Avatar: Reaching The Heart

8/9/2019 Avatar: Reaching The Heart

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UNEP promotes

environmentally sound practicesglobally and in its own activities. This

magazine is printed on 100% recycled paper,using vegetable-based inks and other eco-

friendly practices. Our distribution policy aimsto reduce UNEPs carbon footprint.

TUNZA the UNEP magazinefor youth. To view currentand past issues of thispublication online,please visit www.unep.org

United Nations EnvironmentProgramme (UNEP)PO Box 30552, Nairobi, KenyaTel (254 20) 7621 234Fax (254 20) 7623 927Telex 22068 UNEP KEE-mail [email protected]

ISSN 1727-8902

Director of Publication Satinder BindraEditor Geoffrey LeanSpecial Contributor Wondwosen Asnake Youth Editors Karen Eng, Deborah WoolfsonNairobi Coordinator Naomi PoultonHead, UNEPs Children and Youth Unit

Theodore ObenCirculation Manager Manyahleshal Kebede

Design Edward Cooper, Ecuador Production BansonFront cover photo Twentieth Century Fox

Youth Contributors Carla Basantes, Ecuador; MaraFernanda Burneo, Ecuador; Francisco Chuc, Mexico;Kate de Mattos-Shipley, UK; Edgar Geguiento,Philippines; Janeicie Kantn, Mexico; Felicity Kuek,Malaysia; Abhiram Kramadhati Gopi, India; BrittanyLynn Valdez, USA; Julio Martnez, Mexico; TributeMboweni, South Africa; Robert Nelson, Haiti/USA;Mara Beln San Martn, Peru; Tan Sijie, Singapore;Maia Tanner, UK.

Other Contributors Sarah Bladen, WWF; MarkCarwardine; Fergus Drennan; Irene Hoffmann, FAO;Martin Jenkins; Tim Menke, Twentieth CenturyFox; Sergiy Paskevych, www.chornobyl.un.ua; FredPearce; Shauna Swartz; Rosey Simonds and DavidWoollcombe, Peace Child International; DamonStanwell-Smith, UNEP-WCMC; Christoph Schrter-Schlaack, TEEB; Susie Weldon, ARC.

Printed in the United Kingdom

The contents of this magazine do not necessarily re-ect the views or policies of UNEP or the editors,nor are they an ofcial record. The designations em-ployed and the presentation do not imply the expres-sion of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNEPconcerning the legal status of any country, territoryor city or its authority, or concerning the delimitationof its frontiers or boundaries.

CONTENTSEditorial 3

Does biodiversity matter? 4

Avatar: reaching the heart 6

Taking action 8

Last chance to think 10

Where the wild things are 12

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity 14

Food choice 16

TUNZA answers your questions 18

Faith in nature 18

Closer to home 19

Measured questions 20

Fighting back 21

Seven species on the climate change hit list 22

The year of the tiger 24

Keep up with TUNZA on Facebook!www.tinyurl.com/tunzamagfb

UNEP and Bayer, the German-basedinternational enterprise involvedin health care, crop science andmaterials science, are working together to strengthen young peoplesenvironmental awareness and engagechildren and youth in environmentalissues worldwide.

The partnership agreement, renewedto run through 2010, lays down abasis for UNEP and Bayer to enlargetheir long standing collaboration tobring successful initiatives to countries

around the world and develop newyouth programmes. Projects include:TUNZA Magazine, the InternationalChildrens Painting Competition onthe Environment, the Bayer YoungEnvironmental Envoy in Partner shipwith UNEP, the UNEP TunzaInternational Youth/ChildrensConference, youth environmentalnetworks in Africa, Asia Pacic, Europe,Latin America, North America and WestAsia, the Asia-Pacic Eco-Minds forum,and a photo competition, Ecology inFocus, in Eastern Europe.

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By now the world should be well on the way todefusing the greatest ever threat to life on Earthin human history. For this is the year by which theworlds governments solemnly swore that they wouldbe beating back the biodiversity crisis, which threatensto bring about the sixth mass extinction of species in thelifetime of our planet, and the rst since the disappearanceof the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. To be precise, worldleaders pledged, early last decade, to achieve, by 2010, asignicant reduction of the current rate of biodiversity lossat the global, regional and national level, as a contribution topoverty alleviation and to the benet of all life on Earth.

As the pledge indicates, the biodiversity crisis is not justabout vanishing species, important though that is. It isalso destroying the vital services that nature providesfor humanity. We depend on soils and seas for food, for

example, on forests for freshwater, on trees to reducepollution, on wild species for many of our medicines.

And yet half of the worlds wetlands have been lost overthe last century; 40 per cent of its forests in just the lastthree decades. A third of coral reefs the most importantbreeding grounds for sh have been seriously damaged.

And, every year, 25 billion tonnes of topsoil is erodedaway. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, the mostcomprehensive study on the issue ever undertaken,concluded that 60 per cent of the worlds such ecosystemservices had been degraded over the last 50 years.

Poor people in developing countries are most reliant onthese services, and so suffer most when they are damagedor lost. As UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has pointedout, they are vital for achieving the all-important MillenniumDevelopment Goals. But everyone is affected, since theentire world economy is effectively utterly dependent onthe natural environment. And yet the importance of whatis happening is not recognized. As the ground-breakingproject, The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity, haspointed out: It is hard to think of any other asset wherewe would tolerate its loss without asking ourselves whatwe are losing and why. No asset is more important.

