No room in the Ark

UNESCO Courier, Nov, 1991 by Bernd von Droste

'THE scale of the human economy has grown so large that there is no longer sufficient room for all species in the Ark." These recent words from a World Bank official are striking warning that the world is becoming so full of human beings and their socio-economic systems that other, often priceless, irreplaceable species and their natural systems are being displaced and destroyed at a rate never before experienced. The human population of the world is now projected to double within thirty-nine years, from five billion to ten billion, but the issue is not just numbers, but how those numbers relate to available resources. The destruction of natural ecosystems and the resulting extinction of plant and animal species is becoming one of the crucial factors limiting economic growth. Indeed, the diversity of life on Earth is being rapidly diminished as uniform production systems replace cultural and natural diversity.

The diversity of species, however, is essential to the normal functioning of ecosystems and therefore to the biosphere as a whole. Apart from the moral, cultural, aesthetic and purely scientific reasons for conserving wild species, the genetic material they supply already makes a huge contribution to the world economy in the form of improved crop species, new drugs and medicines and raw materials for industry. It also promises to become even more important in the future as our understanding of genetic processes is steadily increasing.

Economic logic tells us that we ought to maximize the productivity of the scarcest factors and try to increase their supply. Economic policy should be directed towards the conservation of remaining natural stocks, increasing their sustainable use and, where still possible, restoring lost natural assets. In other words, we need to undertake a huge programme of investment in biological diversity.

Three kinds of investment are needed: first, scientific investment for enlarging our knowledge base; second, investment in the sound management and restoration of our often degraded natural heritage; and third, investment in international instruments for world conservation of biodiversity.

INVESTMENT IN

THE KNOWLEDGE BASE

Lack of knowledge is a major obstacle to the conservation of biological diversity. What better illustration of our lack of knowledge than the widely different estimates of the present number of living species--they range from three million to one hundred million--to be found in scientific literature? Even less is known about the interaction of species, the precise role of species diversity, or how to achieve sustainable development in sensitive, species-rich areas.

It is often assumed that the establishment of a system of protected areas will fulfil conservation needs. The fact is, however, that we do not have species inventories for most protected areas and even less so outside them. We therefore do not even know what we are aiming to conserve or which areas to concentrate on. Under-investment over past decades in taxonomic training and research, as well as in surveys of biological diversity, means that we simply cannot complete a world inventory of biota within the foreseeable future. At the very best, it is estimated that only some 10 to 15 per cent of all species have been identified so far.

A start has been made. The International Union of Biological Sciences (IUBS) and the Scientific Committee on Problems of the Environment (SCOPE), in conjunction with UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere (MAB) Programme, are preparing a large research programme on biological diversity. A series of meetings is being arranged to lay down a basis for international comparative research relating to the three main levels of biodiversity--at the molecular and cellular level, at the organism and population level and at the ecosystem and landscape level. MAB has also launched a co-operative research and training programme with the Smithsonian Institution to help train taxonomists and to undertake biological surveys in the tropics.

It is in the tropics, and in particular the world's remaining tropical forests, that the biggest effort to achieve sustainable development is needed. Already 55 per cent of the world's tropical forests, the planet's richest species habitat, have been destroyed, yet hardly any studies have been carried out on the relationship between forest destruction and species loss.

Given their crucial role in the conservation of biological diversity, it is essential to establish a scientific basis for the sustainable development of tropical forests. With this in mind, MAB has joined in international efforts to develop sustainable tropical forest management regimes. To achieve this, MAB is applying the "critical mass strategy".

The "critical mass strategy" offers a way of convincing developers that the sum of sustainable activities can exceed the profits obtainable from the sum of non-sustainable activities. It is a strategy which requires making full use of the range of products and resources that tropical forests can provide. Major components of this strategy include: