wild material. How many other substances of use to mankind await discovery among the millions of species yet to be named?

And let it not be forgotten that a substantial part of the economic value of tourism is derived from the natural world.

Which takes us to the aesthetic value of biodiversity, the price of which cannot be measured in euro but can be seen in the enduring enthusiasm for and cultural importance attached to wild species by diverse races throughout the world.

Unfortunately, global biodiversity is being lost rapidly. These losses, almost entirely attributable to human activities, are occurring at a pace many times greater than the background extinction rates, which would be the normal course of events.

The figures have reached alarming proportions - 12 of all the world's bird species for instance, are threatened with extinction. Birds are well-studied, but many species become extinct every year before we even identify them. The life-support structure of the planet is inexorably being weakened, a situation that cannot be allowed to continue.

Against this background, it is perhaps surprising that it was only at the Göteborg Summit in June 2001 that an environmental (including biodiversity) element was added to the economic and social pillars of a Community Sustainable Development Strategy.

Under the challenge of managing natural resources more responsibly, this strategy established a headline objective of protecting and restoring habitats and natural systems and halting the loss of biodiversity by 2011. This is certainly an ambitious target but it is essential to set a marker down if we are not to allow short-term interests to undermine the ability of biodiversity to provide essential benefits for future generations.

This environment pillar of the EU's Sustainable Development Strategy is now set out in the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme agreed between the Parliament and the Council last month. This programme establishes a number of actions amongst which is the implementation of a suite of Community Biodiversity Action Plans covering conservation of natural resources, agriculture, fisheries and development and economic cooperation. In their cross-sectoral approach, three of these action plans provide a demonstration of the integration necessary if we are to address the problems.

Biodiversity loss is simply too important to us all to be left only to environmental specialists. It must be a theme that runs through the actions of all sectors. Through the so-called 'Cardiff integration process' various Council formations have been engaged in producing integration plans for their sector to address environmental and biodiversity issues. In the end it will only be changes to sectoral policies such as the Common Agricultural Policy and Common Fisheries Policy, made real through the everyday actions of European citizens, that can halt this spiral that otherwise will one day catch up with us all.

Is there the political will to turn strategies and plans into real action? When will indicators be identified to monitor progress? This will be a true test of the rhetoric of sustainability. It is a test we cannot afford to fail.

• David Morgan is the European coordinator of the recently opened UK Nature & Landscape Office in Brussels.

Article discusses the development of the concept of biodiversity in recent years and the potential biodiversity loss which civilisation cannot ignore.