Biodiversity & Economics

1. Biodiversity & Economics Allison Gill Molly Williams Shannon Scott Shannon Sutherland

2. Human development has fundamentally changed the nature of the biotic environment in which we live. Industrialization and economic growth have increased habitat and resource use, changing the distribution and concentration of biological species, a disturbance that has had profound implications for human well-being in our developming world. The extent biodiversity loss is staggaring, and clearly indicates our crucial responsibility to work to protect the precarious continued success of the millions of species with whom we share our globe. The United Nations Environment Program has declared 2010 as the International Year of Biodiversity, in order for both governments and citizens to take a chance to reflect upon the crucial need to protect the biodiversity of our planet. At the end of the 20th century, intergovernmental organizations set 2010 as a timepoint by which the international community would reduce the rate of biodiversity loss across the globe. While the goals set forth at this time have largely not been reached the UNEP have taken this opportunity to call global citizens to recognize the roll biodiversity plays in their everyday lives. http://www.unep.org/iyb/

3. What is ? Biodiversity refers generally to variability within the living environment. It encompasses the variability of plant and animal species, the variability of the genetic makup of those species, and the variability of the ecosystems in which the species interact. Preserving biodiversity is crucially important to human society. It allows us to maintain and preserve the structure of our current habitats and ecosystems, as well as the economic systems and industries which they support.

4. Global Biodiversity Loss

6. What Causes Biodiversity Loss?

7. Large Scale Conventional Agriculture Globalization and Large-scale Conventional Agriculture

8. Impacts of Biodiversity Loss Environmental critics often argue that protecting biodiversity is a secondary issue that should not be a central concern in light of more pressing global problems such as poverty and and widespread hunger in developing countries. http://www.sdsurfeco.com/pages/rainforest.htm The reality is, however, that protecting and maintaining the biodiversity of the earth’s varied ecosystems and habitats is critical to human health and livlihood across the globe. http://www.nature-escapes-kuala-lumpur.com/forest-pictures.html

9. The loss of biodiverstiy has the potential to affect human and environmental well-being in a myriad of ways. Loss of Genetic Diversity Allele – an alternative form of a gene located in a specific position on a specific chromosome Even if species do not directly go extinct, habitat loss can reduce population size, reducing the genetic diversity of a group of interbreeding individuals and forming what is called a “population bottleneck.” Bottleneck populations have a higher incidence of homozygosity – or having two identical alleles at a single locus. Heavily homozygous populations express more deleterious recessive genes and alleles, leading to a reduction in the overall fitness of the population, and sometimes, extinction. Recessive Trait – a trait that requires two copies of the gene to be present in order to appear in the phenotype http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~sjjgsca/DNAmutation.html Fitness – an individual’s ability to reproduce, or the proportion of an individual’s genes in the next generation

10. Loss of Medicinal Plants http://fm2.fieldmuseum.org/plantguides/guideimages.asp?ID=259 Both traditional and conventional medicine relies directly on the availability of medicinal plant species, however between 15,000 and 50,000 of the known medicinal species are currently threatened with extinction (Edwards 2009). The distribution and availability of plant and animal species also impacts ecosystem nutrient cycling, natural water purification processes, and flood control. As we lose these natural ecosystem services, we are forced to replace them with artificial solutions, further exacerbating the problems associated with habitat destruction and species loss. http://www.travelblog.org/Wallpaper/waterfall_luang_prabang.html

11. http://echeng.com/journal/images/misc/echeng-jellyfish-lake-palau.jpghttp://echeng.com/journal/images/misc/echeng-jellyfish-lake-palau.jpg Threats to Economic Industries Biodiversity loss also threatens human economic activity by destroying the resources millions of people rely upon for their own lives and livlihoods. For example, the creation and subsequent expansion of the Suez Canal has resulted in the transport and invasion of marine species from the Red Sea to the northern waters of the Mediterranean (Galil 2006). Facilitated by the warming waters, these invasive species have proliferated in the Mediterranean, and fundamentally changed the fishing industry in Southern European costal communities (Galil 2006). Introduced jellyfish have flourished at the expense of marketable fish, forcing many fishermen to seek other means of income (Galil 2006). http://library.thinkquest.org/10805/map.html

13. Cost of Global Biodiversity Losses While the relative merits of assigning monetary values to the worth of protecting biodiversity remain controversial, the Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity was a European group formed to bring awareness to both the costs and benefits of preserving biodiversity – as well as the inherent costs associated with its loss. You can check out their website at: http://www.teebweb.org/

14. The EEB estimates that the about 50 billion euros of biodiversity-providing ecosystems are lost each year Biodiversity loss also affects different economic sectors and populations differently. Developing areas and peoples rely on ecosystem services and resources for a much greater proportion of their economic activity than developed countries, and therefore sustain the impacts and costs to a much higher degree. Percentage of GDP Dependent on Ecosystem Services in Developed and Developing Areas in India http://liquidthinker.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/coral-reef.jpg The group also estimates that biodiversity loss will be worth a total of 14 TRILLION Euros by 2050. 57% 7.3% Developed Areas Devloping Areas From: GIST’s Green Accounting for Indian States Project, 2002-03 data

15. Valuation of Biodiversity • What is the Valuation process?

16. Biodiversity and the Market Systems

17. What Is Being Done Now

18. Strategies For Control

19. The Future • What is being done, what can be done for the future, what degree it is effective, is what is being done now enough (both national and international)?