El precio de la biodiversidad es una ganga

Oct 6, 2012 Achim Steiner , Braulio Dias

NAIROBI – ¿Cuál será el costo de salvar los bosques del mundo y aumentar las perspectivas de vida de sus siete mil millones de habitantes? En pocos días, la India será la anfitriona de la reunión del Convenio de las Naciones Unidas sobre la Diversidad Biológica en Hyderabad. Los países reunidos estudiarán la manera de obtener los recursos necesarios para alcanzar las ambiciosas Metas de Biodiversidad de Aichi (Aichi Biodiversity Targets), aprobadas hace dos años en la última reunión de este tipo que se celebró en Japón.

Las metas de Aichi exigen que hasta el año 2020 se reduzca a la mitad la tasa de pérdida de hábitats naturales del planeta, incluyéndose entre ellos a los bosques. En Hyderabad, se presentarán a los gobiernos presentes los costos probables de la ampliación de esfuerzos para lograr dicho objetivo.

Una evaluación estima que se necesitarán alrededor de $40 mil millones al año para reducir a la mitad las tasas de deforestación y para garantizar la gestión sostenible de los bosques en los países en desarrollo hasta la fecha prevista. El costo puede parecer significativo en un mundo con tasas de desempleo crecientes, y donde muchos países continúan luchando con crisis financieras y económicas en curso y otros contemplan la quiebra.

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Achim Steiner

Writing for PS since 2008
29 Commentaries

Achim Steiner, Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), is a co-chair of the UN Secretary-General’s Task Force on Digital Financing of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Braulio Dias

Writing for PS since 2012
1 Commentary

Braulio Dias is Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 3 Comments on this article

John-Albert Eadie Jan 23, 2013

Mr Steiner is exactly right.

Continuance of our life on our this planet -into the future- is the only un-arguable goal for any thinking human, and saving the world forests a) is an approachable first step, b) the costing is not as scary as one might think and c) it is somethiing that will teach us (if we *do* see it in our plural self interest, and actually do it), what *else* we must do. And *how* to do so.

We are partly driven by intellect, by the nurture of other minds in society. This intellect, which is informed and improved by morality, is the only thing humanly addressable that is also a thing that is malleable -we can actually improve ourselve = upgrade our brain software- and, babies: we are faced with dire choices.

Yes religion as we know it mostly, is inflexible and cuts us on it's edges. I am not talking religion. We are faced in Global Warming with nothing less that -pardon the expression- hell for our grandchildren.

Mr. Steiner is clear, sane, and correct.
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Zsolt Hermann Oct 8, 2012

The problem here is motivation.
People only act when they feel either a positive or negative motivation to do something. We are all simple creatures acting based on the pleasure/pain principle.
Today everybody only cares about short term profits, benefits, nobody cares if continuing with the peresnt socio-economic model in 30 years we run out of water, food supply, most of the most important natural resources, although these are well documented facts and published in respectable sites.
Most people still feel that somehow humans are above the vast natural system we live in and we can do whatever we want.
It seems we need to wait until the crisis gets so deep, the global climate change transforms weather conditions to unbearable, the melting ice caps causes such flooding that millions/billions lose their homes and livelihood, or water supply shortages cause conflicts wars, so people start listening to scientists, activists or their own mind that we have to change how we live our lives otherwise we simply do not survive. This would be the negative motivation.
The positive motivation could come from a global, multi level education program helping people understand how much we are all integrated in this interdependent living system, and interconnected and interdependent human network embedded in nature. Maybe this could change people's perception and attitude so we start acting before the negative motivation takes place.
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Tina Fiedler Oct 7, 2012

Biodiversity simply means Agenda 21- which will destroy us.

Look it up, turkeys.
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