A million species are threatened with extinction, and the rates are accelerating

Monday, 6 May 2019

Despite conservation efforts Kiwis are still at risk of extinction.

More than 4000 native New Zealand plants and animals, including the kererū and the kiwi, are among the million species worldwide that are at risk of extinction, according to a new international report.

The Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) has released an 1800-page report on the state of the world's ecosystems, the first global biodiversity assessment since 2005.

Nature is in more trouble now than at any time in human history, with extinction looming over 1 million species of plants and animals, the report said.

It's all because of humans, but it's not too late to fix the problem, according to scientists.

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'Humanity unwittingly is attempting to throttle the living planet and humanity's own future,' said George Mason University biologist Thomas Lovejoy, who has been called the godfather of biodiversity for his research. He was not part of the report.

'The biological diversity of this planet has been really hammered, and this is really our last chance to address all of that,' Lovejoy said.

University of Auckland associate professor James Russell said the report painted a 'bleak picture' of the current state of biodiversity and its decline over the past 50 years.

Globally, species loss is accelerating to a rate tens or hundreds of times faster than in the past, the report said. More than half a million species on land 'have insufficient habitat for long-term survival' and are likely to go extinct, many within decades, unless their habitats are restored. The oceans are not any better off.

Among the endangered species in New Zealand are the Maud Island frog, of which there are only about 20,000 left, Maui's dolphins, which number just 55, and the fairy tern, between 35 and 40 left.

Russell said the report made it clear that people could no longer say 'we don't have enough evidence'.

'The science is in and it's no longer time to debate or deny the science, but to shift to discussions about appropriate policy responses,' he said.

People had to make meaningful behaviour changes at a 'personal and daily level', he said.

'Our actions and desires are at odds with what the planet can sustainability provide, especially when all of us desire these things.'

The report also outlines the importance of indigenous and local knowledge. 'Both Māori and Pākehā fall within the scope of this section, and it empowers us all to think about how we can be more 'indigenous' in how we whakapapa (relate) to our lands and seas for their protection.'

Conservation scientists from around the world convened in Paris to issue the report, which exceeded 1000 pages. The IPBES included more than 450 researchers who used 15,000 scientific and government reports. The report's summary had to be approved by representatives of all 109 nations.

The report's 39-page summary highlighted five ways people are reducing biodiversity:

- Turning forests, grasslands and other areas into farms, cities and other developments. The habitat loss leaves plants and animals homeless. About three- quarters of Earth's land, two-thirds of its oceans and 85 per cent of crucial wetlands have been severely altered or lost, making it harder for species to survive, the report said.

- Overfishing the world's oceans. A third of the world's fish stocks are overfished.

- Permitting climate change from the burning of fossil fuels to make it too hot, wet or dry for some species to survive. Almost half of the world's land mammals - not including bats - and nearly a quarter of the birds have already had their habitats hit hard by global warming.

- Polluting land and water. Every year, 300 to 400 million tons of heavy metals, solvents and toxic sludge are dumped into the world's waters.

- Allowing invasive species to crowd out native plants and animals. The number of invasive alien species per country has risen 70 per cent since 1970, with one species of bacteria threatening nearly 400 amphibian species.

Fighting climate change and saving species are equally important, the report said, and working on both environmental problems should go hand-in-hand.

At least 680 species with backbones have already gone extinct since 1600. The report said 559 domesticated breeds of mammals used for food have disappeared. More than 40 per cent of the world's amphibian species, more than one-third of the marine mammals and nearly one-third of sharks and fish are threatened with extinction.

There are only about 35 to 40 fairy terns left, making them New Zealand's rarest bird.

The report relies heavily on research by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, which is composed of biologists who maintain a list of threatened species.

The IUCN calculated in March that 27,159 species are threatened, endangered or extinct in the wild out of nearly 100,000 species biologists examined in depth. That includes 1,223 mammal species, 1,492 bird species and 2,341 fish species. Nearly half the threatened species are plants.

Scientists have only examined a small fraction of the estimated 8 million species on Earth.

The report comes up with 1 million species in trouble by extrapolating the IUCN's 25 per cent threatened rate to the rest of the world's species and using a lower rate for the estimated 5.5 million species of insects.

The report goes beyond species. Of the 18 measured ways nature helps humans, the report said 14 are declining, with food and energy production noticeable exceptions. The report found downward trends in nature's ability to provide clean air and water, good soil and other essentials.

But in the doom and gloom there were seeds of hope, Niwa marine ecology principal scientist Dr Carolyn Lundquist said.

In New Zealand, that included many small-scale initiatives bringing nature back to cities, from Hamilton gully restoration projects through to national commitments such as Predator Free NZ.

'These initiatives combined with new scenario modelling approaches are what we have to focus on if we are to bend the curve in the opposite direction,' she said.

NZ Biological Heritage National Science Challenge director Dr Andrea Byrom said the report was clear that humans were the cause of global peril - and that will affect us, not just animals.

'A loss of biodiversity, which has accelerated massively in the past three decades, is beginning to impact human development, economic productivity, security, and the societies we live in.'

With initiatives like Predator Free growing awareness of the plight of biodiversity, invasive species were front of mind for New Zealand, Byrom said. 'These human-induced drivers of global environmental change need to be tackled head-on.'

- Stuff with AP