The mere protection of valuable nature areas, although still necessary, will not be sufficient for reducing global biodiversity loss in the coming decades. Population growth and rising prosperity, together, create an ever increasing pressure on global ecosystems through growing demand for land and agricultural products. To strongly reduce the rate of biodiversity loss, structural changes in consumption and production are needed. As meat production requires more agricultural land area than is used in arable farming, a reduction in meat consumption would be of great benefit. In addition, changes are needed especially in forestry, fishery and in the supply of energy.
Measures aimed solely at one sector, such as that of forestry or energy, only lead to limited improvements. Implementing measures collectively would yield far greater benefits. The PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency has calculated the effect from one such combination of measures, resulting in a halving of the projected global loss of biodiversity, up to 2050. Other measures or combinations of measures are also thinkable, but none will be able to halt this loss, completely. The combination of measures as analyzed by the PBL would also help to reduce climate change and increase food security.
These are the conclusions drawn by the PBL, in the report, “Rethinking Global Biodiversity Strategies: Exploring Structural Changes in Production and Consumption to Reduce Biodiversity Loss”. Today, PBL Director Maarten Hajer has presented the report, which was received by the Permanent Secretary, André van der Zande, of the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV), on behalf of Minister Gerda Verburg.
Reason Behind Research
The upcoming meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP10) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), organized by the United Nations, to be held in Nagoya, Japan, from 18 to 29 October, will discuss possible measures for substantially reducing the loss of biodiversity. At the request of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and co-financed by the Dutch Ministry of LNV, the PBL has studied several options for reducing biodiversity loss, in collaboration with the Dutch Agricultural Economics Research Institute (LEI-WUR) and the University of British Columbia, Canada. The study concentrated specifically on possible solutions that would lead to structural changes in production and consumption. The report will be presented to the Executive Director of UNEP, Mr. Achim Steiner, during the COP10 meeting in Nagoya.
Growing Demand for Food, Water and Energy
The demand for food, wood, energy and clean water is projected to increase sharply, over the next 40 years. The world population is expected to grow from 6.8 to 9 billion people, and disposable incomes will also increase. Agriculture and urbanization often compete with nature over the same land areas. Under unchanged policy, biodiversity will continue to suffer. If we keep meeting this growing demand, the amount of land used for human activity will expand enormously; not only in the supply of food but also in relation to wood supply and biofuels. This would mean a further decrease in the areas available for natural ecosystems. Biodiversity also reduces as a result of ecosystem overexploitation, disturbance and fragmentation, climate change, soil contamination, and water and air pollution.
However, biodiversity is useful and of great importance to humanity, among other things because it enhances soil fertility, manages water regulation, and takes care of essential carbon uptake. In addition, many people feel that preservation of species richness and maintaining valuable nature areas are also our moral obligation.
Clever Measures Will Limit Biodiversity Loss
Halting biodiversity loss altogether is hardly possible, in view of the growing global population and developing prosperity in large parts of the world. What can be done, however, is to limit the further loss. A first step in this direction would be the protection of valuable nature areas, which, to date, has been the main policy objective. However, more is needed, and with a number of clever measures it will be possible to combine increasing production and consumption with a reduction in the loss of biodiversity:
- Animal husbandry is responsible for a relatively large part of biodiversity loss, worldwide. Therefore, a change in consumption patterns towards less meat would contribute to the preservation of biodiversity. If meat consumption were to go down, there would be less space required for animal farming; lessening the amount of food waste could lead to a similar result. This would leave more land area available to natural ecosystems.
- Modern and sustainable agricultural methods could greatly improve food production per hectare, worldwide.
- Forestry could become much more effective. The expansion of forest plantations that deliver high timber yields would lessen deforestation in areas with pristine forests. Wood production in mainly tropical natural forests could improve by reducing damage caused by selective logging.
- Sustainable fishery would lead to recovery of fish stocks and, thus, enable structurally larger and less perishable catches.
- Reducing deforestation aids climate change reduction. This is already incorporated into climate policy.
These measures, combined with the proven protection of specific species and ecosystems, offer the prospect of a sizeable reduction in biodiversity loss by 2050.
