In a new report, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) looks back at how our societies value nature in a context of species extinction.
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What is nature worth? What is the cultural, symbolic or commercial value of an animal or plant? These questions are central to understand the erosion of biodiversity, which threatens a million animal and plant species, analyze scientists from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). In a report published Monday, July 11, IPBES experts estimate indeed that this crisis is “closely linked to how nature is valued in political and economic decisions”. They regret that these decisions are too focused on “short-term profits and economic growth” and be done “to the detriment of nature and society, as well as future generations”.
To deal with this situation, scientists are calling for “to move away from the dominant values” and to integrate other ways of seeing the world into our decision-making processes. “Reversing human impact on biodiversity requires systemic and transformative change”, they say. The report mentions about fifty methods to better take into account the different values of nature – cultural, ecological, etc. – and calls on decision-makers to seize it.
“The idea is not to ask everyone to behave like animists [croyance qui dote les animaux et les plantes d’une âme]but to realize that there are ways of thinking that respect nature better than us, such as those of indigenous peoples”, translated for franceinfo Philippe Grandcolas, CNRS observer at IPBES. The ecologist, for example, calls for a real “reconnection with nature” and cites the case of natural parks.
This report is the result of four years of work by 82 international scientists and experts. Its summary for policymakers has been approved by the 139 governments, including France, that make up the IPBES. These conclusions were already briefly addressed in some texts, such as the last report on the sustainable use of wild species, but this is the first time that the IPBES looks exclusively at our value system. In 2019, a global IPBES report had already identified economic growth as a key factor in the disappearance of animal and plant species.