Nature and Human Society The Quest for a Sustainable World (1997) / Chapter Skim
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8 Infrastructure for Sustaining Biodiversity-Policy
8 Infrastructure for Sustaining Biodiversity-Policy
Pages 481-518
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From page 483... ...
Access to clean water is increasingly difficult, the air in our cities is increasingly polluted, forests are being cut down, and some species are becoming increasingly rare or extinct (WRI 1996~. As pressures on natural resources have increased and environmental degradation has become evident, public awareness has increased to an all-time high, and the interdependence of human society and our natural environment is widely accepted.
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From page 484... ...
The results of the conference include Agenda 21, a global plan to halt and reverse environmental damage to our planet and to promote environment tally sound and sustainable development in all countries (Sitarz 1994~. In addi' tion, three legally binding conventions were signed on biodiversity, climate change, and desertification.
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From page 485... ...
Environmental control and management are decentralized in the new system and are in charge of regional autonomous corporations for sustainable development. Most important for the purpose of this paper are the research institutes that are in charge of providing the scientific and technical support to the environmental system.
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From page 486... ...
That would enable us to address such matters as the impact of logging on genetic diversity of nontimber forest products or the effects of wetland restoration on ecosystem services. A STRATEGIC AGENDA FOR BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH IN COLOMBIA The strategic plan for research in biodiversity in Colombia is designed to address the conceptual framework as a whole, identify gaps and weaknesses, and design actions to overcome them.
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From page 487... ...
Most of the biological collecting done since the journeys of Alexander van Humboldt and the botanical expedition led by Jose Celestino Mutis in the early 19th cen' tury has focused on vascular plants and vertebrates, especially birds and mammals. Invertebrates, fungi, and bacteria have received little attention, and overall we estimate that we probably know less than 10% of the species found in Colombia (figure 1~.
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From page 488... ...
Some plant families that are used for timber are also threatened or endangered. A recent survey of major ecosystems in Colombia has revealed that nearly one' third of the habitats have been altered or transformed as part of development (Ministerio del Medio Ambiente 1997~.
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From page 489... ...
The country has 16 registered botanical gardens, but they contain fewer than 5,000 plant species and no more than 5% of the threatened plants of Colombia. A major effort is under way to strengthen the role of botanical gardens in conservation of and research on endangered flora.
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From page 490... ...
Not only has the policy been changed to be compatible with conservation of natural ecosystems, but also economic incentives for conservation of forest remnants have been established in recent years. Another critical component is research on legislation at the international, na' tional, and local levels and its effects on biodiversity goals.
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From page 491... ...
Specialized courses, scholarships, and internships will also play a major role in strengthening national capacity. Communication and Information One element that is often not considered in designing research programs is related to information management and delivery of the results in a manner that is useful for different audiences.
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From page 492... ...
Villa de Leyva Colombia: Instituto Alexander van Humboldt. Ministerio del Medio Ambiente.
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From page 493... ...
These include positive incentives for private landown' ers and others to restore, enhance, and responsibly manage habitats for imperiled species; mechanisms to initiate conservation efforts toward species before they reach a point of crisis; and tools to broaden the focus of conservation efforts from individual species to assemblages of species in particular natural communities, habitats, or ecosystems. Recent efforts to fashion such tools administratively have offered promising results.
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From page 494... ...
The northern Aplomado falcon once again occurs as a breeding species in the United States after an absence of nearly a half-century. The list of similarly impressive results continues.
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From page 495... ...
Yet, although each of these assertions is undoubtedly correct, they do not provide a satisfactory explanation of the disappointments of the ESA. What is missing from these explanations is the fact that the ESA does not give the Fish and Wildlife Service all the tools that it needs to conserve endangered species, particularly in states like Texas, Florida, and Hawaii, where a great many endangered species occur and where most of the land and most of the habitat that supports those species are privately owned.
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From page 496... ...
For example, as long as landowners believe that they will incur added regulatory restrictions on the use of their land if they do things that either attract endangered species or increase the number of such species on it, they are unlikely to do those things. Indeed, to avoid the possibility of such restrictions, landowners sometimes manage their land in ways that render its use by endangered species highly unlikely.
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From page 497... ...
The problem was that few landowners in the area could be persuaded to do these things, precisely because they feared the regulatory restrictions that would accom' party the woodpeckers that would benefit from these practices. The result was a continuing, steady decline in the local population of woodpeckers, despite their nominal protection as an endangered species.
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From page 498... ...
Despite the clear need for earlier action, the ESA has discouraged it in some respects. For much the same reason that landowners sometimes seek to manage their land so as not to attract endangered species to it, some landowners also seek to eliminate from their land species that have been identified as likely candidates for future addition to the endangered list.
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From page 499... ...
In: National Association of Home Builders developers guide to endangered species regulation. Washington DC: Home Builder Press.
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From page 500... ...
Almost 50 years later and near the end of the millennium, Costa Rica shows significant success. · In social terms, the average life expectancy is 76 years (3 years more than in the United States)
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From page 501... ...
decided to end the Cold War and begin the construction of a global economy, without the permission of small Costa Rica." The new president continued, "Nowadays, as my country faces the challenge of entering and succeeding in the era of global economy, even with all the progress attained, Costa Rica stands no chance unless we shift our devel' opment paradigm to that of sustainable human development. Moving in that di' rection is not a hightech decision; it is a policy decision." Costa Rica's approach to sustainable human development places equal import tance on the simultaneous achievement of the following three objectives: · To consolidate macroeconomic balances to allow an increase in internal say' ings and to attract investments.
