Native Plant Conservation Campaign News: British Natural History Museum declares "planetary emergency", Convention on Biological Diversity director warns of “empty world” in future

February 4, 2020

 

The British Natural History Museum is the latest institution to declare a “planetary emergency”.  In a January 20, 2020 publication, the Museum stated that “Climate change, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, pollution and deforestation are just some of the crises caused by unsustainable human activity. These add up to an emergency on a planetary scale.”

 

Although accelerating climate change remains the greatest threat to life, biodiversity loss is rapidly gaining ground as the Earth’s sixth mass extinction continues to spread disaster. The World Economic Forum’s 2020 list of the Top Five Global Risks places biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as the third greatest risk in terms of likelihood and severity (after climate change and failure to address climate change.)

 

In fact, for the first time all of the WEF Top Five Global Risks are environmental. The environment has now displaced threats such as infectious diseases, terror attacks and international conflict.

 

The Convention on Biological Diversity has joined the calls for immediate, urgent and sweeping action to confront these threats. In the run up to the January World Economic Forum, where these data were released, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, acting executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, has implored governments to ensure 2020 is not just another “year of conferences” on the ongoing ecological destruction of the planet.

 

In an interview with the Guardian, she warned that the ongoing destruction of life-supporting ecosystems such as coral reefs and rainforests means humans risk living in an “empty world” with “catastrophic” consequences for society,

 

Mrema is responsible for spearheading an international agreement for nature that will be negotiated this year. Sadly, early drafts of the agreement have been criticised by those saying governments can do more. Mrema herself has said she had hoped negotiators would create something more ambitious than the current proposal.

 

One of the ways the Convention on Biological Diversity, the United Nations and others recommend that nations respond to these crises is through the adoption of “Nature Based Solutions”. Nature Based Solutions employ the conservation and restoration of native plant communities to harness the services natural ecosystems produce to restore the planet’s life support systems. Learn more on the NPCC Nature Based Solutions/Ecosystem Services website.