The massive decline of biodiversity threatens humanity - The ongoing erosion of wildlife endangers the living conditions of the people, warn the world experts of IPBES, the "IPCC of biodiversity".

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The massive decline of biodiversity threatens humanity

The ongoing erosion of wildlife endangers the living conditions of the people, warn the world experts of IPBES, the "IPCC of biodiversity".

By Audrey Garric and Pierre Le Hir

Across the planet , the decline in biodiversity continues, "dramatically reducing the ability of nature to contribute to the well-being of people . " Not acting to stop and reverse this process is endangering "not only the future we want, but also the lives we are currently living" . This is the warning message issued by the Intergovernmental Science and Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) , held from March 17 to 24 in Medellin ( Colombia ), for its 6th plenary session.

Created in 2012 under the auspices of the United Nations and now comprising 129 states, this structure is called the "IPCC for biodiversity", with reference to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Its mission is to regularly draw up a synthesis of available knowledge on biodiversity (the variety of life forms on Earth), on the impacts of its erosion and on the possible courses of action to preserve it .

It delivers the result of a colossal work , which spread over three years. IPBES has divided the globe into four regions: Africa , the Americas , Asia Pacific and Central Asia - with the exception of the poles and oceans. Each report was 800-1000 pages, produced by more than 550 volunteer experts from 100 countries, from more than 10,000 scientific publications, but also from governmental or non-governmental sources, as well as from indigenous knowledge.

For each geographical area, this analysis is synthesized in a "summary for decision-makers" of about 40 pages, negotiated word for word and voted by the representatives of the Member States. It is this document, which constitutes a kind of political consensus, which must serve as a basis for the action of governments, even if it has no binding value.

Une immense exploitation de soja à Campo Verde, au Brésil. ALF RIBEIRO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

"At the heart of our survival"

"Biodiversity and the contributions nature makes to people seem, for many, far removed from our daily lives. Nothing could be further from the truth, observes the president of IPBES, the British Robert Watson . They are the bedrock of our diet, our pure water and our energy. They are at the heart not only of our survival, but also of our cultures, our identities and our joie de vivre . "

This approach can be considered restrictive, which considers nature in terms of the services it renders to humanity, without considering that the survival of animal and plant species is in itself valuable. But the purpose of the four reports is to sensitize public opinion and decision-makers to a drop in biodiversity that "endangers economies, livelihoods, food security and quality of life for people around the world." " None of the studied regions escapes a spectacular regression of its fauna and flora, with alarming projections.

Africa

"Africa is the last place on Earth with a wide range of large mammals, but never in the past have there been so many plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and large mammals threatened as today, by a series of human and natural causes , " notes South African researcher Emma Archer. Some 500,000 km 2 of land is already degraded due to deforestation, unsustainable agriculture , overgrazing, mining, invasive species and global warming.

This, while in rural areas the livelihood of more than 62% of the population depends on the health of the natural environment and the population of the continent is expected to double by 2050, to reach 2.5 billion people. The challenge is immense: by the end of the century, some mammalian and bird species may have lost more than half of their numbers, and lake productivity (in fish) may have declined by 20% to 30%, due to climate change.

Asia Pacific

In Asia-Pacific, biodiversity faces unprecedented threats, ranging from extreme weather events and sea-level rise to invasive alien species, intensification of agriculture, overfishing and loss of biodiversity. increase in waste and pollution. Despite some successes in protecting these vital ecosystems - marine protected areas have increased by 14% in twenty-five years and forest cover has increased by 23% in Northeast Asia - experts are concerned that they are not enough to halt the decline of biodiversity and the services that the 4.5 billion people living in these countries derive.

Today, 60% of Asia's grasslands are degraded, nearly 25% of endemic species are endangered and 80% of the world's most polluted plastic waste rivers are in this area. If fishing practices continue at the same pace, the region will no longer have fish stocks that can be fished by 2048. Up to 90% of corals will suffer serious degradation by mid-century.

