1. Biodiversity: Conservation and Threats By Jeffrey A. McNeely jam@hq.iucn.org III Brazilian Congress on Agroecology 19 October 2005

2. For millions of years, the Americas were wilderness, left to wildlife

3. Once people arrived, things started to change

4. Fire and technology helped early human immigrants into the Americas drive some species to extinction, such as the mammoth, giant ground sloth, and an entire complex of edentates. Our lives are impoverished for having lost these species.

5. But the hunting and gathering people who arrived in the Americas also adapted, learning how to conserve their natural resources in the wilderness where they lived.

6. Agriculture developed independently in several parts of the Western Hemisphere, giving people greater control over nature, even domesticating many species.

7. Later, mechanized agriculture -- often forced by colonial or global sources of demand -- moved across the land, replacing more wilderness, further threatening wild biodiversity and expanding the human population

8. We are consuming more food Resource Per capita increase (1950-1990) Grain 40% Beef and mutton 26% Fish 100%

9. The process of land conversion continues to accelerate, sometimes encroaching on legally protected areas. This process continues to accelerate, threatening even legally protected areas

10. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell Why do we need biodiversity?

11. Ecosystem Services: the benefits people obtain from ecosystems Regulating Benefits obtained from regulation of ecosystem processes climate regulation disease regulation flood regulation Provisioning Goods produced or provided by ecosystems food fresh water fuel wood genetic resources Cultural Non-material benefits from ecosystems spiritual recreational aesthetic inspirational educational Supporting Services necessary for production of other ecosystem services Soil formation Nutrient cycling Primary production

13. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell FORESTS BENEFITS Absorption of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas Wood and other forest products Biodiversity: drugs from plants

14. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell FORESTS Indicative costs if lost $7 million Likely cost to plant enough trees to offset one million tons of carbon emitted annually from a medium- size coal-fired power plant. $135 million Annual value of US and Canadian maple syrup products. Pollution from midwestern power plants threatens sugar maples in both countries. $1.6 billion Annual Sales of Taxol, an anticancer agent first dervied from the bark of Pacific yew trees.

15. GRASSLANDS BENEFITS Soil formation and retention Gene pool for crossbreeding grains Animal habitat

16. GRASSLANDS Indicative costs if lost $9 trillion Value today of 200 million tons of topsoil blown off US Great Plains in one 1934 dust storm. Prairie had been ploughed to plant wheat. $14 million Annual value of California’s barley crop; Ethiopian wild barley genes provide virus protection. $256 million Kenya’s annual tourism revenue. Black rhinos, a major wildlife attraction, have been poached nearly to extinction. Source: members.aol.com/ MVNick/snature.htmmembers.aol.com/ MVNick/snature.htm

17. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell OCEANS AND COASTS BENEFITS Major source of food protein Protection against coastal flooding and erosion Tourist and recreational revenue

18. IUCN Photo Library © Jim Thorsell OCEANS AND COASTS Indicative costs if lost $51 million Value of Canada’s annual Atlantic cod catch, down from $148 million in 1989. Catch fell from 426,000 to 47,000 tons due to overfishing. $100,000 Yearly cost to some Bali hotels to combat beach erosion caused by destruction of coral reefs. $33,500 Annual value of a single shark to diving industry in Maldive Islands; value to a fisherman: $32.

19. Biodiversity includes wild relatives of domestic plants and animals

20. Biodiversity can help ecosystems adapt to climate change

22. The main threats to biodiversity

23. Rain forest burning

25. Where is the risk of extinction greatest? Areas of threatened species richness Threatened Mammals Threatened Birds Threatened Turtles Threatened Amphibians

26. So what can be done to conserve biodiversity? Protected areas provide one important answer.

27. The World Database on Protected Areas Protected Areas in IUCN Categories I through VI

28. Key Problems: Addressing the eternal conflict between people and nature

29. Key Problems: Land use change

30. Key Problems: The increasing homogenization of biodiversity: how do we keep invasive alien species out of wilderness areas?

31. Many people are working to find common ground between farmers and biodiversity

32. So what options do we have for linking biodiversity to agriculture?

33. 1. Maintain non-domestic habitats within production landscapes

34. 2. Use economic incentives to encourage farmers to conserve wild biodiversity

35. 3. Compensate farmers for economic damage from wild species

36. 4. Recognize the value of traditional farming systems to conserve domestic and wild biodiversity

37. 5. Remove trade barriers to farmers in developing countries

38. 6. Apply modern technology to mainstreaming biodiversity in agroecosystems

39. 7. Recognize rights of farmers for genetic resources

40. 8. Recognize indigenous land rights for biodiversity conservation

41. 9. Use market instruments to support agro- biodiversity

42. 10. Adopt a landscape approach when mainstreaming biodiversity

43. Conservation of biodiversity is an expression of human culture. Biodiversity needs active management if it is to provide us with the goods and services we desire. This management needs to include some areas where natural ecosystems are enabled to continue their evolution. The biological impacts of climate change will require new approaches to conserving biodiversity.