{"id":494,"date":"2019-05-30T16:45:32","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T16:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/?p=494"},"modified":"2020-04-06T16:01:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T16:01:02","slug":"one-million-species-are-facing-extinction-ipbes-report-warns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/2019\/05\/30\/one-million-species-are-facing-extinction-ipbes-report-warns\/","title":{"rendered":"One million species are facing extinction, IPBES report warns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Monarch butterflies are one of the species negatively impacted by human activities. \u00a9 Wikimedia <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Up to one million out of the roughly 8 million estimated species are threatened with extinction due to the impact of human activities, affirms the new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES)<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compiled by 145 authors and with inputs from another 310 professionals, the IPBES Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is the most comprehensive assessment of changes in biodiversity over the past decades. More than 15,000 scientific and government sources were reviewed, including indigenous and local knowledge. The final report was approved by representatives of 132 governments in Paris at the beginning of this month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Causes behind this situation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drivers with the largest global impacts behind these changes in nature were analysed and ranked. In descending order, they are: (1) changes in land and sea use; (2) direct exploitation of organisms; (3) climate change; (4) pollution and (5) the spread of invasive species.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About 75% of the\nterrestrial and 66% of the marine environment have been severely\naltered by human actions. These alterations are mainly derived from\nthe production of food, with more than 33% of the land surface and\n75% of the freshwater resources dedicated to crop and livestock\nproduction. Agricultural activities also are one of the principal\ngreenhouse gas producers, accounting for roughly 25% of total\nemissions. Aside from agricultural expansion, another of the main\ncauses behind land use change is the increase of surface occupied by\nurban areas, which has doubled since 1992. As the global population\ncontinues to grow, agricultural and urban threats to the environment\nwill increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 2015, 33%\nmarine fish stocks were being harvested in an unsustainable manner,\nwhile 60% were maximally sustainably harvested and only 7% under that\nlevel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This report also\nconfirms the intimate link between climate change and biodiversity\nloss. Around 5% of all existing species would be threatened if we\nreach an increase of 2\u00b0C relative to pre-industrial levels. This\nseems likely to happen, unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced\ndrastically within the next years. Nevertheless, it is estimated that\nthe distribution of 47% of terrestrial non-volant mammals and almost\n25% of birds may have already been negatively affected by climate\nchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plastic pollution\nhas increased 10 times since 1980. 300-400 million tons of heavy\nmetals, solvents, toxic sludge and other industrial wastes are\nannually thrown into the world\u2019s waters, while fertilizers entering\ncoastal ecosystems have produced more than 400 marine \u2018dead zones\u2019\nwith a total surface of more than 245,000 km2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The numbers of\ninvasive alien species per country have increased by roughly 70%\nsince 1970, across 21 countries with detailed records. Meanwhile, the\naverage abundance of native species in most major terrestrial\nhabitats has decreased by 20% relative to 1900.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture,\u201d said IPBES Chair, Sir Robert Watson. \u201cThe health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever. We are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can we do?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not too late to revert this critical situation, the report says, but it will only happen if we start acting now. This \u201ctransformative change\u201d will require the sustainable production of food and other resources, alongside with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Society needs to shift from an economical growth perspective to a nature-based one. The report also confirms that nature managed by indigenous people and local communities are in better health than nature managed by other institutions. To protect nature better, governments need to learn from these communities, implementing their knowledge of nature into future policies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the\nInspire4Nature partnership, we are concerned about the future of\nbiodiversity and we are actively working from the Science-Policy\ninterface to achieve a better future. Our projects encompass a wide\nvariety of relevant issues such as invasive species monitoring,\nevaluating the efficacy of protected areas, identifying important\nareas for the persistence of biodiversity (KBAs and OECMs) and\nidentifying species vulnerable to climate change, amongst others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Up to one million out of the roughly 8 million estimated species are threatened with extinction due to the impact of human activities, affirms the new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Compiled by 145 authors and with inputs from another 310 professionals, the IPBES Global Assessment Report on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-news"],"rttpg_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web.jpg",1920,1277,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web.jpg",1920,1277,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web.jpg",1920,1277,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web-1024x681.jpg",610,406,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web.jpg",1536,1022,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web.jpg",1920,1277,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web-680x330.jpg",680,330,true],"evolve-post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web-680x330.jpg",680,330,true],"evolve-slider-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web-400x300.jpg",400,300,true],"evolve-tabs-img":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web-50x50.jpg",50,50,true],"evolve-testimonial-avatar":["https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/cover_web-80x80.jpg",80,80,true]},"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Carmen Soria","author_link":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/author\/carmen\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"Blog<\/a> News<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Up to one million out of the roughly 8 million estimated species are threatened with extinction due to the impact of human activities, affirms the new report from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). Compiled by 145 authors and with inputs from another 310 professionals, the IPBES Global Assessment Report on…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=494"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":665,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/494\/revisions\/665"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.science4wildlife.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}