The Global Biodiversity Health Bulletin has just been released and it is alarming. Published this Thursday by the WWF, the “Living Planet” report – which compiles scientific data collected on 32,000 populations of more than 5,230 species – concludes that, “between 1970 and 2018, the average decline in vertebrate populations is 69 %”. Up from 58% in 2012. Around the world, fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles suffer not only from land conversion and the overexploitation of natural resources, but also – and increasingly – from global warming. This is also one of the major lessons of this latest study. “If we fail to limit global warming to 1.5°C, the climate will very quickly become the leading cause of biodiversity loss”, says Véronique Andrieux, director general of the WWF. Worse, if nothing is done and global warming reaches 4°C by the end of the century, “75% of animal and plant species would find themselves in danger of extinction”, warns the NGO.
“These absolutely catastrophic figures reflect what scientists have observed for the past thirty years”, explains Nicolas Mouquet. A CNRS researcher in the biodiversity, exploitation and conservation laboratory, the scientist is particularly worried about marine biodiversity. “The overexploitation of fisheries resources goes hand in hand with the destruction of natural habitats. Certain fishing techniques, such as the demersal seine (which Brussels has just refused to regulate – editor’s note), permanently destroy the seabed and prevent the recovery of stocks”, he warns. Globally, 60% of fish stocks are overfished “unsustainable for their reconstitution”, 30% are exploited to the maximum and only 10% are removed so that the species can be renewed. On land, the situation of large vertebrates and amphibians is of particular concern. The African lowland gorilla has been in decline by 80% since 1994, a victim of poaching and global warming, which dries out the soil, increases the risk of forest fires, affecting the quality of food and the reproductive capacity of females.
The erosion of biodiversity is a global threat. But some regions are more affected than others, reveals the Ipbes – international group of experts, equivalent to the IPCC for biodiversity. “In Latin America, in the Caribbean area, in Africa and in Asia-Pacific, the observed collapse is dramatic”, insists Arnaud Gauffier, director of programs at the WWF. But “dramatic” there doesn’t mean reasonable here. “This observation is explained by the different types of destruction of the environment. In the Amazon, we speak of primary destruction, which affects the endemic resource. In Europe, where the primary destruction took place centuries ago, we speak of a secondary effect, often linked to urbanization, to agriculture. » In mainland France, the green tree frog – although listed on the red list of endangered species – has seen 50% of its natural habitat destroyed since the 1960s. On the other side of the world, in western Guyana, “the population of leatherback turtles is shrinking very rapidly (…) with a loss of more than 95% in twenty years”details the WWF.
“zero net loss of nature by 2030”
Behind the slow agony of global biodiversity, the survival of entire populations is at stake. In 2005, and for the first time, the UN published an assessment of nature’s contribution to human populations, then estimated at more than 125,000 billion dollars, for a world GDP of 60,000 billion at the time. Supply (food, firewood, natural molecules), regulation (depollution, carbon capture), cultural contributions (heritage or spirituality), “Biodiversity is as precious as it is essential to the balance of our ecosystems”, recalls Véronique Andrieux. Hence the importance of acting, nationally and internationally, to respond to this “double urgency of climate change and biodiversity loss”continues the director general of the WWF, in “combining protection, restoration and transformation of our production and consumption patterns”.
Crucial issues, at the heart of COP15 on biodiversity. Under the Chinese presidency, it will open on December 5, in Montreal, Canada, and should be an opportunity “to achieve a global framework aiming for zero net loss of nature by 2030”. An objective which requires, in the immediate term, that it be decreed “a moratorium on seabed mining” and be suspended “all subsidies harmful to biodiversity”hammers the WWF.