Global Biodiversity Is Falling Fast, Imperilling Humanity. Can Better Policy Avert a Collapse?
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THE DEBATE
i n p r i n t
Global Biodiversity Is Falling Fast, Imperilling
Humanity. Can Better Policy Avert a Collapse?
T
he South China tiger, the passenger pi- marine denizens; and terrestrial climate zones
geon, and chestnut ermine moth are ex- migrate toward the poles faster than their estab-
tinct. The Florida yew, Sumatran rhinoc- lished ecosystems can keep up.
eros, and North American right whales In apparent contradiction to the dire condition
are critically endangered. And it is not of biodiversity on the ground, there appears to
just a few scattered species. Stunningly, at least be a robust legal regime to protect biodiversity,
half the global insect and phytoplankton biomass including the U.S. Endangered Species Act and
is now gone. Remarkably, about 96 percent of similar legislation in many other countries. The
the total mammalian biomass on Earth is now world community has established the interna-
humans and domestic mammals, and roughly tional CITES accord to limit trade of endangered
75 percent of the total bird biomass is domestic organisms and formed the Convention on Bio-
fowl. It is truly the age of the Anthropocene. logical Diversity. Beyond the statutory and treaty
The tropical rainforests of South America, regime, one can point to substantial parks and
Southeast Asia, and equatorial Africa — the three other means of protecting natural habitats. Ef-
main hotspots of terrestrial biodiversity, together forts to protect biodiversity include work by gov-
treasuring a storehouse of genetic information ernments, businesses, and NGOs and are them-
and serving as key components of the terrestrial selves quite diverse — debt-for-nature swaps
biosphere — have been decimated. Much of the being a prime example.
natural habitat that remains is cut through with Yet somehow, that legal regime and protection
roads, dwellings, and larger buildings, and every efforts have been grossly ineffective. Upgrading
imaginable sort of resource extraction activity. these measures to meet the extent of the threat
Meanwhile, the challenges mount as the seas is in order. Our expert panel looks at the difficult
rise, invading coastal ecosystems; ocean waters issues involved in saving the global environment
become more acidic and inhospitable to many from biodiversity collapse.
52 | T H E E N V I R O N M E N T A L F O R U M Copyright © 2019, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.
Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2019“The synergistic effects of “It’s largely a matter of
anthropogenic impacts seeing a revenue stream
place the planet’s life- and bundling these
support systems on the streams into investable
verge of a crucial tipping vehicles that the rather
point, imperilling all of indolent and risk-averse
humanity.” finance world will buy.”
Rodolfo Dirzo Frank Hawkins
Bing Professor of Environmental Director
Science IUCN North America Office
Stanford University
“Some politicians become “We need fresh approaches
richer, but none of their grounded in the reality
voters do. Laws cannot that the fate of humanity
contain the destruction is tied to the fate of
when the perpetrators are our fellow travelers on
among the lawmakers.” Spaceship Earth.”
William Magnusson Patrick Parenteau
Researcher Professor
Brazilian National Institute Vermont Law School
for Amazonian Research
Copyright © 2019 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org. M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 9 | 53
Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2019T HE DEB AT E
Saving the Services ence has also documented increasing
levels of toxic pollution correlated
comparable levels of diversity, and
for life-support systems to reach a
to Humanity of with human activity, which further
poison species.
new, relatively stable ecological state.
The last massive global extinc-
Biology’s Richness We now see increasing evidence tion permitted the demise of the
of the most critical, truly irreversible dinosaurs, some 65 million years
By Rodolfo Dirzo global environmental change: mas- ago, along with most other species
sive biological extinctions of local then living on the planet. While
T
he Earth’s majestic terres- populations and species, preluded biological recovery did in fact ensue,
trial and marine ecosystems, by steep declines of the abundance once more it took millions of years
together with their climatic of plants and animals. Not only the — and the resulting diversity was
envelopes, geological substrates, large and charismatic animal spe- very different from that of the pre-
and the processes and products cies are dying off, but invertebrates extinction global ecosystem.