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. It could bea year of shame, representing the worlds failure to liveup to its pledge to tackle the crisis. Or it could be one of promise, marking the moment when humanity decidednally to turn it around. We must do everything we can tomake the second scenario a reality.

EDITORIAL

3Biological Diversity

MANY SPECIES ONE PLANET ONE FUTURE

WORLD ENVI RONMENT DAY 5 JUNE 2010

What YOU can doOne person alone cannot save the planets biodiversity,but each individuals effort to encourage natures wealthmust not be underestimated. Here are just four ways to doyour bit to encourage biodiversity and, whats more, inspirethose around you:

PLANT local species in your garden or on your balcony, orvolunteer at your local nature reserve, school or botanicalgardens. You will be providing nourishment for native ani-

mals and helping native plants to thrive. If you enjoy teamwork, why not nd out about local initiatives such as plantingtrees with local conservation groups. Look on the web orat your local library, but if you cant nd a group, you couldalways start your own!

PROMOTEthe protection of biodiversity. Tell friends, family,teachers or the person next to you on the bus what youredoing to encourage biodiversity and why it matters. Educatingyour peers is one of the key solutions to raising a generationthat cares about the future of all life on Earth.

PERSUADE local landowners, shermen, farmers and busi-nesses to do their bit to protect the species their line ofwork affects. These groups are the main stakeholders whenit comes to protecting biodiversity, and the more they hearfrom the public and consumers (thats YOU), the more likelythey are to choose to protect it.

PRESERVE the wildlife that already exists. That old log in yourlocal park or garden might just be home to insects, lizards,frogs or other organisms you hadnt noticed before. Check tosee what species might be there before you disturb anything.

www.cbd.int/2010/biodiversity/?tab=2

www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces/hourwww.snh.gov.uk/scottish/2010yearofbiodiversity04.aspwww.dublin.ie/environment/biodiversity/kids-corner.htmwww.cbcg.org.au/biodiversity/tips_for_encouraging_biodiversit.htm


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DOES BIODIVERSITY MATTER?2010 is the International Year ofBiodiversity. In October repre-

sentatives of almost all the worlds nationswill be in Japan for a meeting of the

Convention on Biological Diversity. Oneof the subjects theyll discuss is the

2010 biodiversity target, an agree-ment made eight years ago to try

to stop the loss of biodiversityby 2010 something we knowwe havent achieved. But howmany people, even amongthose meeting in Japan, reallyunderstand biodiversity? Whatis it? Can we measure it? Doesit really matter if we lose it, or

some of it? What will happenif we do?

What is biodiversity?Biodiversity is really just one wayof talking about life on Earth (thebio bit) in all its amazing variety(the diversity bit). One importantpart is the huge number of differentkinds of living organisms that sharethe planet: plants, animals, fungi,bacteria and weird things like slime-moulds. Another is all the differ enthabitats and ecosystems that makeup the biosphere: tropi cal rain forests,

woodlands, prairies, salt marshes,coral reefs, and many more. Yet ano-ther is all the different genes in eachindividual organism which deter minewhat kind of organism it is.

How much of it is there?When it comes to living organismswe can at least have a go at count ingthem. We usually do this in terms ofspecies a kind of universal currencyof biodiversity. Over a million differentspecies have been given scienticnames so far, most of them insects,especially beetles. There are alsoabout 300,000 plant species, and about50,000 species of vertebrate animalswith back bones of which humansare just one. As well as the speciesthat have been described, we knowthat there are many others that havenot. Most of these are small animals

more beetles and microscopicorganisms living in tropical forestsor hard-to-reach places such as thedeep sea oor that havent yet beenwell studied.

Where is it?Some kinds of habitat have far more

species than others. Those with themost are tropical rainforests; otherrich habitats in clude coral reefs, andscrublands in a Mediterranean-typeclimate, which are particularly richin plant species. In contrast, verycold and dry places the Arctic andAntarctic, and deserts such as theSahara have very few.

Its much harder to say how manydifferent kinds of ecosystem or habi-tat there are. People cant agree ona way of classifying them, and in anycase in the real world they dont fallneatly into separate units. We candivide the world into major biomes,like forests, deserts, grasslands andwetlands, but even then we cantreally say where a forest ends and awoodland or a woody savannah begins.And its almost impossible to say howmany types of forest there are, orexactly what the difference is betweena wet grassland and a wetland. And as

for genes, although weve sequencedthe genomes of a number of differentspecies, includ ing humans, we dontreally have any idea how many thereare in total.

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How much does losingbiodiversity matter?So thinking about losing biodiversityisnt straightforward, and becomeseven more complicated when we askabout its importance. There are allsorts of questions: How many speciesdo we need in the world or in any oneplace? How much forest? How manycoral reefs? How many genes?

These questions are very difcult toanswer. At a basic level, we humansare completely dependent on a host of

other organisms for our survival, as itsthose other forms of life that create thebiosphere, without which Earth wouldbe a sterile lump of minerals and toxicgases. Plants, algae and various kindsof bacteria produce the oxygen in theair that we breathe and, ultimately, allthe food that we eat: we, in commonwith other animals, cannot make ourown food from inorganic matter throughphotosynthesis. And a range of differentorganisms the decomposers break

down our waste products, so withoutthem we would be poisoned by our ownefuent.

