The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has embraced a significant economic report released last week at the annual Convention on Biological Diversity, an conference organised by the United Nations in Germany.
The report, entitled The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB), was produced as a result of a collaboration between the German government, the G8 and the European Commission. It is the first report of its kind to portray habitat loss and loss of biodiversity as a crucial development issue. Just as the 700-page Stern Report helped to shift discussion on climate change by showing that global warming would impact upon the world economy, the TEEB was embraced by the WWF for understanding biodiversity as a crucial global support system. Rather than being appreciated in purely green terms, the report argues that biodiversity should be valued as it is the means by which food, fuel, medicines, fibre, clean water and fertile soils are all provided and maintained. All of these benefits are easily transcribed into economic value, especially in developing countries were people are dependent on the natural environment for their immediate needs.
The WWF itself released a report entitled 2010 and Beyond: Rising to the the Biodiversity Challenge, which included figures showing that global biodiversity has declined by over twenty five percent in the last thirty five years. The report criticized developed countries for placing the greatest burden upon the earth's fragile ecosystems, through over-consuming and unsustainable development practices.
Just yesterday the WWF demanded the EU to investigate evidence that itself and Greenpeace have obtained of Italian industrial fishing fleets using spotter planes as they hunt for bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean. The use of planes by industrial fleets is illegal under international law because tuna stocks are already low due to industrial fishing. Spotter planes are felt to only increase the advantage that man has over the fish.
The conservation groups are calling upon the EU to act upon the appreciation that the TEEB report has found for the economic value of biodiversity and urgently investigate the practices of the Italian fleet.
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This post was written by Matthew Gammie on June 7, 2008