resulting from their functioning, too, including many beneficial in- While post-tipping point recover-
represent humanity’s life-support sects. The most significant drivers ies can and do occur, this is of no
systems. Their precious roles include of these affronts to nature are the consolation from the perspective
capturing carbon dioxide, releasing unprecedented growth of the human of today’s interdependent global
oxygen, supplying food and drink- population and excessive resource civilization. There is no way society
able water, controlling soil erosion, consumption in the richer countries. could wait even ten years for nature’s
regulating pests, recycling wastes, Each one of these anthropogenic depleted services to be restored, let
and providing inspiration through impacts has profound consequences alone ten million.
the wonders of our natural home. when analyzed separately, yet it If action is not immediately un-
These services are, essentially, is their compounded, synergistic dertaken to change the current path,
the result of about 4 billion years of effects that place humanity’s life we can conclude that humanity’s
relentless organic evolution — so support systems on the verge of a quality of life will suffer substantial
relentless, in fact, that it has over- critical tipping point — an abrupt degradation within a few decades.
whelmed the occurrence of five shift in biodiversity, ecological struc- Therefore, it is essential that, beyond
major pulses of biological extinction ture, and ecosystem functioning that the scientific community, society
that occurred over the last 550 mil- would imperil all life. The effects re- at large — the general public and
lion years. Extraordinarily, never in sult is an acceleration of the chances governments at all levels — gains a
the history of life has the planet ac- of crossing critical thresholds, lead- deeper understanding and develops
cumulated more biological diversity ing to irreversible change within a a recognition of the urgency of the
than in the present times — when few decades while fueling mounting predicament we all face.
we humans are also present. international conflict. Policymakers will need to imple-
Ironically, despite the current When multiple global pressures ment solutions that drive social
pinnacle of biodiversity, humanity combine, ecosystem changes occur change. Scientific knowledge and
since the industrial revolution, but more unexpectedly, faster, and more technological capacity are not the lim-
most notably in the last few decades, intensely than what would be pre- iting factors; we are limited, rather, by
has become a formidable force of en- dicted from considering each impact personal attitudes and priorities. We
vironmental change and a formidable separately. The crossing of tipping need systematic education explaining
threat to the life forms and life-sup- points leading to different ecological how human wellbeing depends on
port systems upon which all depend. settings has been documented at a environmental life-support systems,
The global community of scien- variety of temporal and spatial scales. emphasizing the pressing need to
tists who study the interaction of hu- Some tipping points in the past have cease the abuse of these systems and
manity with the rest of the biosphere been of profound and global impact resources. Should we commit to curve
has helped us understand the trajec- and, yet, life recuperated afterward the trajectory of the Anthropocene
tory of key impacts on the planet. We — in a manner of speaking. Era, it is our youth who will be safer
now have clear evidence that Homo Let us consider the case of the when they reach maturity and find a
sapiens is causing the strongest, fast- massive extinction of 250 mil- planet with the same biological trea-
est climatic disruption since modern lion years ago, when natural global sures we have enjoyed ourselves.
people evolved. At the same time, we changes brought about the demise
have driven a massive deterioration of of the majority of species. Although Rodolfo Dirzo is Bing Professor in environ-
terrestrial and marine habitats, while one might say the flora and fauna mental science at Stanford University and
maintaining a steep overexploitation were able to recover, it took tens of senior fellow at the Woods Institute for the
of their resources. Furthermore, sci- million years for ecosystems to reach Environment.
54 | T H E E N V I R O N M E N T A L F O R U M Copyright © 2019, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.
Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2019T HE DEB AT E
Making Species The Malagasy farmer is faced with
huge risks, most of them caused by
So here’s a great opportunity for
some policy gain. If governments
Worth More Alive governance issues — over land ten-
ure and over the ability to negotiate
were to use their public money to
create conditions for private finance
Than Dead fair deals in contracts. The cookie to flow to conservation deals that
manufacturer needs to be acutely make money, we’d be solving the
By Frank Hawkins aware of the risk to biodiversity it is Malagasy farmer’s problem and able
causing by supporting the destruc- to create economic opportunity
L
ooking at global biodiversity tion of rainforests. driven by demand from informed
collapse from where I started, For companies, most of this risk consumers. The conditions that are
in western Madagascar, and is currently reputational— they suf- needed include capacity building to
from where I am now, in Washing- fer if they can be portrayed as badly improve governance and knowledge
ton, D.C., the reasons for the loss of behaved by consumer groups. This of deal development in the countries
species are the same. People convert can have generally short-term im- that need it most — and as I can
biodiversity to cash, knowingly or pacts on company behavior, since swear, Madagascar is a really good
unknowingly, directly or indirectly. they quietly find ways to manage this example — and lots of risk finance
Poor people in Madagascar have very adeptly. So in order to be effec- that can draw in private investors.
