By Dr Arvind Kumar
Unprecedented floods in Pakistan and other parts of the globe, cloudburst in Leh and forest fires in Russia are testimony to the declining ecological equlibrium. Rapid pace of destruction of the Amazon forest, global coral reefs and inland water ecosystems have put at risk the human livelihoods that depend on them.
Given the current rate of biodiversity loss, there could be a severe reduction of many essential services made available by nature to human societies A Un report has identified three potential ecosystem “tipping points”: deforestation in the Amazon, eutrophication of inland water ecosystems caused by the build-up of agricultural fertilisers and sewage effluent, and mass collapse of coral reef ecosystems due to ocean acidification.
There is an urgent need to address the underlying causes or indirect drivers of biodiversity loss, such as patterns of consumption, the impacts of increased trade and demographic change. The UNEP had declared 2010 as Year of Biodiversity which seemingly has failed to achieve desired targets. One can hope that the forthcoming special global Biodiversity Summit scheduled to be held in the Japanese city of Nagoya in October 2010 will outline a new global vision for biodiversity post-2010.
