![]() ![]() One is improving the rule of law, and ensuring that people have access to justice. We’ve had some reports over the last couple of years from international expert groups telling us that there are solutions to our biodiversity problems. But there are certain things that we can do as a legal organisation to make sure we’re pushing in the right direction. “I’m not a scientist, so I wouldn’t suggest that I know exactly how to restore nature. There are a million species of plants and animals that are at risk of extinction if we don’t take certain actions.” What can we do to reverse the damage done to nature? But there are some species where we know we have to pull out all the stops to save them because they are already in real trouble. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry about them as well – we’ve seen species go from being very prevalent, to being extinct very quickly, because of human pressure. Things like ancient, primeval forest for example, you can plant some more trees, but you’re not going to be able to recreate that species mix and get the lichens or insects on old, rotting wood that makes a primeval forest so special.Įqually, there are some species we have an awful lot more of than others. Whereas for some other habitats, if you destroy them, they’re never coming back. They may not be quite as perfect as when nature created them, but pieces of land can re-wild, and plants can grow again. Certain habitats can be restored to an extent. “I think probably all species and habitats are vulnerable, but how vulnerable they are depends on the pressures that are put on them. This way there’s a wider ecosystem rather than only isolated protected areas.” It’s really important that you restore things at a landscape scale, so there is connectivity, and species can move around. There’s a risk that if you just focus on protected areas, you end up with little islands of biodiversity that are very nice, but probably won’t fix the problem, as species struggle to move between them, different ecosystems cease to interact. Some of these areas, like peatlands and wetlands, store carbon, so it’s incredibly important that we restore them as they’ll help us with climate change, as well as providing habitats for many species.Īnother important issue is that of connectivity. We need to do so for the planet, and to ensure that we don’t lose any more of them, but also for resilience. It’s really important that as well as protecting the planet’s most special hotspots for biodiversity – rainforests in the Amazon, or parts of Borneo for example – we remember that we also have a duty to restore species and habitats we’ve caused to deteriorate in parts of Europe. ![]() We see these declines reflected in bird numbers, insect numbers, and so on. “In more developed countries, we’ve had decades of industrialisation and economic development, which has meant that we’ve already destroyed a lot of biodiversity, or at least pushed it to the margins. Why is it so important to not just stop, but to reverse biodiversity loss? It’s so important that we stop and reverse the decline we’re already seeing.” There’s also more risk of zoonotic diseases, similar to Covid-19, transferring over to humans the more we encroach onto wild areas. I see them as equal and twin crises – if we don’t fix the biodiversity crisis, we’re putting ourselves in a position where we won’t be able to feed ourselves, and we’ll have more and more big natural disasters. That is, of course, a terrifying prospect, but we really do need to tackle both. And I don’t just mean mass extinctions of animals or plants, but of people too. ![]() We’ve concentrated so much in the last few years on climate change, and although we all need to take climate change really seriously, if we fix the climate crisis and not the biodiversity crisis, we’ll probably have mass extinctions anyway. “Because biodiversity is so crucial to our future survival, its loss is an absolutely huge crisis. ![]() Get updates on our work protecting nature How serious is the biodiversity crisis? We think we can just trash one bit, or remove a species, and it’ll all be ok, but the different plants and animals are interconnected in vital ways that we don’t even always understand.” So much is provided by the natural ecosystems around us – they’re truly vital to life on earth. We rely on nature to provide us with food and clean water, for a lot of medicines, and to prevent flooding and other extreme weather effects. Without biodiversity, our entire support system for human, as well as animal life, would collapse. We tend to think of it as something that’s just nice to look at, and enjoy spending time in, but it’s actually so much more. “Biodiversity is one of the most precious and important things we have. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |