http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3039803.stm
Last Updated: Monday,
19 May, 2003, 23:44 GMT 00:44 UK
Wake-up call on extinction wave
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent
CAPTION
#1:
"The living world is disappearing before our eyes."
Professor Peter Crane, Kew Gardens
CAPTION #2:
"We support the idea the world is on the breaking
crest
of the sixth great wave of extinction."
Professor Georgina Mace, Zoological Society of London
UK scientists have
issued a clarion call to the world
to recognise the galloping rate of species extinction.
They have devised a
framework for measuring biodiversity,
to show just how fast species are disappearing.
They say we can make
better use of available knowledge,
for example through web-based technology.
But another problem,
they believe, is the existence of
huge gaps in what we know.
The call comes from
the Royal Society, the UK's national academy
of science, in a report, Measuring Biodiversity for Conservation.
It is published on
the eve of a meeting in London of the United
Nations Convention on Biodiversity (CBD).
Listed to disappear
The meeting is reviewing
progress towards the target of
"a significant reduction in the current rate of biodiversity
loss by 2010", agreed at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable
Development in Johannesburg.
The group which produced
the Royal Society report was chaired
by Professor Peter Crane, director of the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew.
He said: "The
living world is disappearing before our eyes.
Around one in 10 of all the world's bird species and a quarter
of its mammals are officially listed as threatened with
extinction, while up to two-thirds of other animal species
are also endangered.
"These losses
have accelerated over the last 200 years
as a direct and indirect consequence of the growth in
human populations, wasteful use of natural resources
and associated changes to the environment.
"Although we have
a feel for the scale of the loss,
we often lack specific and accurate information about
how badly individual species and their habitats are
suffering."
So it was hard to decide
whether efforts to save
these species were working.
Professor Crane said:
"It is essential that they do
succeed, because many of the world's poorest people
directly depend for their livelihoods on the diversity
of plant and animal species and their habitats."
The framework it has
developed, the society says, can be
used for long-term monitoring as well as emergencies like
oil spills.
It has three
stages:
1. scoping, which defines
who the interested parties are
2. a conceptual model, using available knowledge and forcing
assumptions to be recognised and made explicit
3. implementation, involving data gathering, analysis
and reporting back.
The Royal Society report
says human dependence on biodiversity
is "absolute", not only for direct benefits like food
but
also for climate regulation, water purification, soil formation,
flood prevention and nutrient cycling.
It says these benefits
must be available to future generations,
yet people alive today must also gain.
Huge gaps
It says: "We recognise
the fundamental tension between
intergenerational equity and the humanitarian imperative
of equality here and now."
The report also calls
for balance between synthesising
information already available, using IT and the internet,
and collecting new data.
It says there are "major
areas of ignorance", especially
for the areas where species diversity is greatest.
Professor Georgina
Mace, director of science at the Zoological
Society of London, was a member of the Royal Society working group.
She told BBC News Online:
"We support the idea the world is
on the breaking crest of the sixth great wave of extinction.
"The rate of loss
is still accelerating, and so is our impact
on habitats. But there's a time lag between the damage
happening and the extinction occurring.
"It's a pretty
straightforward problem, and solving it requires
a compilation of information that we haven't done.
"And there's a
funding gap too. It's easy to get money for
new science, but very hard to get it for synthesising data."
