1/4/2005
Ecosystem Change Threatens Achievement Of MDGs Says UN Report

More land has been converted to agriculture since 1945 than in the 18th and 19th centuries combined. More than half of all the synthetic nitrogen fertiliser ever manufactured has been used since 1985. This has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in diversity, with some 10 to 30 per cent of the mammal, bird and amphibian species currently threatened with extinction. These are some of the stark findings emerge from the report of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis a UN backed ecological survey compiled by 1,300 scientists in 95 countries.

Humans have changed ecosystems more rapidly and extensively in the last 50 years than in any other period of time. Some 60 per cent of ecosystem elements supporting life on Earth, such as fresh water, clean air or a relatively stable climate, are being degraded or used unsustainably and the situation could become significantly worse during the first half of this century, according to the study, say the report's authors.

They conclude that it lies within the power of human societies to ease the strains we are putting on the nature services of the planet. Achieving this, however, will require radical changes in the way nature is treated at every level of decision-making and new ways of co-operation
between government, business and civil society.

The report shows that ecosystem degradation is a barrier to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Changes in ecosystems such as deforestation influence the abundance of human pathogens such as malaria and cholera, as well as the risk of emergence of new diseases, the report says. Malaria, for example, accounts for 11 per cent of the disease burden in Africa and had it been eliminated 35 years ago, the continent’s gross domestic product would have increased by $100 billion.

The world’s poorest people suffer most from ecosystem changes. The regions facing significant problems of degradation – sub-Saharan Africa, Central Asia, some regions in Latin America, and parts of South and Southeast Asia – also face the greatest challenges in achieving the MDGs, such as halving extreme poverty by 2015. In sub-Saharan Africa the number of poor is forecast to rise to 404 million in a decade from 315 million in 1999.

“Only by valuing all our precious natural and human resources can we hope to build a sustainable future,” Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a message launching the report. “The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment is an unprecedented contribution to our global mission for development, sustainability and peace.”

The four-year assessment was designed by a partnership of UN agencies, international scientific organizations and development agencies, with private sector and civil society input, in response to Mr. Annan’s call for global support of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seek to slash a host of socio-economic ills such as extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.

“The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment gives us, in some ways for the first time, an insight into the economic importance of ecosystem services and some new and additional arguments for respecting and conserving the Earth’s life support systems,” declared Klaus Toepfer, Executive Director of the Nairobi-based UN Environment Programme (UNEP).