Protecting biodiversity needs to be addressed as critically and rapidly as the climate, argue conservationists from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE).
In a comment piece for Nature Communications, Dr Charlie Gardner (Lecturer in Conservation Science), Professor Zoe Davies (Professor of Biodiversity Conservation) and Dr Matthew Struebig (Reader in Conservation Science) have highlighted that the state of the natural environment has never been of greater concern to the public, but attention on biodiversity loss is being eclipsed by the climate emergency.
The conservationists explain that the environmental crisis actually has two interrelated components: climate change and the loss of biodiversity. However, public, media and political attention has focused primarily on global warming. This is despite the Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) warning that a million species could go extinct in the coming decades.
Gardner and colleagues write that the climate and biodiversity crises cannot be tackled separately because intact ecosystems are required to mitigate and adapt to climate change. They argue that it is imperative that our responses to the climate crisis avoid the degradation of ecosystems, as this could undermine the important contribution that natural environments can make to climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Using the example of reforestation, they suggest that the natural forest regeneration would be more effective for carbon sequestration than establishing new plantations using non-native tree species and will provide greater benefits for biodiversity.
They conclude that efforts to conserve biodiversity should capitalise on the current concern for the climate, which presents a big opportunity to mainstream conservation and hopefully avoid the extinction of a million species.
Dr Gardner said, “We cannot address the climate crisis without looking after our ecosystems and biodiversity so, as the world wakes up to the climate emergency, that’s going to create lots of opportunities for conservation. However, conservationists have to make sure that governments put biodiversity at the heart of their climate policies, otherwise what should be a big opportunity could turn into another threat.”
The comment piece, titled, Conservation must capitalise on climate’s moment by Charlie J. Gardner, Matthew J. Struebig and Zoe G. Davies has been published in Nature Communications.