Governments, public failing to save world's species
According to the International Union for the
Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) 2008 report, released yesterday, 36 percent
of the total species evaluated by the organization are threatened with
extinction. If one adds the species classified as Near Threatened, the
percentage jumps to 44 percent-nearly half"
"It's time to recognize that nature is
the largest company on Earth working for the benefit of 100 percent of
humankind - and it's doing it for free. Governments should put as much effort,
if not more, into saving nature as they do into saving economic and financial
sectors," says Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Head of IUCN's Species
Programme
According to IUCN's latest report 37 percent
of freshwater fish, 35 percent of invertebrates, 30 percent of amphibians, 27
percent of coral reefs, 28 percent of reptiles, and 12 percent of birds are
currently threatened with extinction.
Jean-Christophe Vié, Deputy Head of IUCN's
Species Programme: "Think of fisheries without fishes, logging without
trees, tourism without coral reefs or other wildlife, crops without
pollinators. Imagine the damage to our economies and societies if they were
lost. All the plants and animals that make up Earth's amazing wildlife have a
specific role and contribute to essentials like food, medicine, oxygen, pure
water, crop pollination, carbon storage and soil fertilization. Economies are
utterly dependent on species diversity. We need them all, in large numbers. We
quite literally cannot afford to lose them."
http://news.mongabay.com/2009/1104-hance_iucn.html