No single photosynthesizing speciesor decomposer can grow everywhere,and so we need a range of them justfor these basic functions, so we knowwe need a certain level of biodiversity,but we dont really know how much.

A lot of the time we can get by with lessdiversity, of species at least, than theremight be. Agricultural lands almostalways have fewer species than thenatural habitats that they replace, andin some places weve been farmingpretty successfully for thousands ofyears. But we also know that more maysometimes be better. In ecosystems ofone type, such as grasslands, those withmore species tend to be more efcientat using resources sunlight, water andminerals to produce organic matter.They may be more resistant to some

kinds of inuence too, such as disease,and more adaptable to change, astheres more chance that at least somespecies will ourish in new conditions.Beyond that, we dont really know.

What are we doing to it?However we look at it, its clear thatwe humans have had a huge effect onbiodiversity. Weve driven hundreds,probably thousands, of species to ex-tinction, and made many more muchrarer than they would be without us.Weve also made a relatively small num-ber of species commoner, and somemuch com moner, including domesti catedanimals and crops, and wild speciessuch as dandelions or rats, which wetend to think of as weeds or pests.

Weve changed habitats and eco systemsdramatically too. Weve cleared hugeareas of forest, ploughed up grasslands,

drained wetlands and dammed rivers.Weve replaced these natural systemswith places suited to our immediateneeds and wants: farmland for food,bres and, more and more, fuels fromplant oil; built-up areas for housing andindustry; transport networks like roads,railways and airports; places to gener-ate power; and all the para phernalia ofmodern life golf courses, ski resorts,beachfront holiday developments. Andeven where we havent actually con-

verted natural areas into some thingelse, weve altered them by pouring ourwaste into rivers and lakes and dump-ing acid rain and other pollutants ontothe land.

Changes in habitats and ecosystemscan have different effects on othersorts of biodiversity species or genes depending on where they happen.Madagascar and France are about thesame size, and theres roughly thesame amount of forest in each. If wewere to clear Madagascars forestscompletely, the effect on biodiversity atthe spe cies level would be very great:these forests are rich in species andalmost all of them occur only there, soif we cleared them, thousands or tens ofthousands of species would go extinct.And for every species that goes extinct,a load of genes not found in any otherspecies disappears. But if we were toclear Frances forests completely, theeffect on species biodiversity would be

much less because Frances forestshave far fewer species and most ofthem are found elsewhere in Europeand northern Asia. Very few, if any,would go extinct.

Its much the same with ecosystems,and genes for that matter: destroyingall the worlds forests would have ahuge effect on peoples well-beingand on the planet generally throughchanges to the climate for example.But if just the worlds birch forests ormangroves disappeared, what wouldhappen? People living in places wherethey occurred would be affected, buthow much would anyone else notice?

Perhaps the real answer is thatwere asking the wrong questions.Throughout history, we have got usedto the idea that we can do what welike to nature. Modern technologymeans that for many of our needsand wants we can use machines,like cars, and synthesized drugs andfertilizers instead of relying on otherliving things. But should we feel freeto destroy everything except the bare

bones of the natural world we need tokeep the biosphere ticking over andto feed ourselves? We still haventactually worked out how to do that,assuming of course that we could workout exactly how much that was. Andwould the result really be the kind ofworld that youd want to live in?

Martin Jenkins is a co-author of theUNEP-WCMC World Atlas of Biodiversity (California University Press).

PHOTOS: Earth: Apollo 17/NASA. Insects:Bugboy52.40/GNU/FDL. Leaves: The Cat/GNU/FDL. Aquarium: Diliff/GNU/FDL. Salmonellainvading human cells: Rocky MountainLaboratories/NIAID/NIH.


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Photos: Twentieth Century Fox

W hod have thought it just a few months ago? Thebiggest-grossing movie ever turns out to be anenvironmental lm. Not an ecodocumentary like March of the Penguins , The Age of Stupid or even AnInconvenient Truth of course, but the Hollywood blockbuster,Avatar . Directed by James Cameron of Aliens , Terminator ,and Titanic it combines epic storytelling, spectacular design,

groundbreaking special effects, and intense action that enableaudiences to take in a green message along with the popcorn.

The story opens in 2154, when Earths natural resources havebeen depleted. Jake Sully, a former marine who has lost theuse of his legs, goes to Pandora, a moon with a lush, Earth-like environment 4.4 light years away. Humans, led bythe Resources Development Administration and backedwith military force, have colonized it for three decades andare mining a rare mineral (inevitably called unobtainium), need-ed for energy generation on Earth. The Administration wants acloser relationship with Pandoras inhabitants tall blue warriorscalled the Navi in order to control them and their resources.

Pandoras atmosphere is toxic to humans, so the team of scientists who aim to study its rich biosphere create avatars,genetically engineered Navi-human hybrids driven byhuman neurological systems. Jake has been summoned todrive one made with the DNA of his dead twin brother sothat he can gather intelligence to use against the Navi.

But he becomes enchanted with Pandoras environmentand, helped by Netyiri, a Navi princess, he learns to navigatethe moons landscapes and comes to respect its creatures andto understand its spiritual force Eywa which connects all its

life. Ultimately, he switches sides, becoming a Navi himself andleading Pandoras defence against the encroaching humans.

Not exactly a subtle message, but Cameron did not intend itto be. We know whats going on with the environment but

were in denial, he says. Denial is a response based on fearof change, of the sacrices were going to have to make.

Humans think: Were here, were big, weve got the gunsand the brains, therefore were entitled to everything on thisplanet. He goes on: Thats not how it works. Were goingto learn the hard way unless we wise up and start seeking a

life thats in balance with the natural cycles of Earth.But rather than hit people with facts and gures, he wanted todo it with emotion. I wanted people to feel the environmentalmessage, not think about it. Its the exact opposite of AnInconvenient Truth , which certainly offers information. Butin an action lm, its more important to get these conceptsviscerally.

So Cameron made Pandoras environment as life-like aspossible, taking inspiration from Earths biodiversity. Wehad tables covered with books about animal biology andanatomy, photo books with the textures of everything fromthe back of a tortoise to poison dart frogs. We studied theinteraction between the skin and beak of a hornbill. We usednatures resourcefulness and imagination to fuel us, which iswhy the creatures feel real.

Avatar s design was also inspired by Camerons passionfor the deep sea, from the jellysh-like seeds of the Navissacred tree to the night-time bioluminescence of its wildlife.Growing up in the 1960s, I was a science-ction fanatic,and loved the idea of space exploration. I knew I wouldnever get to go to another planet, but ocean explorationseemed like a good alternative.

His love of diving even helped lay the technologicalgroundwork for Avatar , the worlds rst 3D blockbuster.While working on Titanic the 12-year record holder forbiggest grossing lm he developed his own digital 3D

Reaching the heart

Avatar

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camera system to capture the experience of deep oceanexploration. He lmed two documentaries with this tech-nology, one exploring the wreck of the Titanic , the otherexamining the creatures of mid-ocean ridges.

Theres so much we dont know, Cameron says. Onevery dive I see something I never could have imagined. A

diaphanous jellysh 2 metres across. A pink octopus withwings on its head. Blind shrimp swarming just centimetresfrom water hot enough to melt lead. Nothing the articeof Hollywood has to offer can compete with the thrill of something this exciting and 100 per cent real.

The message seems to have hit a nerve. Teachers have ap-proached Cameron about creating curricula around Avatar .Activists have used the movies popularity to draw attentionto real-life conicts happening all over the world betweenindigenous peoples and corporate interests, some askingCameron to explicitly champion individual causes.

There have even been reports of Avatar depression:audience members so taken by Pandoras beauty that theynd it difcult to readjust to real life. Pandora seemed likesuch a perfect place, and I became disgusted with the sightof our world, what we have done to Earth, said Ivar Hill, a17-year-old student from Sweden.

The prots havent been bad either: Avatar has so far mademore than $2 billion at the box ofce, along the way winningmany nominations and awards, including three Oscars forbest art direction, cinematography and visual effects.

Avatar asks us all to be warriors for the Earth, says Cameron.It creates a sense of moral outrage, and then a sense of upliftwhen good conquers evil. When you put those two thingstogether it creates a ripe emotional matrix for people to wantto take action.

What did you glean from Avatar?

What really caught my attention were the futuristic styleof the lm and the 3D presentation. Young people love out-of-the box ideas and stories, something that will tickleour minds and take us beyond the boundaries of this

world. As I watched the lm, I reected on the real-lifeenvironmental problems and challenges that we confront,caused by greed and abuse of resources. Avatar conveystwo important messages: rst, we should respect, protectand preserve our environment for future generations,and second, we should not be afraid to ght for what webelieve is right.

Edgar Geguiento , Philippines, Tunza Youth Advisor, Asia and thePacic

Eywa keeps the ecosystem in perfect equilibrium, and theTree of Souls is like the keystone species of our fragileenvironment; remove it and the whole ecosystem willgradually collapse. The Navi, who understood this, foughthard to protect their own natural heritage. They are likeour environmentalists, conservationists and researchers.

Tan Sijie , Singapore

I am a lot more eco-conscious. I dont eat meat anymore.The Navi arent vegetarians, but they treat their animalswith respect, while most of the meat produced in the

United States is from animals that are treated cruelly. Iwant to move out of the city as soon as possible, becomeless of a consumer and produce more things for myself.

Brittany Lynn Valdez , United States of America



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F Kuek

MF Burneo

HUNAB

Taking actionMara Fernanda Burneo, Ecuador

The Yasun National Park in Ecuador is one of the mostdiverse places on Earth, and its unique location betweenthe Andes, the Amazon and the Equator makes it one of theplaces least likely to be affected by climate change, so its animportant species corridor and refuge.

In 2007, Ecuadors president, Rafael Correa, proposeda carbon-credit initiative to use industrialized countriescarbon offsets to pay for protecting the Park from oilextraction, saving on carbon emissions from deforestationand the burning of oil. However, the initiative stalled earlyin 2009 and, in frustration, President Correa threatened tocancel the project and extract the oil, potentially seriouslydamaging the Park.

