Do not break the relationship with nature

by Dr Debapriya Mukherjee  
Former Senior Scientist
Central Pollution Control Board, India

Our world is experiencing too much of the chaos and tragedy on account of our broken relationship with nature. A virus has spilled over from wildlife to humans, causing a catastrophic global pandemic. It is expected that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis will increase extreme poverty globally for the first time in 22 years. Climate change is fueling weather events that are unprecedented in scale and devastation leading to drastic alterations to our natural, built and social environments. The erosion digging away at our coastal beaches and river bends is a serious threat to the people living nearby the coast. Now Earth’s ecosystem that supports our life, are in a severe state of degradation. The significant achievement of economic growth over the past few decades has been accompanied by large amounts of pollution, with significant impacts on human health and ecosystems and the ways in which some of the major Earth system processes, such as the climate, are functioning.

With the advancement of technologies and management strategies, we have controlled some forms of pollution but approximately 19 million premature deaths are estimated to occur annually as a result of the way societies use natural resources and impact the environment to support production and consumption. The existing pattern of consumption and production – the linear economic model of “take-make-dispose” will seriously burden an already polluted planet, affecting current and future generations.

Presently, the degradation of land and marine ecosystems destabilizes the well-being of 3.2 billion people and costs about 10% of the annual global gross product in species loss and ecosystem services. Of the estimated eight million species on earth, around a millionface extinction, according to biodiversity specialists from around the world. Many of these are now threatened with extinction within decades leading to a biodiversity collapse.  The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are now threatened. All over the world  first priority is to provide   more food, energy and materials  to people to improve their lifestyle at the cost of nature’s ability  without considering severe adverse impact on nature and human health. Researchers have ranked the five direct drivers of change in nature with the largest relative global impacts so far. In descending order of importance, they are changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of organisms; climate change; pollution and invasive alien species. As key ecosystems that deliver services essential to food and agriculture (e.g., freshwater supply, protection against hazards, and provision of habitat for species such as fish and pollinators) rapidly decline, we are clearly living out of harmony with nature.

Millions of young people in many countries demand climate action but there is no easy cure for what ails the environment. No silver bullet can restore the natural world overnight. But preventing the ongoing loss of natural ecosystems must be the first priority for limiting future emissions and the loss of vital biodiversity. In parallel, the restoration and sustainable management of degraded regions (natural or assisted) can then contribute to the drawdown of additional carbon and the recovery of local species. At the same time, we must avoid perverse negative consequences, such as the loss of natural ecosystems or the re-vegetation of degraded lands with non-native species, which could risk their becoming invasive. Such cases are not restoration and should not be tracked as progress toward restoration goals. Restoration is an inherently local challenge requiring intricate knowledge of the specific social and ecological context. In different regions around the world and it  encompasses a range of land-management strategies, including the conservation of existing ecosystems, the protection of land to support natural recovery, assisted restoration in degraded regions, sustainable ecosystem management, and holistic agricultural practices (e.g., agroforestry) to promote local biodiversity and human well-being. Providing unifying social and ecological insights to inform local land-management decisions—assessing the trade-offs and synergies among different land-use approaches—will be a major scientific challenge in supporting restoration efforts over the coming decade. Restoration targets need be formulated as contributions to biodiversity (e.g., reduced risk of species extinction) and climate (e.g., carbon sequestration) and not a percentage of area. In addition to these, restoration targets need inclusive scope beyond restoring the vegetation structure of forest ecosystems. They should therefore also encompass other ecosystems (e.g., wetlands and coral reefs), biodiversity elements (e.g., species reintroduction

and conservation translocation), and drivers (e.g., pollution remediation and the eradication of invasive alien species). Above all there is emergent need to ‘‘bend the curve’’ of both biodiversity loss and climate change and restoration must be targeted hand in hand with threat abatement. Averting loss now is easier, cheaper, faster, and less uncertain than restoration.  Indigenous peoples’ knowledge and practices are important to increasing the effectiveness of restoration activities in degraded ecosystems. Such contributions can be amplified, ensuring their full involvement in the co-design of restoration activities affecting their territories and recognizing their visions of healthy and productive ecosystems. Many examples demonstrate that Indigenous peoples’ active involvement on restoration activities substantially increases their success and legitimacy. Most glorious example is sacred forest in Meghalaya that I visited many times.

In view of above it may be mentioned that ecosystems are unique capital assets for humankind. If properly managed, they yield a flow of vital services. These include the production of goods, such as food and raw materials, and support for economic activity and welfare through pollination, recycling pollutants, natural protection, and other important processes. Most importantly, the ecosystems are not only fixed in supply and subject to irreversible loss; they are prone to abrupt collapse if sufficiently disturbed or degraded. On a global scale, the uncertainty about unforeseen future impacts, coupled with irreversible and substantial environmental losses, is exacerbating global environmental risks—from climate change to biodiversity loss to natural disasters. We need to ensure that the rising scarcity of ecosystems and their services is reflected in our market, business, and public decisions. These decisions must recognize that the benefits—or the valuable goods and services—that are generated by ecosystems are wide ranging but generally unmarketed. This is why they are frequently misused or overused, and such irreversible conversion can increase the risk of ecological collapse. Only by taking on the economics of ecosystems we will be on the path to global restoration.