Scientists release mammoth survey of nature’s vital signs
MEDELL N, Colombia: Scientists will deliver a comprehensive assessment yesterday of the state of biodiversity — the animals and plants that humankind depends on to survive but has driven into a mass species extinction.
The labour of some 600 scientists over three years, four reports will be unveiled in Medellin, Colombia, under the umbrella of the Intergovernmental SciencePolicy Platform on Biodiversity and E c o sys t em S e r vic e s ( IPBES).
The diagnosis is expected to be dire.
“If we continue the way we are, yes the ... sixth mass extinction, the first one ever caused by humans, will continue,” IPBES chairman Robert Watson told AFP ahead of the much- anticipated release.
But the good news, he said, “It’s not too late” to slow the rate of loss.
Scientists say mankind’s voracious consumption and wanton destruction of Nature has unleashed the first mass species die- off since the demise of the dinosaurs — only the sixth on our planet in half-a-billion years.
The first major biodiversity assessment in 13 years comes in the same week that Sudan, the world’s last male northern white rhino, died in Kenya — a stark reminder of the stakes.
“The IPBES conference is going to tell us that the situation is continuing to deteriorate, they are going to tell us some ecosystems are being brought to the brink of collapse,” WWF director general Marco Lambertini told AFP on Thursday.
“The IPBES is going to make a strong case for the importance of protecting Nature for our own wellbeing.”
The volunteer experts who compiled the reports, drawing on data f rom some 10,0 0 0 scientific publications, have been discussing their contents with representatives of the IPBES’ 129 member countries in Medellin since Saturday.
The summary reports are condensed versions of f ive monumental assessments, each about 60 0 - 90 0 pages, which will be published only after the conference.
The first four summaries will be released simultaneously on Friday — one for each of four world regions — the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe and Central Asia.
A fifth report, due March 26, will focus on the global state of soi l, which is fast being degraded through pol lution, forest- destruction, mining, and unsustainable farming methods that deplete its nutrients. — AFP