The ever-exploding human consumption, coupled with poor land use, could soon wipe out iconic species, a new report says.
WWF's Living Planet Report 2018 shows that there has been an explosion
of human consumption.
This in turn has driven an unprecedented planetary change, being witnessed through the increased demand for energy, land and water.
This puts livelihoods at risk, as all
economic activities ultimately depend on services provided by nature.
The
latest census, carried out in 2009, revealed that Kenya has a population of
38.6 million people.
Currently, Kenya's population is estimated to have hit over 41 million.
The WWF
report, which was released last month, says there have been massive losses of vertebrate
species (mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles). The losses averaged 60 per cent between 1970 and 2014.
"The products we consume, the supply chains behind them, the materials they use and how these are extracted and manufactured have myriad impacts on the world around us,"
part of the 148-page report says.
The report says that while climate change is a growing threat, the main drivers of biodiversity decline continue to be the over-exploitation of species, agriculture and land conversion.
Indeed, a recent assessment found that only a quarter of the land on Earth is substantively free of the impacts of human activities.
This is projected to decline to just one-tenth by 2050.
Land degradation includes forest loss; while globally this loss has slowed due to reforestation and plantations it has accelerated in tropical forests that contain some of the highest levels of biodiversity on Earth.
LAND DEGRADATION
Ongoing degradation has many impacts on species, the quality of habitats and the functioning of ecosystems.
Two recent studies have focused on the dramatic reductions in bees and other pollinator numbers and on the risks to soil biodiversity, critical to sustaining food production and other ecosystem services.
In March 2018, the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services released its latest Land Degradation and Restoration Assessment. It found that only a quarter of the land on Earth is substantively free of the impacts of human activities.
By 2050, this fraction is projected to decline to just a tenth.
Wetlands are the most impacted category, having lost 87 per cent of their extent in the modern era.
The immediate causes of land degradation are typically local —
the inappropriate management of the land resource —
but the underlying drivers are often regional or global.
The key driver is the growing demand for ecosystem-derived products, beyond the declining capacity of ecosystems to supply them.
Marine and freshwater ecosystems are also facing huge pressures.
Almost 6 billion tonnes of fish and invertebrates have been taken from the world’s oceans since 1950.
Plastic pollution has been detected in all major marine environments worldwide, from shorelines and surface waters down to the deepest parts of the ocean.
Freshwater habitats, such as lakes, rivers and wetlands, are the source of life for all humans, yet they are also the most threatened. They are strongly affected by a range of factors, including habitat modification, fragmentation and destruction, invasive species, overfishing, pollution, disease and climate change.
The report notes that while the dependence on nature is self-evident to many, important decisions made in boardrooms, finance ministries and presidential offices rarely reflect this.
"Indeed, the perception that lies behind so many environmentally damaging choices is that nature is a ‘nice to have’ thing.
Its protection is deemed secondary to the more important tasks of increasing economic growth, creating jobs, enhancing the competitiveness of industry or keeping prices low," it states.