Plants, insects and organisms
crucial to food production in steep decline, says UN
The world’s capacity to
produce food is being undermined by humanity’s failure to protect biodiversity,
according to the first UN
study of the plants, animals and micro-organisms that help to put
meals on our plates.
The stark warning was issued
by the Food and
Agriculture Organisation after scientists found evidence the natural support
systems that underpin the human diet are deteriorating around the world as
farms, cities and factories gobble up land and pump out chemicals.
Over the last two decades,
approximately 20% of the earth’s vegetated surface has become less productive,
said the report, launched on Friday.
It noted a “debilitating” loss
of soil biodiversity, forests, grasslands, coral reefs, mangroves, seagrass
beds and genetic diversity in crop and livestock species. In the oceans, a
third of fishing areas are being overharvested.
Many species that are
indirectly involved in food production, such as birds that eat crop pests and
mangrove trees that help to purify water, are less abundant than in the past,
noted the study, which collated global data, academic papers and reports by the
governments of 91 countries.
It found 63% of plants, 11% of
birds, and 5% of fish and fungi were in decline. Pollinators, which provide
essential services to three-quarters of the world’s crops, are under threat. As
well as the well-documented decline
of bees and other insects, the report noted that 17% of vertebrate
pollinators, such as bats and birds, were threatened with extinction.
Once lost, the species that
are critical to our food systems cannot be recovered, it said. “This places the
future of our food and the environment under severe threat.”
“The foundations of our food
systems are being undermined,” wrote Graziano da Silva, the director general of
the Food and Agriculture Organisation, in an introduction to the study. “Parts
of the global report make sombre reading. It is deeply concerning that in so
many production systems in so many countries, biodiversity for food and
agriculture and the ecosystem services it provides are reported to be in
decline.”
Agriculture was often to
blame, he said, due to land-use changes and unsustainable management practices,
such as over-exploitation of the soil and a reliance on pesticides, herbicides
and other agro-chemicals.
Most countries said the main
driver for biodiversity loss was land conversion, as forests were cut down for
farm fields, and meadows covered in concrete for cities, factories and roads.
Other causes include overexploitation of water supplies, pollution,
over-harvesting, the spread of invasive species and climate change.
The trend is towards
uniformity. Although the world is producing more food than in the past, it is
relying on ever-expanding monocultures.
Two-thirds of crop production
comes from just nine species (sugar cane, maize, rice, wheat, potatoes,
soybeans, oil-palm fruit, sugar beet and cassava), while many of the remaining
6,000 cultivated plant species are in decline and wild food sources are
becoming harder to find.
Although consumers did not yet
notice any impact when they went shopping, the authors of the report said that
could change.
“The supermarkets are full of
food, but it is mostly imports from other countries and there are not many
varieties. The reliance on a small number of species means they are more
susceptible to disease outbreaks and climate change. It renders food production
less resilient,” warned Julie Bélanger, the coordinator of the report.
As examples, the report noted
how overdependence on a narrow range of species was a major factor in the
famine caused by potato blight in Ireland in the 1840s, cereal crop failures in
the US in the 20th century, and losses of taro production in Samoa in the
1990s.
“There is an urgent need to
change the way food is produced and ensure that biodiversity is not something
that is swept aside but is treated as an irreplaceable resource and a key part
of management strategies,” said Bélanger.
The report found evidence that
attitudes and practices were slowly changing. In recent years, there has been a
greater uptake in sustainable forest management, ecosystem approaches to
fisheries, aquaponics and polyculture. But the authors said there had been
insufficient progress. Organic agriculture, for example, now covers 58m
hectares (143m acres) worldwide, but this is only 1% of global farmland.
The report signalled a
heightened interest by governments in biodiversity, a subject that rarely gets
the same attention as climate change. Many states reported economic losses
caused by disappearing or shifting ecosystems. Ireland, Norway, Poland and
Switzerland noted shrinking bumblebee populations. Egypt was concerned that its
fishing industry would suffer because fish were migrating northwards due to
rising ocean temperatures. Gambia said communities were being forced to buy
expensive industrially-produced products because free wild food sources were
becoming scarcer.
The biodiversity crisis is set
to rise up the global agenda, with discussion on the topic at the next G7 in
April, a
World Conservation Congress in June, and then a major UN conference in
Beijing next year.
“Around the world, the library
of life that has evolved over billions of years – our biodiversity – is being
destroyed, poisoned, polluted, invaded, fragmented, plundered, drained and
burned at a rate not seen in human history,” Ireland’s
president, Michael Higgins, said at a biodiversity conference in Dublin on
Thursday. “If we were coal miners we’d be up to our waists in dead canaries.”
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