1 million species on verge of extinction, says UNESCO Report

PARIS: The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) launched the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) on May 6, in Paris.The report states about the alarming rate at which ecosystems and biodiversity are deteriorating faster than any before in human history.

The assessment report said that the increase rise in global trade and economy over the past 30 years has doubled the demand for living materials from nature. As per an estimation, around 1 million species are on the verge to become extinct in the next decades.Nearly 75 per cent of terrestrial and 40 per cent of marine environments are altered by human activities, and approximately 50 per cent of live corals have been lost since 1870. The effects of climate change further exacerbate these catastrophic trends. The erosion of ecosystem services and functions, such as animal pollination and water regulation, will negatively affect the human health and quality of life.

The report said that the current rate of extinction is ‘tens to hundreds of times’ higher compared to the average over the past 10 million years.The 1500-page report is one of a kind report stating true picture of the ecosystem. The assessment report ranks ‘five direct drivers’that cause changes in nature that have the largest relative global impact. These include: changes in land and sea use, direct exploitationof organisms, climate change, pollution and ‘invasive alien species’.The reportcalls on effective implementation of multilateral environmental agreements and transformative changes to address the drivers of change. This would require shifts in global financial and economic systems to build a global sustainable economy, according to the report.

Prepared by 150 leading international experts from 50 countries and approved by 132 Governments, IPBES’ 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is the first-of-its-kind global synthesis of the state of nature, ecosystems and nature’s contributions to people’s lives. UNESCO is an institutional co-sponsor of IPBES, together with UNEP, FAO and UNDP.