Biotic Resources
Deforestation Grassland Ploughing Wetland drainage
Afforestation International: REDD+ was proposed by developing countries in 2005 as an international strategy by which tropical countries would reduce deforestation and be compensated by wealthy nations for any resulting economic losses. Two of the strongest initial supporters of the concept were Norway, which pledged $2.5 billion for the effort, and Brazil, which announced a national plan to reduce its deforestation rate 80 percent by 2020 (compared with its average rate over the decade 1996– 2005) and later made this commitment part of its national law.
Urbanisation/Land Use Change
Facts & Figures Virtually all of Earth’s ecosystems have now been dramatically transformed through human actions. More land was converted to cropland in the 30 years after 1950 than in the 150 years between 1700 and 1850. Between 1960 and 2000, reservoir storage capacity quadrupled and, as a result, the amount of water stored behind large dams is estimated to be three to six times the amount held by rivers. Some 35% of mangroves have been lost in the last two decades in countries where adequate data are available (encompassing about half of the total mangrove area). Roughly 20% of the world’s coral reefs have been destroyed and an additional 20% have been degraded. The biomes with the highest rates of conversion in the last half of the 20th century were temperate, tropical, and flooded grasslands and tropical dry forests (more than 14% lost between 1950 and 1990).
Facts & Figures Areas of particularly rapid change in terrestrial ecosystems over the past two decades include: Bangladesh, Indus Valley, parts of Middle East and Central Asia, and the Great Lakes region of Eastern Africa. the Amazon basin and Southeast Asia (deforestation and expansion of croplands); Asia (land degradation in drylands); Although the most rapid changes in ecosystems are now taking place in developing countries, industrial countries historically experienced comparable changes.
http://www. theguardian http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/mar/07/extinction-species-evolve