In response I set up a Facebook group, A DEFENDEREL YASUNI, to unite young people against this threat andencourage citizens to defend what is the property of allEcuadorians. The group has grown to include more than 10,000young people from all over the world. Weve demonstratedtwice against the possible exploitation of the Park, and planto continue. Weve created work groups to put pressure onour Government, and are circulating a petition encouragingPresident Correa to respectthe constitution, which doesnot allow the exploitation of oilwithin protected areas: were

hoping for at least a millionsignatures.

www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&ref=search&gid=430147410600

Janeicie Kantn, Julio Martnez and FranciscoChuc, HUNAB,Mexico

The coastal area of the Yucatn houses one of Mexicos mostimportant wetlands, but pollution is endangering nativebiodiversity.

Our towns depend on the natural resources of the area,but the limited availability of freshwater and soil for cropsmeans food is more expensive than in the city. Our shermensay its more difcult to sh these days, and the economicsituation means some of our brothers have had to leaveschool or move away from the area.

In 2005, members of our childrens environmental group,HUNAB (which stands for humans and nature living inharmony), started learning about the Mayan apple snail, aforgotten species, as a way of supplementing our livelihoods.The fast-growing apple snail ( Pomacea agellata ), native to

the southeast regions of Mexico, once served as food to theMayans who lived in Yucatn.We rescued native biodiversity from the endangered

wetlands, collecting sh, snails and aquatic plants, and set

Felicity Kuek, Malaysia

The sale and consumption of turtle eggs is banned in EastMalaysia, but not in the states on Peninsular Malaysia,including Terengganu, the famous nesting site of the great

leatherback turtles. Althoughmost Malaysians are aware ofthe plight of these turtles, manystill buy and eat their eggs.

An active volunteer withthe Sea Turtle Research Unit(SEATRU) at my university since2007, Ive witnessed rst-handhow moulding young minds can

positively affect conservation. In 2009, I helped organize and

conduct a Turtle Camp for 11-year-olds on Redang Island,Terengganu.

The students there live near the breeding and nestingsites of the leatherbacks, and in the villages they comefrom, people sell and eat the eggs. Guided by volunteers andstudents from my universitys Marine Biology and MarineScience programmes, the children were taught simple turtlebiology and given the opportunity to watch turtles landingand nesting on Chagar Hutang beach. They also helped thevolunteers in beach clean-ups, patrols, nest excavations andthe release of hatchlings.

The children learned that sea turtles need protection, and

many shared this information with their family and friends.Most also pledged not to eat turtle eggs any more. Meanwhile,those of us working with the kids learned how to share ourknowledge, and gained the condence to teach others.

up aquaponic ponds for them to live in: articial wetlandswhere the animals eat the plants, which are nourished, inturn, by the animal wastes. Each child looks after a pond athome, cultivating snails, sh and plants, which can be soldfor food and pets. Using only 900 litres of water, each pondproduces about 5,000 snails, 1,000 sh and 500 plants eachyear. The production process allows us to recycle water,which can also be drunk by animals.

The project has allowed us to earn extra money for ourfamilies. The next step is to teach other children how to dothis, as well as to improvethe environment by cleaning

up local waterways and re-populating them with the na-tive plants and animals wehave cultivated.

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It all began in 1985 when BritainsObserver newspaper sent Mark andDouglas, author of The Hitch Hikers

Guide to the Galaxy , to Madagascar insearch of the aye-aye, a bizarre andendangered nocturnal lemur. This tripinspired them to spend a year seekingout weird, wonderful but endangeredanimals. The idea was to provoke areaction; to get conservation across topeople who would never usually showan interest in the environment.

The radio series and book that emergedwere witty, frank and at times hilarious,but above all a disturbing eye-openerto the plight of the world. When askedwhether Mark thought their goal hadbeen achieved, he recalled promo-tional book tours with Douglas, whenqueues were lled with leather- jacketed biker-type people, many ofwhom had never dreamt of reading abook about wildlife.

When Mark teamed up with the walkinglibrary Stephen Fry to revisit many ofthe original places and animals, Markfrequently saw things that shockedhim. When Douglas and I ew down

the coast of Madagascar, all you sawwas thick rainforest from the sea tothe mountain tops. When Stephen andI went, almost all of that was gone andthere were just tiny pockets of rainforestleft. It was all being destroyed forfarmland, and often that farmland hadturned to desert. The uncomfortabletruth was that despite the hundreds ofmillions of dollars spent and the effortsof thousands of people, a huge amounthas been lost.

Heroes of conservationMark was keen to point out, however,that without all this effort we wouldbe a lot worse off. The greatest causefor optimism, he thinks, is amazing,dedicated individuals. In almost everyplace they visited, the same people werethere 20 years on, putting themselveson the front-line between these en-dangered animals and extinction. Onesuch is Don Merton, without whom twoof New Zealands birds the kakapo

and the Chatham Island black robin would no longer exist.

Mark himself has been arrested,shot at and beaten up more times

than he can remember in the name ofconservation. Even writing a columnfor BBC Wildlife magazine has re-sulted in death threats. But he wontcompare himself perhaps a littlemodestly with those people devoting,and in many cases risking, their livesto protect an area or species.

One individual who has been doing ahuge amount for conservation as aresult of the Last Chance to See seriesis Sirocco the kakapo, a ightless,nocturnal species of parrot from NewZealand. Sirocco clearly fell for Markscharm during lming, and a videoon youtube of the bird trying to matewith Marks head helped to catapultSirocco to fame (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9T1vfsHYiKY). The birdnow has 5,000 friends on Facebook,his own website with an introductionby the Prime Minister of New Zealand,and is the ofcial spokesbird for NewZealand. Mark himself clearly has a

soft spot for Sirocco: When Siroccosaw the volunteers and rangersswimming he rushed down the jetty,leapt in and swam with them hes areal character.