no other option but to cut forest tive in reducing biodiversity loss, the Investment in nature can come in
for land to plant subsistence or cash downside to companies of destroying many forms. Examples include sup-
crops, using the trees as a nutrient biodiversity needs to be backed with port to sustainable agriculture like
burst for the crop. In the western teeth— legal and financial teeth. palm oil that protects orangutans,
world, people unknowingly pay A big opportunity to produce investments in coral reefs and man-
companies money for goods that are this kind of behavior— one that groves that provide carbon seques-
produced on land cleared of primary lies a little way in the future — is to tration, food, and storm surge pro-
rainforest. Both cases are leading associate the impacts of producers tection, deploying upstream green
to the loss of fabulously rich and on biodiversity with the behavior of infrastructure to deliver water to
complex ecological systems. The end consumers through something that downstream users, and many others.
result is the same: we are facing a bears the weighty name of Environ- It’s largely a matter of seeing a
mass extinction event the equal of mentally Extended Input-Output revenue stream — reduced insur-
anything since the end of the Cre- Analysis. This way, the impact of ance payments? eco-certification?
taceous, when a comet or meteor the coffee produced in Ghana can avoided deforestation credits? re-
slammed into our planet, wiping out be traced all the way to all the coun- duced sedimentation risk for farm-
the dinosaurs and the majority of tries that buy and consume it, thus ers? ecotourism revenue? — and
other species. enabling us to pass some of the costs bundling these streams into invest-
The solution to the present crisis of mitigating ecosystem impacts di- able vehicles that the rather indolent
is that the Earth’s great examples of rectly to consumers, perhaps in the and risk-averse finance world will
ecology need to be worth more as form of a tax. The politics of how buy. Indeed, the non-indolent and
ecosystems than as cash — and by these cost transfers can happen still non-risk averse members of that
worth I mean of both financial and needs working through, but at least group are already doing this, and
spiritual character. For the Malagasy producers and consumers won’t be successful models are being stan-
farmers of Madagascar, that means able to say they don’t know what the dardized, replicated, and aggregated
the opportunity to participate in an impacts of the production are any in these sectors.
economic system that brings them more, at least in financial terms. There are already dozens of these
much better long-term prospects The opportunity side of the equa- kinds of deals. But we need tens of
than the gut-wrenching insecurity of tion is starting to take off. Around thousands of deals, of an immensely
moving from patch to patch every $300-400 billion is needed glob- greater value, in order to deliver the
year to cultivate subsistence or local- ally on an annual basis to sustain scale of investment in nature that
market goods. For the American biodiversity. Only about a tenth of will be needed to sustain the planet
consumer, it means knowing that this can be expected to come from while lifting the lot of the Malagasy
the palm oil in her bag of Chips public finance. The rest has to come and the billion or more poor people
Ahoy was produced without the loss from private investment. However, to participate in sustainable local,
of orangutans and their habitat, or investing in conservation is tricky regional, and global economies.
any other form of Bornean biology. — risks of failure are high, returns
So how can we make that hap- are unpredictable, deals are currently Frank Hawkins is the Director of the IUCN
pen? It’s a matter of managing risk. rather small. North America Office.
Copyright © 2019 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org. M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 9 | 55
Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2019T HE DEB AT E
Dealing With Our are generally talking about domes-
ticating micro-organisms and not
Up until the last couple of cen-
turies, most of the frontiers were
Own Species to borrowing genes from whales. Micro-
organisms hold the greatest amount
related to biodiversity exploitation,
and much of the world’s population
Stop Genetic Loss of biomass and genetic material on became rich exploiting them. They
the planet, and contrary to mammals successfully enacted laws to protect
By William Magnusson and birds, most of that biomass is not what was left, but two groups were
domesticated. left behind. In the process of coloni-
I
do not believe that the biodiversity For whatever the reason, humans zation, the local people were often not
crisis, or for that matter climate value biodiversity and have enacted respected and not provided with ade-
change, is an existential threat to laws or adopted practices to conserve quate education, and the only frontier
humanity. And I say that as someone it throughout the world. These have they can see is that which was colo-
who loves biodiversity, has spent obviously been resoundingly inef- nized by their oppressors. The route
much of his life studying it and en- fective and, rather than imagine that to conservation is to provide them
gages in hot battles to conserve what some new law based on a general fear with the education to see the oppor-
is left of it. There is likely to be some of the extinction of humans due to tunities that reside in biodiversity that
level of biodiversity below which hu- biodiversity loss will be more effective, are not related to its reduction.
