Decisive action urged to halt loss of wildlife
World leaders have been urged to take ambitious action to halt declines in nature as a global rep or t is set to issue a stark warning on wildlife losses.
Campaigners in the UK have u r g e d t h e G o v e r n m e n t t o step up with a “huge boost” to nature and conser ve threatened species, from skylarks and small blue butterflies to bees, hedgehogs and wildcats.
T h e c a l l s c o m e a s a U N - backed global assessment of the state of nature, the most comprehensive of its kind, is expected to warn that a million sp ecies face extinction a n d d a mag e t o t h e n a t u r a l world threatens humanity.
The Intergovernmental Science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services is publishing the repor t today.
The 1,800-page study, which h a s t a k e n t h r e e y e a r s a n d drew on thousands of pieces of evidence, will warn of species extinction, wildlife decline, habitat loss and damage to natural services.
Al mos t 6 0 0 c o n s e r va t i o n exp er ts have signed a “Call4Nature” open letter initiated by wildlife charit y WWF which is b eing published in national newspapers around the world before the publication of the report.
Among those signing up to the call include wildlife campaigner Jane Goodall, television presenter Chris Packham, TV chef and campaigner Hugh Fearnley-whittingstall and French actress Juliette Bino - che. It has also been backed by scientists and leading conservationists.
The Call4nature letter, published as the G7 group of leading nations’ environment ministers meet i n France, says: “Nature provides us with the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we drink.
“We dep end on i t to g r ow our crops, to source our medicines, to house us and to clothe us. When we destroy nature, we destroy the essentials on which we all depend.
“There is still time to protect what is left and to start restoring nature. But to do that, we must radically change the way we live, including how we use energy to power our societies, grow our fo o d and manage our waste.”
I t c a l l s f o r “d e c i s i v e a n d ambitious action from world leaders” to make the change.
M i k e B a r r e t t f r o m W W F said: “We can still reverse this catastrophic trend of nature l o s s a n d t a c k l e t h e c l i mat e crisis. But world leaders must take decisive steps to restore nature, stop climate change and ensure food security.”
He called for an ambitious global new deal for people and nature to be agreed in 2020.
In the UK, where protests on the streets in recent weeks by environmental campaigners and school walkouts have p r o m p t e d P a r l i a m e n t t o declare a c limate and environment emergency, the Government is being urged to take swift action to tackle the “crisis” in nature.
E n v i r o n m e n t a l c h a r i t y Friends of the Ear th warned that the decline of biodiversity – the wealth and variety of plant and animal life on Earth – was setting people on a “path to catastrophe”.
S a n d r a B e l l , n a t u r e c a mpaigner at Friends of the Earth, sa id co nt inuing declines in n a t u r e wo u l d a l s o d a ma g e human health and happiness and leave the world more at r i s k f r o m n a t u r a l d i s a s t e r s s u c h a s f l o o d i n g a n d l a n d - slides.
newsdeskts@scotsman.com