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From page 502... ...
Only a few of them are acknowledged in the marketplace; others, equally important, undergo the "tragedy of the commons." Table 1 sum' marizes the services provided by Costa Rican forests and identifies the level of beneficiaries. To preserve the forests and their environmental services and to generate eco' nomic benefits to private owners and the whole country, we must make a practi' cat and innovative effort to internalize the costs and benefits, which are recog' nized in theory but are ignored in practice by the marketplace.
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From page 503... ...
Our learning process over the last 5 years has shown us the usefulness of internalizing the benefits derived from our biodiversity resources to our society, which generates additional value to them, each time under improving conditions and benefits of the negotiations. WATERSHED PROTECTION AND ELECTRIC POWER Recently, a hydroelectric-power company based in Costa Rica and a group of rural landowners, supported by local nongovernmental organizations, entered a voluntary private agreement.
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From page 504... ...
The Climatic Change Convention recognizes them as such, and Costa Rica has developed numerous pilot projects in each of those activities. At the domestic level, the introduction of taxes on fuels and pollution generates more than $20 million a year, which is paid to owners of natural forests for the environmental services they provide to the country, including carbon fixation and watershed protection.
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From page 505... ...
We intend to allocate the difference as payments to owners of forest for the costs of environmental ser' vices that they incur in watershed protection activities. In developing a global system of trade for carbon offsets, Costa Rica, in association with the Earth Coun' cdl, has placed the first 4 million CTOs in the Chicago Stock Exchange, and we are ready to develop the global market.
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From page 506... ...
. Often forgotten are local changes that lead to regional and global biodiversity loss both direct changes (the "green" or conservation issues)
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From page 507... ...
The relationship of biological diversity to the national interest and national security falls into four categories used in foreign-policy analysis: health and wellbeing of individuals; economic security; conflict, state capacity, and stability; and the role of security institutions. This analysis looks at the subject primarily from a generic viewpoint rather than solely from that of the United States.
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From page 508... ...
A third contribution of wild species to agriculture is that at the organism level, including pollination and integrated pest management that enhance agricultural production and health and save lives. An example of the latter was the identification, through the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, of a parasitic wasp from Paraguay that was the natural predator of the cassava mealy bug then on the verge of creating major famine in West Africa, where neither cassava, the mealy bug, nor the wasp was native (Herren and Neuenschwander 1991~.
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From page 509... ...
that feeds on zebra mussels now opens the possibility that PCBs will work their way once again up the food chain with both human health consequences and economic consequences, including the need to close down the fishery (Jude 1996~. Ecosystem services provided by biological diversity provide a third connection with economic security.
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From page 510... ...
Biodiversity loss can be both the consequence and the cause of such damage as in Hurricane Mitch in Central America in 1998. Nonetheless, if the more ambitious versions of the Hidrovia waterway project for the Parana Paraguay drainage went forward, the economic consequences could be similar to those engendered by modifications to the southern Florida ecosystem and the Mississippi drainage.
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From page 511... ...
An example of a causal factor and biodiversity loss as an associated consequences was the El Salvador-Honduras soccer war, generally agreed to have been caused by problems with environmental refugees. THE ROLE OF SECURITY INSTITUTIONS Security institutions are generally not thought about from an environmental perspective, but biodiversity can have both positive and negative effects.
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From page 512... ...
The weak part of that conclusion is that although biodiversity loss is easy to ignore incrementally, for national interest and security the aggregate can be disastrous. For example, Haiti's major biodiversity loss is caused by almost complete deforestation, and loss and deforestation are clearly not in Haiti's national interest.
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From page 513... ...
1996. Environmental services of biodiversity.
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From page 514... ...
Wirth as Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs at the Conference on Nature and Human Society at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, on 30 October 1997. AFTER A DECADE of discussion on biodiversity through this Second National Forum on Biodiversity, Nature and Human Society: The Quest for A Sustainable World, it might be useful to look ahead.
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From page 515... ...
But when we pollute, degrade, and irretrievably compromise that ecological capital, we begin to do serious damage to the economy. With that introduction, let me present a few ideas by focusing on the third Conference on Nature and Human Society, to be held in the year 2007.
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From page 516... ...
Obvi' ously, population, like globalization, has a profound effect on biodiversity and on the purposes of the Conference on Nature and Human Society. PERSISTENT ORGANIC POLLUTANTS Third, I would raise the issue of persistent organic pollutants.
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From page 517... ...
And I can guarantee that until we all do a better job of telling the story, the Endangered Species Act will continue to be under attack and the Biodiversity Treaty will remain unratified for want of a two-thirds majority in the Senate. One of the signal events of the third Conference on Nature and Human Society will be the awarding of a new prize, awarded for science in service to society.
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From page 518... ...
518 / NATURE AND HUMAN SOCIETY he was right. Science is critical if our global society is going to develop sustain' ably.
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