Two decades ago MARK CARWARDINE spent a year travelling around the globe with best-selling author DouglasAdams, in search of endangered wildlife for a series of radio programmes imaginatively called Last Chance to See .In 2008-2009, exactly 20 years later, he retraced his footsteps with the comic and actor Stephen Fry, and found thetitle had proved all too prophetic: a quarter of the species they had featured had since become extinct. A zoologisthimself, the outspoken conservationist talked to TUNZA about the biodiversity crisis.

Last chance to think

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We must empathizeThe love the world has for Siroccohighlights a trait of the humanpersonality the need to connect andempathize which has a profoundeffect on the ever-lasting battle to ndresources for conservation. Of course it

is not only the cute animals that needprotecting, but such agship speciesare the only realistic way of generatingsignicant interest, explains Mark.In reality, if you say there is a raremushroom in India and it needs yourhelp, nobodys going to do anything.

The empathy effect is even moreprofound when dealing with anindividual animal. Imagine, explainsMark, that theres a tiger in an awfulzoo somewhere thats not being lookedafter. If you campaigned, say througha newspaper, you could raise themoney to rescue that tiger and bringit to a sanctuary overnight. But if youcampaigned in that same paper fortigers in the wild, you wouldnt raisenearly as much.

People enjoy a story with a beginning,middle and end: nd the tiger, raisethe money, save the tiger. But weneed to accept that there is no end to

conservation. You cant say, right,weve saved this species or that area,and move on to something else. Assoon as you go the problems startagain.

Another obstacle is that conservationis almost always reactive rather thanproactive. One of Marks interestsis the African lion. Its population isplummeting faster than the Indiantiger. Sixty years ago there were half amillion and now there are 20,000, but

nobodys really waking up to it. When itgets to 5,000 therell be panic, publicityand a lot of effort, but by then itll bemuch harder to do anything. Thatssomething that needs to change.

Over the past few decades environ-mental issues have become moremainstream, with many people gen-uinely interested in living an environ-mentally friendly life. Surely this canonly be a positive thing? But, as Markexplained, with every movement thatgains popularity, there are publicitystunts and empty promises from peoplewho simply want to take ad vantage ofthe opportunity to make a prot.

Take ecotourism. If it is managed wellto limit disturbance and is educational,it can be a very positive thing. Itbrings jobs and provides people withan incentive to protect their wildlife.However, if done inefciently orwith the wrong intentions it can be

disastrous. Pristine places, and thewildlife to which they are home, are atrisk of being loved to death by well-meaning ecotourists. This is one ofthe reasons why it is so important to

encourage people to think about whythe label eco matters so much.

He goes on: Politicians often want tomake conservation seem painless itsnot. They love to focus on recycling, forexample which makes every-one feelgood about themselves rather thantackling the supermarket giants and the

fundamental issue of over-packaging.Doing what you canA talented photographer himself, Markhas been the chairman of the WildlifePhotographer of the Year competitionsince 2005. When asked what it wasabout wildlife photography that heloved, Marks answer was: Im terribleat painting and drawing but Ive alwaysloved photography. Any good picturecan be very evocative you can inspirea person with a photograph.

So what can we do? How does ayoung wildlife lover get involved?Volunteering, says Mark. Most con-servation groups couldnt survive with-out dedicated volunteers and in returnyou get experience, the opportunity todemonstrate your passion and meetlike-minded people. Many people Iknow who are now running con ser-vation groups started that way.

To learn more about Mark andthese issues, his website www.markcarwardine.com is a great placeto start.


Above: Douglas Adams meets a kakapo.

Left: Twenty years later, Mark and Stephenmeet another.


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12 TUNZA Vol 8 No 1

where the W IFloweringplant family

diversity

Terrestrialvertebratefamilydiversity

Low diversityHigh diversity

The maps above and below show the relative distribution of owering plants and vertebrate animal families.While both show that species richness increases as latitude decreases towards the equator, Africa appears tobe very rich in vertebrate families, particularly in the moist forest areas of the Gulf of Guinea and in the east,including in the less moist woodlands and savannahs. Flowering plants abound at the same latitudes, but of the around 90,000 families found in these regions, some 40,000 are found in Asia.

In general terms, in terrestrial environments: warmer environments hold more species than colder ones; wetter areas hold more species than dryer ones; areas with varied topography and climate hold more species than uniform ones; less seasonal areas hold more species than highly seasonal ones; areas at lower elevation hold more species than areas at higher elevation.



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L D things are

Low diversity Corals

Coraldiversity

Freshwatersh diversity

Inland waters make up a tiny proportion of the worlds water resources, less than a hundredth of 1 per cent,yet are home to fully 40 per cent of known sh species: almost exactly 10,000 species of shes are connedto freshwater, while a further 1,100 or so occur in freshwater but are not conned to it.

Shallow tropical coral reefs are amongst the most productive and diverse of all natural ecosystems. They are

estimated to cover less than 1 per cent of the worlds ocean shelves, covering an area of up to 300,000 km2

around the coasts of 110 countries and territories. But just ve countries (Indonesia, Australia, Philippines,Papua New Guinea and Frances overseas territories) are home to more than half of them. But while warmtropical waters are the most diverse in terms of species, the colder waters of the higher latitudes are themost productive in terms of biomass, teeming with plankton, including krill, on which many other marineorganisms depend.

