RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) – Every day billions of people depend on wild flora and fauna to obtain food, medicine and energy. But a new United Nations-backed report says that overexploitation, climate change, pollution and deforestation are pushing one million species towards extinction.
The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services – or IPBES – report said Friday that unless humankind improves the sustainable use of nature, the Earth is on its way to losing 12% of its wild tree species, over a thousand wild mammal species and almost 450 species of sharks and rays, among other irreparable harm.
Humans use about 50,000 wild species routinely and 1 out of 5 people of the world’s 7.9 billion population depend on those species for food and income, the report said. 1 in 3 people rely on fuel wood for cooking, the number even higher in Africa.
“It’s essential that those uses be sustainable because you need them to be there for your children and grandchildren. So when uses of wild species become unsustainable, it’s bad for the species, it’s bad for the ecosystem and it’s bad for the people,” report co-chair Marla R. Emery of the United States told The Associated Press.
Beyond the gloomy picture, the report also provides recommendations for policymakers and examples for the sustainable use of wild fauna and flora. A central point should be to secure tenure rights for Indigenous and local peoples, who have historically made sustainable use of wild species, the report said.