This is the other environmental crisis, with global warming, which threatens the balance of our societies. A million animal and plant species are seeing their populations melt away under the effect of the destruction of habitats, pollution, climate change, their overexploitation and invasive species. While this erosion of biodiversity is accelerating, scientists from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) are publishing a report on Friday, July 8 on the exploitation of wild species by humans, through activities such as fishing, felling trees, hunting or tourism.
The objective: to take stock of the situation and find solutions for the sustainable use of these species that are essential to human life. Franceinfo summarizes the main lessons of this report, the fruit of four years of work.
Humans need wildlife
The exploitation of wild species is central today. “To assure oneself of [leur] sustainable use is crucial for humanity and to prevent the decline of biodiversity”, write the scientists. This is particularly true for the poorest 45% of the world’s population (3.5 billion), who depend directly on these species. “For these vulnerable populations, they are essential for food security and sovereignty, because they are often the only source of protein”explains to franceinfo Marie-Christine Cormier-Salem, one of the main authors of the report.
The social science researcher from the Research Institute for Development (IRD) cites the example of the women of Casamance (Senegal), who collect oysters in the mangroves. “This allows them to improve their family’s daily food and also, through sales, to finance health or schooling expenses”she explains.
This use is not only food. It is also energy – a third of the world’s population depends on wood for cooking or heating -, spiritual for indigenous communities, or even tourism.
These wild species are threatened and the situation is getting worse
CNRS observer to the IPBES for this report, ecologist Philippe Grandcolas summarizes: “We are on a terrible trajectory.” To date, according to the report, 34% of sea fish are victims of overfishing, due to the increase in demand. This is the case with sharks. “Today there is a very demanding market for shark fins, which puts pressure on the resource”, analyzes Marie-Christine Cormier-Salem. Dogfish are also part, along with turtles, rays, mammals and seabirds, of the species threatened by accidental captures, when they get caught in nets thrown to fish for other animals.
The situation is no better on dry land. “Globally, populations of many land animals are declining due to unsustainable use”, assures the report. At issue: hunting, notably via the transition from a local subsistence practice to a commercial practice. Plants also suffer. Logging, through destructive practices or illegal logging, “threatens the sustainable use of natural forests”, notes the IPBES. “The increase in demand for construction wood will not be compensated by the planting of forests”, warns the organization. Wildflowers are also threatened by illegal picking.
In the future, the situation will not get better. “Climate change is having an increasingly strong impact and poses many challenges”, warns the IPBES. The increase in temperature, the change in rainfall and the multiplication of extreme events such as droughts or heat waves are a threat to fauna and flora. For instance, “repeated and intense forest fires have the potential to degrade the landscape, reduce the density of local species and lead to the proliferation of invasive species”detail the scientists.
Another threatening trend is the increase in human population and global consumption. “The demand for fish will double by the middle of the century and will increase in all regions”warns the IPBES.
Sustainable solutions exist
In terms of solutions, the IPBES first insists on the need to build tailor-made policies, adapted to the diversity of social and ecological contexts. “Many measures have worked in some circumstances and failed in others”, says the report. Having made this clarification, the text lists a series of important criteria: the measures must, for example, be inclusive, participatory and socially just.
“If you treat people who hunt or fish for food as harshly and strictly as for-profit industrial activities, it can’t work.”
Philippe Grandcolasat franceinfo
They must also be based on precise scientific monitoring of species and the knowledge of local populations and be capable of adapting to a changing situation.
Finally, the IPBES invites us to stop considering man as a superior species, above others and above nature. This conception, very widespread in the western world, has “caused major environmental crises, such as climate change and the erosion of biodiversity”note the scientists, before concluding: “Considering that man is part of nature will lay the foundations for a more respectful and sustainable relationship, as indigenous communities show us”.