world

As the extinction of life gathers pace worldwide today, biodiversity loss and marked degeneration of ecosystem have created grave danger to the existence and development of humankind.

According to a report recently published by the World Natural Protection Fund, the number of the individuals of wild animals decreased by 73 percent in 50 years from 1970 to 2020. In its report issued in 2018 it had said that the number of wild animals declined by more than half in the period between 1970 and 2014, predicting that two-thirds of wild animals may disappear by 2020.

Tremendous are the consequences of rapid destruction of biodiversity.

The problems facing the world, namely the population, food, resources, energy and environmental issues, are directly or indirectly connected with biodiversity.

According to information available, many varieties of the crops and domestic animals disappeared in the agricultural sector in the last century, posing a threat to the agricultural biodiversity. And the excessive fishing activities in the major fishing grounds of the world reportedly exert negative influence on the marine biodiversity. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization published a report in 2019 to warn that the world food production would face a crisis due to the dwindling biodiversity. In 2022 the UN released a report that many parts of the world ran out of natural resources and water and lost biodiversity, devastating 40 percent of the world land mass.

The destruction of biodiversity produces the serious aftereffect that infectious diseases spread widely.

According to a research result published in a British science magazine in May, human activities destroying the ecological environment are the major contributor to the spread of infectious diseases. Particularly, the destruction of biodiversity increases the outbreak of infectious diseases by 85 percent.

The destruction of biodiversity is called one of the three crises of the earth together with climate change and environmental pollution. These three elements are intertwined and interacting with each other, increasing risks by geometrical progression.

To protect and maintain biodiversity is just an undertaking to preserve the environment for human existence. 

The UN convention on biodiversity was adopted in the UN conference on environment and development held in 1992.

The 10th session of the Conference of Parties to the UN convention on biodiversity held in 2010 advanced 10-year goals for the protection of biodiversity by 2020. But none of the 20 goals discussed were perfectly achieved.

In December 2022, the 15th session of the Conference of Parties (COP22) to the UN convention on biodiversity agreed on the new 23 goals including the protection of more than 30 percent of land and sea respectively as the safe ecosystem till 2030. 

To achieve these goals fair and impartial efforts of the international community are needed.

The World Natural Protection Fund has already published a report ten years ago, in which it criticized the US as the main player in polluting global ecosystem, saying that if the whole world uses natural resources on such a scale as the Americans consume, they will need five planets equivalent to the earth to maintain ecological balance. An international research group released the research results that 30 percent of the animals in the world threatened with extinction were affected by the production of goods to be exported by developing countries to developed western countries or development.

The reality, in which the existence of humankind and future of the planet are exposed to danger with the rapid destruction of biodiversity, urgently demands that all countries including the responsible western countries take active part in protecting environment.