Un homme collecte des plastiques apportés par la mer, à Manille, aux Philippines. ALDARINHO / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

Un homme collecte des plastiques apportés par la mer, à Manille, aux Philippines.

Americas

On the American continent too, the impact of climate change on biodiversity will intensify by the middle of the century, becoming a factor of decline as powerful as land-use change. Populations of native species have declined by 31% since European colonization, and this rate could rise to 40% by the middle of the century. Compared to their original state, over 95% of tallgrass prairie in North America, 50% of the tropical savannah and 17% of the Amazon rainforest in South America have been transformed into landscapes dominated by man.

The authors note that, so far, "indigenous peoples and local communities have created a diversity of polyculture and agroforestry systems" that have benefited biodiversity. But this local knowledge is also endangered.

Europe-Central Asia

Finally, in Europe and Central Asia, the situation is hardly better: 42% of terrestrial animals and plants have recorded a decline in their populations during the last decade, as 71% of fish and 60% of amphibians .

The first cause of this slaughter lies in the intensification of agriculture and logging, and particularly in the excessive use of agrochemicals (pesticides, fertilizers). As a result, the region consumes more renewable natural resources than it produces, forcing it to massively import them from other parts of the world. The report also highlights the role of climate change, which will be one of the major scourges on biodiversity in Europe and Central Asia in the coming decades.

Un bateau de pêche dans la mer des Wadden, aux Pays-Bas. SPLIT SECOND SHUTTERSTOCK

These four reports confirm that the Earth is undergoing its sixth mass extinction: according to scientists , species extinctions have been multiplied by 100 since 1900, an unprecedented rate since the extinction of the dinosaurs. millions of years. Tuesday, March 20, a study of the National Museum of Natural History and the National Center for Scientific Research alerted about the "massive disappearance" of birds in the French countryside - their populations have collapsed by a third in fifteen years - while at the end of 2017, researchers showed that the number of flying insects has declined from 75% to 80% in Germany since the early 1990s.

Develop protected areas

Is there no hope then? Scientists want to believe that it is still possible to act to stop this decline. They call, pell-mell, to develop protected areas, to restore degraded ecosystems (especially forests), to limit subsidies to intensive agriculture and logging, to integrate the protection of biodiversity in all areas. public policies, to increase public awareness or to continue conservation efforts. In Europe, these policies have, for example, led to the local populations being saved from bison or Iberian lynx, and to rehabilitating the wooded areas of the Azores, Madeira and the Canaries.

"For the first time, in Europe, we are saying that we need a more radical transformation of lifestyles and consumption , otherwise we will not achieve the objectives of sustainable development and protection of biodiversity," says Sandra Lavorel , ecologist of ecosystems (University of Grenoble ), who participated in writing the report. "One of the important chapters of our work is that of governance . The issue of biodiversity must be addressed at all levels, states, communities, citizens, " adds Jérôme Chave, an ecologist at the CNRS, who contributed to the synthesis on the Americas.

A fifth report will be published Monday, March 26, on the state of the world's soils, increasingly degraded by pollution, deforestation, mining and agricultural practices. Finally, at its next plenary meeting in May 2019, IPBES will produce its global biodiversity assessment and no longer regional analyzes . A session that France has proposed to host.

Conflicts of interest on pollinators

IPBES produced a first report in 2016 on pollination, the publication of which was tainted by doubts. Two of its key chapters were in fact under the responsibility of scientists employed by Bayer and Syngenta, the two main producers of insecticides called "neonicotinoids", strongly suspected of decimating populations of bees, drones, butterflies.

All experts must complete a form detailing their links of interest, but these statements are not made public. Similarly, the financing of the platform's budget of $ 5 million (€ 4 million) in 2018 is not known in detail. About twenty states take part, firstly Germany, Norway, the United Kingdom, the United States and France.

Source: http://www.lemonde.fr/planete/article/2018/03/23/sur-tous-les-continents-la-nature-et-le-bien-etre-humain-sont-en-danger_5275433_3244.html