Source: UNEP-WCMC World Atlas of Biodiversity/California University Press


High diversity


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15/24


new ways to ensure livelihoods in less developed countries.Trees are far more than carbon sticks: forests offer a widerange of other services, like food, wood, shelter, medicinesand water regulation.

Q: Might this valuation lead to a realization that, eco-nomically, we can live without tigers or polar bears, but notwithout certain fungi?

A: A systematic valuation of different ecosystems and theirservices might indeed lead to the conclusion that somerarely known fungi play a crucial role, for example as abasis for medical treatment or for pest control in agriculture.However, charismatic species like tigers or polar bears carryhuge cultural value as they symbolize the condition of theenvironment that well pass on to our children. Hence,although not all the benets of ecosystems or certain speciescan be given a monetary value, there is a strong rationale forsaving species such as the polar bear because of its value asone of the great charismatic species of the world.

Q: Are ecosystem services limited, for example fresh water?In a world where resources are in ever greater demand, andthe number of people is still growing, how does economicvaluing do anything other than make resources lessaccessible for the majority?

A: Economic analysis shows the important role of ecosys-tem services for human well-being, a link that is currentlyneither well understood nor appropriately recognized inour everyday decisions. Thus, economic valuing may act asa stimulus for policy making and point to the need to stop

the ongoing loss of ecosystems and biodiversity. Setting uprules and procedures for their sustainable use will ensure thatecosystem services will still be available for the generationsto come. This implies that those who use ecosystem servicesor damage the environment, like corporations emitting airpollutants, should pay for it, while those who contribute tothe provision of ecosystem services, such as organic farmersor managers of tropical forests, should be duly compensated.

Q: What is the ultimate goal of putting a monetary valueon biodiversity and ecosystems? Is it about redening publicvalues to recognize that nature is the basis of our health,wealth and development; a nancial mechanism to forceus to take care of scarce resources; a way of alleviatingpoverty; a way of conserving biodiversity; or all of these?

A: Well, all of these. By demonstrating an economicrationale for preserving ecosystems and biodiversity, wellcontribute to the ongoing redenition of public opinion onnature and environmental protection. In many instances wecan show that its much better to conserve ecosystems andthe services they provide than let them degrade and have toprovide those same services using technical solutions. Takefreshwater: it can be much cheaper to preserve a watershedthan build a water treatment plant. Or coastal protection: it

may be much cheaper to preserve or even restore mangrovesthan build and maintain dykes. Adding this perspective tothe well-dened arguments for environmental protectionwill help to get the message to a wider group in society andfacilitate policy making to safeguard our natural capital.

Freshwater treatment: wetland or purication plant?

Flood control: forest or dam?

Coastal erosion: mangrove or dyke?


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16 TUNZA Vol 8 No 1

Food choice

Foraged feastsIT BEGAN with childhood curiosity. If my tortoise, Creep, loved dandelion leaves,surely they must taste heavenly! And in my reading Id often nd references tocountry people eating wild plants. So, good for tortoises, good for country people

good for me!My interest in wild food grew, along with my interest in nutrition, creative

cookery and sustainable living. Ive now been a dedicated forager for 11 years,and from continuous research know at least 400 edible plants, 300 fungi and80 seaweeds, and many processing techniques.

Though Im a longtime vegetarian, I do occasionally eat foraged meat

found as road-kill: wild animals that have been hit by cars but that are in necondition for food. Foraging can be a physically intensive job, and on top of this I swim, cycle and run. Consequently, weeks eating purely wild plants canlead to exhaustion. Meat is a concentrated source of nutrients, so occasionallyconsuming a little counteracts any tiredness.

Foraging does have dangers, arising from insufcient knowledge or makingwrong assumptions. Once, my girlfriend harvested a basketful of two similarfungi varieties, the edible horse mushroom and the poisonous yellow stainer.

You can tell them apart by examining their stems, but shed not gathered thestems of the poisonous ones, so I assumed all were the same. Vomiting anddiarrhoea told a completely different story!

Eating wild is a good way to remember how intimately we are linked toEarths biodiversity. You realize that all plants have several purposes: they providefood and medicine, and support the life cycles of countless insect species thatin turn support the health of other plants and animals further up the food chain,including us. You also come to appreciate plants for their own sake. Foraging canmake people intensely sensitive to the web of life right where we live, motivatingus to support biodiverse habitats.

But take care. Low-impact foraging means harvesting only a small percentageof plants in a particular area, and never rare or endangered ones. I encourageforagers to germinate a few wild plant seeds from a regularly harvested area, andplant them back out.

Never forget the North American Lakota peoples principle: Search until yound the plant you want, but do not pick it. Continue your search until you nd abatch of the same plant, ensuring that it wont become extinct because of you.

Fergus Drennan, United Kingdom

To read Ferguss foraging blog, visit www.wildmanwildfood.co.uk. To try his favourite wild-food recipe, Sea-Buckthorn Sorbet, visit www.ourplanet.com

VariedvegetablesFOR MOST OF MY LIFE I couldnt imag-ine life without meat, though I believe innon-violence. Meat is an essential partof my culture, and my family has been

meat-eating for generations.Then, I travelled to the UnitedStates, where new friends from Indiaopened my eyes to the possibilitiesof vegetarian cuisine. They taughtme to eat lots of vegetables, preparedin different ways, surprising me withthe variety of tasty recipes. They useda wide array of vegetables, many newto me.

