Pesticides, urbanization, intensive cultivation… The pressure on the territory’s particularly rich ecosystem is very strong. Sixteen species have already definitively disappeared.
“The Guadeloupe parrot, which was endemic, therefore only existed in Guadeloupe, has disappeared from the planet. There is also a snail, and then the Caribbean monk seal, which have disappeared definitively”, laments Florian Kirchner, “species” program manager at the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In a joint press release, the IUCN, the National Museum of Natural History and the French Office for Biodiversity indicate that 15% of animal species in Guadeloupe are threatened. Of the 574 animal species studied, 85 are threatened, 48 are near-threatened and 16 have already disappeared.
“The findings we are making today call for action. It is also worrying for us because we must not forget that we depend on biodiversity. Biodiversity feeds us, renews the oxygen in the “air, renews soil fertility, pollinates crops. We need healthy ecosystems to live satisfactorily on this planet”, alert Florian Kirchner.
We are also the ones who are threatened today if we do not act for these species.
A cocktail of threats
“What we really see is that there is a very strong cocktail of threats that puts wildlife under great pressure. These threats are damage to natural habitats, for example coastal and low-altitude forests are nibbled away by urbanization or are nibbled away by cultivation”, explains Florian Kirchner. We also have attacks in the rivers, in particular at the mouths, where the pressures are really very strong for fish and crustaceans. And then there is pollution, which results from pesticides used in the past or currently, and also sanitation, which is sometimes lacking in Guadeloupe.
These threats endanger birds, mammals, but also fish or butterflies, for example. “Over the last five centuries, at least 16 species have already been identified which have definitely disappeared”, says Florian Kirchner.
A reflection is currently being carried out in Guadeloupe to issue new orders for the protection of species – which prohibit the capture or killing of animals of a given species – to protect species that are not yet protected today, such as insects.
Find an extract from the interview of Florian Kirchner by Tiziana Marone:
The fauna of Guadeloupe is threatened