Nightmare prediction by the UN: As many as 1 million species of animals and plants are threatened with extinction due to man

Drinking water, forests that absorb carbon dioxide, insects pollinators necessary in crops, fish… 

The Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) will meet in Paris from 29 April to 4 May to adopt the first global ecosystem assessment in 15 years.

The state of biodiversity sites is also expected to be as worrying as climate change forecasts.

The 1.800-page report, which has been worked on by 150 experts from 50 countries for three years, will be accompanied by a "decision-makers review" which is expected to be widely discussed and adopted by the 130 IPBES member countries, based on the model of the GIEC Climate Reports.

"Half a million species are expected to be threatened with extinction, many of them in the coming decades"

According to the draft summary - which is the most recent, in January - various independent items foreshadow an impending rapid acceleration of the extinction rate of the species (…) although the factors (of this extinction) are not strengthened.

Of the estimated 8 million species (of which 5,5 million are insect species) on the planet, "half to one million species are expected to be threatened with extinction, many of them in the coming decades," the text added.

The wording may change depending on what governments decide to propose but not the scientific conclusions. 

These projections respond to the warnings of many scientists who estimate that the Earth is at the beginning of the 6th "mass extinction", the first attributed to humans, which is the cause of the extinction of at least 680 species of vertebrates in the last 500 years.

Agriculture and fisheries

The report is based in part on the analysis of well-studied species, mainly vertebrates, but emphasizes the "uncertainty" that surrounds many more, lesser-known, mainly insects.

The extinction of this biodiversity has a direct impact on humans.

Food, energy, medicine: "The goods that humans derive from nature are fundamental to the existence and richness of human life on Earth and most of them cannot be completely replaced," the report warns.

For example, more than two billion people depend on forest timber for energy, four billion use a natural remedy, and 75% of crops need to be fertilized with insect-borne pollen.

First responsible for this gloomy situation: land use (agriculture, forestry, mining) and direct exploitation of resources (fishing, hunting).

It is followed by climate change, pollution and invasive species, the impact of which is "to date relatively less significant", but "accelerating".

However, the report notes that the relationship between this loss of biodiversity and climate change is sometimes reinforced by the same factors, most notably the agricultural model in an increasingly diverse world.

"We have to acknowledge that climate change and the loss of nature are just as important not only for the environment but also for economic reasons and for development," said Robert Watson, IPBES chief, who recently called for a "change" in food production. and energy.

"If we want a sustainable planet that provides services to communities around the world, we must change course over the next 10 years, as we must for the climate," said Rebecca Shaw, head of the World Fund's science division. for Nature (WWF).

The report also estimates that three-quarters of the land area, 40% of the marine environment and half of the watercourses "have been severely damaged". And the most affected areas are those where indigenous people who depend heavily on nature live or poor populations that are already more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Source: RES / EIS