Available at http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl

Biodiversity: why are we losing it?

Gwen Raitt

BCB 705:Biodiversity

Biodiversity is an important part of our environment.

Biodiversity loss directly affects human well-being.

There are those who are not willing to believe that humans are causing biodiversity loss.

Environmentalists present evidence that human actions at all levels of society are causing biodiversity loss.

Our responsibility is to:

Find out how we affect the environment as a species,

Find out how we affect the environment individually,

Find out how we can reduce our individual impact on the environment.

This chapter outlines the reasons why humans as a species have a negative impact on the environment.

We have a Responsibility…We have a Responsibility… To Ourselves!To Ourselves!

Anthropogenic Causes of Biodiversity LossAnthropogenic Causes of Biodiversity Loss

BiodiversityLoss

HabitatDegra-dation

Attitude to Biodiversity

Debt

EconomicGrowth

Poverty &Migration

PropertyRights

GlobalTrade

Legislation

Military Habitat Loss& Fragmen-

tation

Urbani-zation

Low Eco-nomic Value

of Biodiversity

PopulationGrowth Food Supply

& Industry

Sub-sidies

The following cause extinction by upsetting balances, directly using a species, using habitats and using resources leading to decreased numbers of populations, population size and sometimes individual fitness.

Habitat destruction and fragmentation

Habitat degradation

Invasion by exotic species

Pollution

Climate Change

Overexploitation

Direct Causes of ExtinctionDirect Causes of Extinction

Agriculture causes natural habitat destruction, fragmentation and degradation and thus loss of biodiversity. The following aspects of agriculture contribute to the loss of biodiversity:

Domestication

Increasing yield

Forestry causes natural habitat destruction, fragmentation and degradation and thus loss of biodiversity. The following aspects of forestry contribute to the loss of biodiversity:

Species selection

Harvesting methods

Domestication

Agriculture and ForestryAgriculture and Forestry

Clear felling of forest

Aquaculture causes in habitat destruction and habitat degradation and thus biodiversity loss in both marine and freshwater habitats. The following aspects contribute to biodiversity loss:

Provision of infrastructure and technology,

Waste products,

Introduction of exotic species,

Selective breeding.

Fisheries cause habitat degradation and habitat destruction in both marine freshwater habitats and thus biodiversity loss. The following aspects contribute to biodiversity loss:

Improved technology,

Harvesting methods,

Marine fisheries are threatened by the loss of rivers, mangroves, estuaries, coastal wetlands and reefs.

Aquaculture and FisheriesAquaculture and Fisheries

Industry may be defined as any group of businesses that use the same method of generating profits or alternately as a section of economic production dedicated to manufacturing.

Industry is the means of converting natural capital into selected goods and services. This process involves both habitat destruction and habitat degradation. Causing pollution is cheap but cleaning up pollution is expensive and would lower profits.

Industry promotes urbanization and vice versa.

Urbanization refers to the expansion of urban areas or the expansion of the proportion of the population in urban areas or the increase of this proportion over time. This expansion results in habitat destruction and habitat degradation.

Urban areas get their resources from elsewhere. This means that people are not in close association with the resources that they are using which affects their attitude to resource use.

Industry and UrbanizationIndustry and Urbanization

Attitudes to biodiversity are linked to culture.

Attitudes, opinions and tastes are formed. They may be altered by:

Internal social interactions,

External influences.

Marketing is a tool used to influence people’s opinions by presenting information and/or propaganda.

Companies that harm the environment market misinformation to confuse the public into sup-porting them against changes in legislation, etc.

Environmentalists use marketing to promote the retention of biodiversity through conservation.

As the distance/separation from a resource in-creases, so the concern for that resource decreases.

AttitudesAttitudes

Several factors cause economics not to value biodiversity accurately:

The nature of the benefits of natural resources,

Unequal access to property rights,

Markets do not reflect all natural resource use,

Economics fails to consider the high risk value of biodiversity loss,

Economic indicators (e.g. the Gross National Product) are flawed.

The result of this failure to value biodiversity is that conservation is seen as a burden not an opportunity.

The Failure of Economics to Value BiodiversityThe Failure of Economics to Value Biodiversity

Both companies and governments select countries globally to avoid legislation (environmental, financial or social) that hampers their activities.

Most of the oceans are not protected by any national legal jurisdiction or effective inter-national agreements for biodiversity protection.

The Kyoto protocol (on reducing carbon emissions) does not protect biodiversity.

Subsidies are used encourage environmentally harmful activities.

