About 100 bird species are predicted to become extinct based on current farming and forestry practices according to a new global analysis. This number has increased by 7% over the first ten years of this century alone, say scientists. They say the biggest factor is cattle farming, but the impact of oil seed crops like palm and soy is growing fast.
The research, published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, shows that international trade can drive threats to animal species far from the countries where the goods are consumed. The article is the final result of DICE PhD student Joana Canelas’ several years of working in collaboration with an interdisciplinary team, many of whom are based at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) in Leipzig, Germany, and focuses on global impacts driven by economic growth and consumption patterns in different regions.
It shows in particular how much land-use driven impacts affecting ecosystems in Asia, South America and Africa are driven by consumption patterns somewhere else, specially Europe and North America, highlighting the role of indirect drivers and the impacts on biodiversity and ecosystem services embedded on global economic flows.
In 2011, about a third of biodiversity impacts in Central and South America, and a quarter in Africa were driven by the consumption of goods in other parts of the world. The issue of biodiversity loss cannot be addressed without adding remote responsibility, i.e. people taking responsibility for the goods they buy at the supermarket.
The researchers used bird extinction as a measure of the loss of biodiversity – the variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat – linked with international trade in food and timber.
The team estimated the number of bird species at risk of extinction due to the conversion of natural habitat to land for agriculture and forestry between 2000 and 2011. They came up with a figure of as many as 121 bird species predicted to go extinct in the future if there is no change to current land use. (By comparison, an estimated 140 bird species have been lost globally since the beginning of the 16th century).
Image: A European turtle dove, a species whose numbers are in decline.