Global wellbeing at risk

The latest report from the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), the body that oversees the protection and restoration of global biodiversity warns that the planet is in real danger. Recently, the agency has been able to quantify the magnitude of the tragedy in various reports its experts have made for each continent.

Biodiversity decline in all regions of the world is dramatic because the environment is faced with widespread pressure and stress on natural habitats, overexploitation of resources and pollution. This significantly reduces nature’s ability to contribute to our welfare, threatening economies, livelihoods, food sources, security and the quality of life everywhere.

In Europe, the situation is more complicated than in the rest of the planet. As one example shows, 42% of the total population of land animals and plants in Europe have decreased over the last decade. As for fish, in the same period, 71% of the individual species have suffered a decline, while 60% of amphibians are facing a similar fate. In the EU, 73% of freshwater ecosystems (rivers and lakes) have poor conservation, while wetlands have declined by 51% since 1970. Increasingly intensive agriculture and the consumption of non-renewable resources are the main causes.

For much of the planet the oceans provide a guarantee of survival but the depletion in accessible fishing grounds is now more than serious.

The deterioration of the health of the planet has direct effects on the possibilities of human resources. Access to the most basic resource of all, drinking water, has fallen by 15% since 1990.