Immediate threats to biodiversity have much deeper causes

BirdLife 85 IBAs in the new EU accession countries could be affected by new transport developments Zoom In

The immediate threats to birds and other biodiversity are ultimately caused by societal problems – including growth in human population and material consumption, widespread poverty, inequitable access to resources and an unfair global trade regime.

At the root of the biodiversity crisis are humanity's most serious problems

The immediate threats to birds and biodiversity are growing in both scale and scope. The underlying causes are a complex tangle, rooted both in our expanding demands on the planet and the unfair ways that we share our resources. Rising individual consumption and material expectations, especially in rich nations, are driving agricultural intensification, habitat destruction and over-exploitation elsewhere. Although developing countries have a special responsibility for global biodiversity conservation (see box 1), imbalances in global trade arrangements and technology access make conservation challenging for them, as do a range of severe social pressures including widespread poverty. Areas that have rich and irreplaceable biodiversity often support the densest human populations (box 2), increasing the immediate pressures.

Economic pressures erode the capacity for biodiversity conservation

For many developing countries struggling with economic crises, short-term measures for rapid economic recovery are more expedient than long-term solutions. If structural adjustment programmes are imposed as a condition of international financial assistance, government budgets are usually reduced and this has often decreased the ability to enforce environmental laws. Despite developed-world protectionism and subsidies, many developing countries have also had to liberalise and deregulate their markets, increase the production of agricultural commodities for export, and allow increased foreign investment and control of natural resources. All of these trends have encouraged the rapid liquidation of natural capital and have eroded the legislative basis, political will, managerial capacity and financial resources for biodiversity conservation.

Poverty and inequality undermine biodiversity conservation

Poverty is a major driver of biodiversity loss. Poor people often depend directly on natural resources, but are forced for survival to use them unsustainably. They may have little voice in decision-making, and are all too often displaced or dispossessed by skewed power structures, political instability or armed conflicts. Under such circumstances, they have no choice but to use what marginal resources remain, even if weakly claimed by others – including areas 'protected' for biodiversity conservation. Migrant people are rarely able to adopt the local land-use practices that have been finely tuned over generations. They often also bring new technologies and improved access to markets, leading to further resource degradation, biodiversity loss and social conflict.

Solutions are often short term and unsustainable

National governments are faced with the challenge of addressing the poverty and inequality that continue to afflict millions of people world-wide. The usual strategy is to encourage centralisation, urbanisation and the development of infrastructure. Such responses can be effective, but at a long-term cost to society if poorly planned (box 3). Unless an ethic that values and conserves biodiversity and the environment is better integrated into current approaches to human development, they will continue to bear significant responsibility for the global biodiversity crisis.

Boxes: case studies and scientific analyses

Download SOWB pp.50–51 (PDF, 748 KB) containing the following:

1. More species are threatened in the developing world than the devloped world
The numbers of bird species in each IUCN category that are confined to the developing and developed worlds

2. People and biodiversity are often concentrated in the same areas
The areas of densest human population largely overlap with centres of bird endemism in the tropical Andes region

3. When planning for development does not integrate environmental issues, biodiversity suffers
Eighty-five IBAs in central and eastern Europe are potentially affected by EU transport developent proposals