Taxes on environmental harmful industries are a potential tool for reducing biodiversity loss.

Vested economic interests make changes in governmental policy difficult.

Legislation, Taxes and SubsidiesLegislation, Taxes and Subsidies

Property rights concern controlling access to a resource, obtaining it or guaranteeing it – i.e. the rights to whatever value is derived from the use or exchange of a resource.

Social status affects access to property rights. Over-consumption is more damaging than poverty.

Property rights are more easily available to urban males working in the formal economic sector than to rural people.

Property rights are often granted for conversion of natural land to ‘productive’ use.

The lack of property rights causes overexploitation.

Open access causes overexploitation.

Communal access control is an effective way of regulating resource use.

Access to information affects resource use.

Property Rights and Access RegulationProperty Rights and Access Regulation

Conversion refers to the shifting of capital from one form to another.

The law of economic specialization indicates that productivity increases as the homogeneity (uniformity) of production methods.

Globalization covers the complex economic, political, social and technological changes that increase the interdependence and interaction of entities in disparate locations.

Globalization causes the spread of specialized products and changes in human attitudes.

Globalization separates resource management from the resource users which removes local feedback mechanisms.

Specialization and globalization are synergistic.

Conversion, specialization and globalization promote homogenization of the biosphere.

Conversion, Specialization and GlobalizationConversion, Specialization and Globalization

Debt is what is owed. Normally, this refers to money but it is not limited to money.

The International Monetary Fund attaches conditions such as structural adjustment programs to its loans.

Critics say that the demands made in structural adjustment programs (see Additional Notes) cause economic stagnation and retard social stability.

The national debt of developing countries limits their development and harms biodiversity by causing:

Over exploitation of natural resources for foreign currency,

Decreasing the money available for spending on the subsistence agriculture sector.

The link between national debt and biodiversity loss in tropical forest countries is so strong that a $ (US) 5 billion debt reduction reduces annual deforestation by between 250 and 1 000 km2.

Debt – The Driver of the Global EconomyDebt – The Driver of the Global Economy

Poor people:

Have a higher than average population growth,

Depend on the local environment for survival,

Usually do not have control over the resources they use.

The above factors force people to migrate to:

Urban areas,

Natural areas.

Migrants do not know the resources of the areas they migrate to.

Waves of human migration in the past are linked to waves of extinction.

Poverty and MigrationPoverty and Migration

Economic growth may be defined as increase in the ability to supply goods and services for human use.

Economic growth is normally measu-red by an increase in indicators such as the Gross National Product (GNP), the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the Gross World Product (GWP).

Economic growth may be achieved by:

Population growth (because this increases the number of both producers and consumers),

Increased per capita (per person) consumption,

Both of the above.

Economic growth does not reduce poverty.

Economic GrowthEconomic Growth

The human population is growing exponentially at a rate of 1.35% per year. At this rate it takes:

1.6 years to add 129 million people – the number killed in all wars fought in the past 200 years.

3.4 years to add 276 million people – the size of the United States’ population in 2000

15 years to add 1.26 billion people – the size of China’s population in 2000

Humans already use 40% of the Net Primary Productivity (NPP) of the earth. How much more will we be able to use?

Family planning is the crucial to stabilizing human populations.

Educating women and providing them with safe means to control fertility reduces the birth rate.

Human Population GrowthHuman Population Growth

Governments do not adequately protect biodiversity.

Both the global economy and the human population are expanding causing increased resource demand.

The expanding economy resembles a pyramid scheme. Pyramid schemes eventually collapse and the lower levels lose their investments.

Reducing poverty is essential to preserving biodiversity.

The economy reflects the power of human greed.

All anthropogenic damage to the biosphere (and hence biodiversity) is the result of human choice.

Every individual has the power of choice. The choices of individuals affect the preservation or loss of biodiversity.

Concluding RemarksConcluding Remarks

Links to Other Chapters

Chapter 1 Chapter 1 Biodiversity: what is it?Biodiversity: what is it?

Chapter 2 Chapter 2 The evolution of biodiversityThe evolution of biodiversity

Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Biodiversity: why is it important?Biodiversity: why is it important?

Chapter 4 Chapter 4 Global biodiversity and its declineGlobal biodiversity and its decline

Chapter 5Chapter 5 Biodiversity: why are we Biodiversity: why are we losinglosing it? it?

Chapter 6Chapter 6 … …

I hope that you found chapter 5 informative and that you will enjoy chapter 6.