Million Species on Verge of Extinction due to Declining Ecosystem
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7 May 2019 10:43 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Based on the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) latest report, one million plants and animal species are on the verge of extinction within several decades.
The report which was approved in the seventh session of the IPBES plenary meeting on April 29-May 4 in Paris was based on a systematic review from 15,000 scientific resources and governments.
"The overwhelming evidence of the IPBES Global Assessment, from a wide range of different fields of knowledge, presents an ominous picture," said IPBES Chairman Sir Robert Watson as noted in a written statement received by Antara in Jakarta, Monday, May 6.
According to him, the health of the ecosystem is deteriorating more rapidly than ever, and that declining the economic foundation, livelihoods, food security, as well as health and quality of life worldwide.
Native species living in land-based habitats decreased by at least 20 percent, occurring since 1900. More than 40 percent of amphibian species, almost 33 percent of reef-forming corals, over a third of all marine mammals, and at least ten percent of insect species are also under threat of extinction.
Additionally, more than 680 vertebrate species were no longer exist since the 16th century and over nine percent of all mammals used for food and agriculture had become extinct since 2016 with at least other 1,000 species are threatened.
According to a professor from Germany, Prof. Settele, such biodiversity loss directly affected human activities, and that is a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.
Watson further stressed that it was not too late to create a change but that must be carried out starting now at every level from local to global through transformative reform so as to reach other global goals.
“That we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals, and values," Watson explained.
ANTARA
