One Million Animal and Plant Species Threatened with Extinction
Many animal and plant species are at risk of disappearing «in the coming decades,» according to a new UN report.
Due to ongoing environmental destruction, up to one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction, according to the draft of a UN report.
Between 500,000 and one million species are facing eradication. The alarming report is set to be presented by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) at a conference beginning next Monday in Paris. It warns of an “imminent extreme acceleration” of global species extinction. Even now, the rate at which animal and plant species are dying out is between ten and one hundred times higher than the average over the past ten million years.
Main causes of species extinction
According to the draft text, the main causes of the looming species extinction include agriculture, deforestation, mining, fishing and hunting, as well as climate change and pollution. The report is based in part on findings relating to well-studied species such as vertebrates, but also points to “uncertainties” regarding the numbers of lesser-known species, particularly insects.
Many experts assume that a so-called “mass extinction” is already underway. In the past 500 million years, there have been only five such events.
“We must recognise that climate change and the destruction of nature are equally significant (as drivers of species extinction),” said IPBES Chair Robert Watson. Both factors have an influence not only on the environment, but also on development and economic issues. Watson explicitly mentioned food and energy production in this context. Only “far-reaching changes” could still limit the damage to biodiversity.
The preliminary report from the Bonn-based IPBES also concludes that half of all ecosystems on land and in water have been severely damaged by human intervention. Subsidies for the agricultural industry, livestock farming, and fishing have led to inefficiency and excessive consumption.
150 experts from 50 countries worked for three years on the report, which is intended to serve as a decision-making tool for policymakers. It summarizes an 1,800-page document in 44 pages, in which the United Nations draws up a scientific assessment of the state of nature on Earth. However, the 130 IPBES member states may still make changes to the text before adopting it.
More on the subject of recreational hunting: In the dossier The Role and Criticism of Recreational Hunters we shed light on the training, power and self-image of recreational hunters. What the research says about this is shown by Hunting fact-checked: the state of research.
The position of IG Wild beim Wild: IG Wild beim Wild rejects recreational hunting. Our model is the canton of Geneva, which has managed without recreational hunting since 1974: without hunting seasons, without hunting dogs, without driven hunts, without high seats, without the animal cruelty and crime that go hand in hand with hunting season elsewhere. What has worked there for over fifty years disproves every position paper by JagdSchweiz. An association that bases its policy on claims it refutes in its own documents is not a professional organisation, but a factory for misinformation.
