Prepared for the United Nations over four years by 85 experts from 33 countries, the report is the most comprehensive look at pathways to sustainable use of wildlife, or in ways that do not lead to long-term depletion of these resources and ensure their availability for future generations. It is based on thousands of scientific studies and other references, including a body of indigenous and local knowledge. Indigenous and poor communities are among the most directly affected by overexploitation of wild species, the report said. “Half of humanity benefits from and makes use of wildlife, and often without even knowing they’re doing it,” said Marla R. Emery, one of the co-chairs of the assessment, which was conducted by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and ecosystem services. A summary was approved Thursday in Bonn, Germany by representatives of 139 countries, including the United States, with the full report scheduled for publication in a few months.
Understand the latest climate change news
Card 1 of 4 EU vote In a landmark vote on Europe’s climate and energy policies, the European Parliament approved the labeling of some natural gas and nuclear power projects as ‘green’, giving them access to hundreds of billions of euros in loans and subsidies. Critics said the move would prolong the region’s dependence on fossil fuels. Hot in Europe. A new study said Western Europe has become what researchers call a heatwave hot spot over the past four decades, with events increasing in frequency and cumulative intensity. The study also found that Europe is also warming faster than other hot spots. Dependence on fossil fuels. Dozens of state and local budgets in the United States depend heavily on tax revenue from oil, natural gas and coal to fund schools, hospitals and more. Replacing this money is proving to be a major challenge in the fight against climate change. However, the focus of this latest assessment was to provide a more optimistic perspective on how wildlife can be used sustainably by people around the world, said Jean-Marc Fromentin, also one of the co-chairs. A third of wild species that humans use in some way and that also appear on the “red list” – those listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature – showed stable or increasing population trends despite human use, according to with a study cited in the report. This suggests that “the use of these particular species is not yet directly contributing to their extinction, as far as we can tell,” said Sophie Marsh, a graduate student in biodiversity at University College London and lead author of the endangered species study. published in 2021. Indigenous and local knowledge is vital to learning some of the best practices for sustainable use, the report said, but has traditionally been underutilized. Indigenous communities have long incorporated sustainable uses of wildlife into their cultural practices, and an estimated 15 percent of the world’s forests are managed as “communal resources,” the report said, by indigenous peoples and local communities. The report referred to practices such as those used in the hills of the Cordillera region of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. There, “the whole community mobilizes to protect the forest,” said Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, an indigenous rights activist who grew up in the area. The practice is called Batangan, a system of resource management that involves a shared sense of responsibility for monitoring forest diversity and planting new trees as older ones age. It’s not just about trees, “it’s about water, plants and animals, micro-organisms” and increasingly, it’s about climate change as forests play a critical role in sequestering carbon, Ms Tauli-Corpuz said. The sustainable use of wildlife is central to the identity and existence of many indigenous and local communities, the report said. “If wildlife disappears, our culture is at risk, our way of life and our livelihoods are at risk,” said Viviana Figueroa, an Argentine lawyer and activist who participated in dialogues with the report’s authors as part of her participation in the International Indigenous Forum. for biodiversity. “There is still a lot of work to be done, but at least there is some recognition,” Ms Figueroa said. Future policies governing the use of wild species should consider the social and historical dimensions of sustainability and whether the benefits of such use are equitably distributed. For example, vicuña fiber, found in luxury clothing, is highly priced and produced by mostly low-income indigenous communities in South America who help conserve the vicuña by allowing the animals to graze on their communal or private land. But it is “almost impossible” for a remote Andean community to negotiate with an international textile company or market its product internationally, the report said, meaning most of the profits from the vicuña fiber trade are collected by traders and textile companies. The fishing industry should reduce unregulated and illegal fishing, support more small-scale fishing and crack down on harmful subsidies that encourage overfishing, the report recommends. The logging industry will also need to invest in technology that reduces waste in the manufacture of wood products, the report concludes, and governments may need to increase bans or regulations on wild meat in some areas, while assessing whether these policies may affect food insecurity in these areas. The findings from the new report may soon have a direct impact on international policy. The report was conducted in part at the request of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a treaty designed to ensure that global trade in plants and animals does not endanger their survival in the wild. The treaty parties will use the assessment’s findings to inform their decisions on trade at their meeting in Panama in November. Overexploitation of wild species is not the only factor leading to decline. Human-induced climate change is also a major force, the report said. Increasing human populations and consumption, along with technological advances that make many mining practices more efficient, will also put greater pressures on wildlife. “We need to make sure that these policy instruments benefit everyone,” said Emma Archer, a professor at the University of Pretoria in South Africa and one of the review’s lead authors. “There doesn’t have to be winners and losers.”