mans cannot survive, but we have no it would be better to investigate why The other group that got left
idea what that is, and attempts to say the present laws have not worked. behind is composed of the populist
we do just puts us into the realm of Homo sapiens is a colonizing spe- politicians that lack the educational
fake news. cies. This is an almost direct conse- or intellectual capacity to see the
This brings us back to the question quence of the capacity of members of new frontiers. Some of these are rich
of why we value biodiversity. Saying the species to contemplate new op- and powerful by heredity or luck. As
that it is because we are in imminent portunities. At first we colonized new they cannot see the potential in the
danger of extinction, as well as being lands, but as they became exhausted new frontiers, they continue to try to
human centric, makes us vulnerable we started to colonize new dimen- exploit the resources that made their
to those who can present contrary sions. Each new specialization that ancestors rich, and sell that route to
arguments. In 1500, any thoughtful developed opened new frontiers for riches to an uneducated electorate.
person armed with the facts would those who were better endowed intel- Some of those politicians become
have come to the conclusion that hu- lectually and had sufficient courage. richer, but none of their voters do.
mans could not withstand the loss of Many of those that had the sen- Laws cannot contain the destruction
over 90 percent of the large terrestrial sibility to conquer new frontiers when the perpetrators are among the
wild vertebrates, but we did. Obvi- also had the perspicacity to see that lawmakers.
ously, something was lost, but it was resources were dwindling and to Law enforcement is important, but
not the potential for human life or propose rules of law to protect those cannot be the whole story. In Brazil,
civilization. resources. The law of supply and where I work, a positive develop-
Survival in an extremely bio- demand ensures that the value of a ment is the Program for Biodiversity
uniform world is obviously possible, resource increases with its rarity, but Research (PPBio), which I help co-
but the question is whether that is protection by the law moves the re- ordinate in western Amazonia. It was
what we want. Most conservationists source from the private to the public created by the federal government to
value biodiversity for spiritual or aes- sector and the tragedy of the com- fill the gap between local needs and
thetic reasons, and only a handful are mons means a common resource is national obligations. The first phase
engaged in the fight because they are difficult to protect. created regional hubs with commit-
trying to save humanity, though that Why should some sectors want to tees constituted by representatives of
is the argument that most present to exploit a resource to extinction? The all local stakeholders. The hubs are
the general public. If we want to par- simple answer is that those sectors linked in a multidisciplinary network
ticipate in the debate, let’s be honest. can see no alternative. People with that defines priorities for capacity
There are lots of reasons to value the ingenuity to exploit new frontiers building. This ensures that research
biodiversity, but the one that appeals can often see the value in protecting and management is not divorced from
most to me is that it enhances the a dwindling resource. Entrepreneurs the needs and aspirations of the local
potential for evolution and we are a such as Bill Gates often spend much people. PPBio is a good first step.
product of evolution. Sometimes we time and money to protect biodiver-
say that human progress is likely to sity. But not everyone can recognize William (Bill) Magnusson is a researcher
depend on products or processes we the new frontiers that are opening up, at the Brazilian National Institute for Amazo-
can extract from biodiversity, but we or have the courage to colonize them. nian Research, known as INPA, in Manaus.
56 | T H E E N V I R O N M E N T A L F O R U M Copyright © 2019, Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org.
Reprinted by permission from The Environmental Forum®, May/June 2019T HE DEB AT E
A Bug’s-Eye natural rate. And it would take mil-
lions of years for nature to replace
conservation plans and other mecha-
nisms — there is widespread agree-
View of the Sixth the biodiversity being lost, according
to a study by Danish researchers.
ment that the pace of recovery is too
slow. The law has too few tools to
Extinction The legal and policy responses to deal with the backlog of species that
this impoverishment of the natural are candidates for listing, let alone
By Patrick Parenteau world have been woefully inad- deal with the surpassing threats
equate. The Convention on Bio- posed by climate change.
