Biodiversity refers to the variety of genes, species, and ecosystems that make up life on Earth. It provides a wide variety of essential goods and services to the world, including everything from basic material needs food, timber, fiber, and medicines to underlying ecosystem services like flood and pest control, pollination, and climate regulation.
Environmental Impact
Biodiversity gets lost as animal and plant species disappear altogether from certain areas or the planet. In addition, largely artificial forces, including habitat destruction, over-exploitation, and invasive competitors, push 52 species per category closer to extinction each year.
The adverse effects of many natural disasters are exacerbated by failures to protect Biodiversity and Ecosystem services. It can be seen regularly in the results of disasters worldwide from different countries. For example, deforestation makes many areas more vulnerable to mudslides that wiped out homes, crops, and lives.
Framing the Issue
The Group of 8 leading industrialized nations initiated the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) project to study the economic impact of ecosystem services and changes in biodiversity. Other recent estimates place the economic value of the benefits of maintaining the biodiversity of natural ecosystems at 10 to 100 times their costs.
In most cases, those who bear the brunt of the impact of the loss of biodiversity and deterioration of ecosystems are people who live off the land in less developed countries. These people rely directly on nature for food, shelter, and income. They generally need more resources or training to resort to the modern, artificial tools at the disposal of wealthier populations to help compensate for the loss of nature's services.Threats to biodiversity threaten agricultural productivity, and food security. Wheat, rice, and maize provide more than 50 % of global plant-derived energy intake.
Biodiversity Conservation
Fortunately, we can restore and protect biodiversity and natural ecosystem services. There have already been several noteworthy success stories. An innovative conservation law enacted in 2007 has enabled sustainable logging and ecosystem restoration management. The benefits of maintaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystems are prevalent in developed and remote areas.Biodiversity is associated with other developmental sectors and human well-being.
International Development
Well-off donor countries such as the Group of 8 have an essential role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services in developing countries. While both are hugely important and valuable, they often need to address biodiversity as a critical driver of economic livelihood and survival in much of the developing world. Effective aid packages should empower developing country institutions and incentive local stakeholders to be actively involved in conserving their own natural ecosystems.
Social Responsibility
The global supply chains of multinational companies can have a tremendous impact on biodiversity and local ecosystems. Therefore, companies must adopt and implement sustainability practices as a central component of their corporate social responsibility policies. Local countries could promote environmentally responsible corporate behavior by linking incentives with adopting sustainable business practices to earn positive economic returns on their investments in these incentives. Check our services at: https://andenviro.com.au/services/