Environment Day: "The crisis must be an engine for the protection of biodiversity"

Text by: Romain Philips Follow

On the occasion of World Environment Day on the theme of biodiversity, RFI looks back at the consequences of the erosion of biodiversity and the post-2020 global framework. Postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, this agreement by the UN countries aims to strengthen global efforts in terms of protecting biodiversity for the years to come.

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Jean-François Silvain is director of research at the Research Institute for Development (IRD) and president of the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity. He notably heads the French committee for IPBES (Intergovernmental Scientific and Political Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services), an international group of biodiversity experts responsible for advising governments on the development of the post global framework 2020 for the protection of biodiversity. He is also co-author of the book Sauvons la biodiversity! The 10 actions to (re) act!

RFI: According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the year 2020 is a " decisive year to halt the decline of biodiversity ". Why ?

Jean-François Silvain: The year 2020 follows the first IPBES world report (nicknamed the IPCC of biodiversity) which recalled in a very synthetic, powerful and strong way what the scientific community has already said for a long time: we are in the face of accelerated erosion of biodiversity. We see that ecosystems are increasingly impacted by human activities, and as IPBES said, this is linked to demographic, human aspects and unsustainable socioeconomic practices.

It is true that 2020 was to be a great year both thanks to the meeting of the IUCN World Congress in Marseille and episode 15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity which was to prepare its post-2020 action plan . The two events are postponed to 2021 because of the pandemic, but the year 2020 already appeared before the current crisis as a key year for the implementation of political decisions and to finally raise the biodiversity challenges to highest level of concerns of governments.

Did the fact that Covid-19 is a zoonosis, a disease transmitted to humans by animals, and that the link between the pandemic and the erosion of biodiversity is strongly suspected have had an impact on the ambitions of governments ?

For us, it is quite clear that the anthropization of the planet, the increasing transformation of the Earth by humans is at the origin of most of the zoonoses which have caused epidemics in recent years.

Scientists and ecologists therefore try to recall that the current crisis must be an engine for the protection of biodiversity and for real consideration of biodiversity issues. We have worked at the request of a certain number of ministries who would like these environmental issues to be really taken into account in the exit strategies of the crisis so that we really try to modify the future trends which are today. now the increase in biodiversity loss.

►Read: Coronavirus: can the health crisis cause an ecological awakening ?

What we are seeing for the moment is that at least some of the decision-makers have listened to us and would like this environmental dimension to be taken into account. After all not everyone puts the same priority on these issues.

We therefore hope that our work will be used by a certain number of decision-makers in order to modify their orientations. I think we have to be positive on this, what we see is that we are listened to by certain political actors and we have been asked a lot on the issue of biodiversity. We also see that economic actors are also concerned with these questions in increasing ways. Obviously, it will not be done in two days but the system is switched on. It takes a lot of education.

In the post-2020 global framework for the protection of biodiversity, the main objective is to reach 30% of protected areas in the world. What purpose ?

Protected areas are areas where priority will be given to the future of wild life in the broad sense. We will therefore allow the free evolution of non-humans. There are different types of protected areas ranging from relatively weak to extremely strong protection, and even to the complete exclusion of human activities. Today, these protected areas represent a little more than 15% of the Earth's surface, but there is a plea for a substantial increase. The objective would be 30%, therefore to double the area of ​​protected areas.

In these protected areas, we will partly limit human activities such as deforestation, construction of roads, infrastructure, etc. We give back to wild life spaces of freedom. This is true as much at the terrestrial level as at the marine level, because at this level also there is a strong pressure so that the protected areas are multiplied. Our colleagues who work in marine areas have clearly shown that the more an area is protected, the more it plays its ecological role. They showed that a protected area could even replenish the surrounding areas with fish, flora, etc.

Afterwards, the whole difficulty is to combat the degradation or reduction of the surface area of ​​protected areas, which is a fairly strong trend worldwide. Because of course a protected area, from the moment we reduce human activities there, we also reduce access to certain resources. We know that it is difficult, because the strong trend today is for the systematic development of human activities, but we must do a lot of education to explain and promote the 30% target.

Many countries are facing an economic crisis caused by the fight against the coronavirus and are now trying to revive their economy. Is economic recovery an additional risk for the protection of biodiversity?

This is pretty much the message that we transmitted. We know that there are human activities that strongly contribute to the degradation of biodiversity. This is what the IPBES calls pressures: change of land use, exploitation and overexploitation of resources, multiple pollution (chemicals, plastics, etc.) and then the invasive exotic species that humans transport via world trade.

And the idea out of the crisis is to say, yes, we have to revive the economy, but economic recovery must be as least damaging as possible for biodiversity and the environment. And so we have to take into account what the scientists are saying: reducing imported deforestation for example. We must ensure that our activities have less impact on the state of biodiversity in the countries of the South.

Now, the actors must also ask themselves the question: if it is necessary to redevelop this economic sector what will be the environmental consequences on biodiversity and how can we limit them? It's a bit of a fantasy but that's how we carry our message. In any case, these dimensions must absolutely be taken into account if we want to go on more sustainable economic activities.

Biodiversity degradation is a global phenomenon, but some geographic areas are more affected than others. What are the regions that require your most attention today ?

In a number of countries in Southeast Asia, for example, where the aspiration for economic development and at the same time national and international demands have led to massive deforestation. The economic result was generally positive but was obtained at the expense of a massive destruction of biodiversity.

On the other hand, the whole of South America, and not just Brazil, is experiencing colonization of the growing forest area. So, they have strong pressures on the great Amazon forest for example. And then in sub-Saharan Africa, very strong demographic pressures and trends in economic development mean that even traditional practices such as slash and burn crops will have considerable effects on certain areas such as the Congo Basin forest.

The last point is urbanization. The largest cities are not in Africa but this is where we have the highest rate of urbanization in the world. So there are very strong trends that will generate an increase in considerable food needs with the risk of eliminating whole swathes of wildlife, for example. After that, you also need to know how to clean up with us. In Europe, we are not models either in terms of preserving biodiversity.

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