I
magine a world without bugs. logical Diversity was signed by 150 Critics of the ESA claim that it
Sounds appealing at first. No nations at the 1992 Earth Summit, has a poor record of recovering spe-
more mosquitoes spreading dis- with the United States abstaining. cies. In fact it has saved some very
ease. No more ticks hiding in your It begins with the lofty objectives high-profile animals from almost
socks. No more ants ruining your of “the conservation of biological certain extinction, including the
picnic. diversity, the sustainable use of its whooping crane, California con-
But what if there were no insects components, and the fair and eq- dor, black footed ferret, and Santa
to pollinate your food? Up to 75 uitable sharing of the benefits aris- Catalina fox. The reintroduction
percent of our cultivated plants and ing out of the utilization of genetic of the gray wolf to the Yellowstone
up to 90 percent of all wild plants resources.” But the results have been ecosystem is one of the most dra-
are dependent on insects to propa- disappointing. None of the 196 na- matic conservation achievements in
gate. What if there were no insects tions that have ratified the treaty history. The fact that 99 percent of
to decompose waste and recycle met their 2010 targets for reducing the listed species are still alive with a
organic substances essential to main- biodiversity loss. chance to survive is remarkable given
taining soil fertility? What if there In 2010, the CBD announced the massive loss of habitat most have
were no good bugs to eat the bad a strategic plan that includes 20 suffered.
bugs? global biodiversity goals, known as The rap on the ESA is that it is all
Insects are the most abundant the Aichi Targets, to be achieved by stick and no carrot. In truth there
form of life on Earth. 1.5 million 2020. The goals include conserving are dozens of landowner-friendly
varieties have been catalogued. In 17 percent of total terrestrial and policies under the act — safe har-
terms of biomass, insects outweigh inland water on Earth and cutting bors, no-surprises agreements,
humanity by 17 times. But more in half the current rate of loss of all habitat conservation plans, conserva-
than 40 percent of insect species natural habitats. Fully funding the tion banks, candidate conservation
are declining and a third are endan- Global Environment Facility created agreements, and tax credits, just to
gered. The rate of extinction is eight at the Earth Summit, which is the name a few. More incentives would
times faster than that of mammals, CBD’s principal mechanism for fi- certainly be welcome, and there is no
birds, and reptiles. The total mass of nancing projects, is the biggest chal- shortage of ideas, but that requires
insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5 lenge. The Trump administration’s a dedicated funding source, which
percent a year. At that rate, insects cancellation of the U.S. contribution is not part of the current debate in
could be functionally extinct within hasn’t helped. Congress. Draft legislation to “mod-
a century. The main drivers of this In the United States, the Endan- ernize” the ESA is but the latest at-
decline appear to be habitat loss gered Species Act, which the Su- tempt to weaken the law by handing
through conversion to intensive agri- preme Court once called “the most over responsibility to states, shield-
culture and urbanization, pesticides comprehensive legislation for the ing delisting decisions from judicial
and fertilizers, invasive species, and preservation of endangered species review, and burdening the already
climate change. ever enacted by any nation,” has not underfunded and beleaguered federal
Even if the predictions of an “in- been re-authorized since 1992, a vic- wildlife agencies with new deadlines,
sect apocalypse” prove hyperbolic, tim of the gridlock in Congress. paperwork, and other requirements.
there is no doubt that we are in the Even when it is allowed to func- We need fresh approaches, in-
throes of the Sixth Extinction. Only tion properly — that is, when formed by science, inspired by the
this time it is not meteors raining imperiled species are promptly successes to date, and grounded in
death and destruction on global listed, critical habitat is designated, the reality that the fate of humanity
biodiversity. It’s humans. Accord- recovery plans are adopted, federal is tied to the fate of our fellow travel-
ing to distinguished conservation agencies obey the command to avoid ers on Spaceship Earth.
biologists like E. O. Wilson, the jeopardizing species, and non-federal
rate of human-caused extinctions is parties obtain permits to mitigate Patrick Parenteau is a professor of law at
hundreds or thousands of times the the “take” of species through habitat Vermont Law School.
Copyright © 2019 Environmental Law Institute®, Washington, D.C. www.eli.org. M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 9 | 57
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