But I didnt become a vegetarianuntil I developed digestive problems.My doctor suggested I give up meatfor two months. I stopped eatingred meat, and it was a big relief. Inthe meantime, vegetarian friendstaught me how to have a good andcomplete diet. I also began learningabout sustainable consumption andthe environmental consequences of large-scale animal agriculture.

Today, Im on the path to becominga full vegetarian. Its not easy: it takestime to change habits. The most im-portant tool is knowledge, especially

of nutrition and of where food comesfrom. My health and that of Earth aregreat reasons to start.

Carla Basantes, Ecuador

For the rst time in history, more than a billion people are going hungry. Numbers have recently risen sharply by150 million having held more or less steady between 1990 and just a few years ago. And the increase has happenedat a time of good harvests. More than enough food is produced to feed everyone on Earth; its just that the poorcannot buy what they need in the face of rising demand from the better-off. Increased use of biofuels made fromcrops for cars and consumption of grain-fed meat by the growing middle classes is expected to make things worse,as are population growth and climate change. Hunger is expected to rise, and so is the amount of land converted toagriculture, with the knock-on effect of reducing biodiversity.

Here, four people tell TUNZA about their approach to eating, keeping in mind the health of life on Earth. They areamong the lucky who can choose what to eat.


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AbhiramGopi

Fergus Drennan

Shauna Swartz


Meat moveMY FAMILY adhered strictly to Jewish dietary laws, so as a child I had no illusionsabout where meat came from. Our butcher cut it from a skinned animal hangingfrom a hook I could still make out the faint shape of a lamb. I stopped eatingmeat as a teenager, and for 21 years adhered to vegetarianism as a choice that is

good for the environment.But, to my shock, I have recently become an omnivore. It started with therealization that much of the vegetarian food I ate, particularly soy-based, washighly questionable. Soy is so hard to digest that it must be processed, oftenwith petroleum, in order to make it nutritionally available. Most vegetarian meatsubstitutes are laden with additives. Even organic soy can be a hormone disruptor,and breast cancer is rampant in my family.

Around the same time, a girlfriend persuaded me to try sh oil pills toalleviate the depression Id suffered for years, as Omega-3 fatty acids from share superior to those from vegetable sources. My mood improved, and I came off my antidepressants. I prefer getting nutrition from food rather than supplements,so I also began eating sh. I was no longer a vegetarian, and I was no longerdepressed. Two life-changing experiences.

Meanwhile, I developed a deeper interest in sustainable agriculture. I beganvolunteering for a nonprot market stall in Philadelphia that sells food producedby more than 80 small local farmers, and eliminated processed, non-local andunsustainably raised foods from my vegetarian diet. On visits to farms, I saw,rsthand, how they raised animals for food humanely, respecting the animals,environment, workers and, ultimately, eaters. Animals roamed and grazed ongreen pasture in an environment buzzing with life.

Over time, I became comfortable with the idea of meat as food. I handled andpackaged it at the stall and even cooked it for my girlfriend. When I nally ate it, Ifound it tasted good and made me feel good.

Plant life is still the main component of my diet, but I feel my ideals haveevolved and strengthened. Eating a diet that relies on more forms of life, sustainably

produced, can have more of an impact against over-industrialized agriculture thansimply opting out of eating animal products altogether. Yes, it costs more moneyand effort, but ultimately makes me feel better, and is better for the planet too.

Shauna Swartz, United States of America

Sacred

stanceIN INDIA, it is not just the beliefs of an individual, but also cultural andreligious factors that decide foodhabits. I have been a vegetarian allmy life and intend to remain so. Itwas my caste that decided this: it isconsidered a sin to eat meat. But myown belief, that killing animals is notright, has kept me on the path.

Indias rich biodiversity is secondto none. But most people here havehardly seen or experienced the natu-ral splendour of their own country so,as a result of lack of awareness, haveno sense of urgency to try to savevanishing resources.

The key lies in making childrenaware of Indias natural riches, thebeauty of the diversity of life. If weteach them that animals have asmany rights on this planet as we do,they might come to see that taking alife of another animal for ones own

recreation is a heinous crime. Untilsuch a change happens, part of Indiawill continue to use animals for food.

Abhiram Kramadhati Gopi, India


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Q Surely species have always gone extinct? Why should webe worried about that happening now?

A Yes, of course, extinctions have always taken place: indeed,only about 3 per cent of all the species that have ever livedstill survive. But normally this a slow process. What ishappening now is that species are gong extinct at 1,000-10,000 times the natural rate. If this continues, half of allspecies will disappear in less than 100 years, causing thegreatest mass extinction since the dinosaurs died out 65million years ago. On past performance, life on Earth wouldtake millions of years to recover.

Q Is it climate change or other human activities that aremore damaging to biodiversity?

A So far, human activities like habitat destruction, mis-management of natural resources, pollution, and theintroduction of invasive species have had the worse effect.But as global warming accelerates, climate change willpredominate. Experts warn that approximately 20-30per cent of plant and animal species are likely to be atincreased risk if global average temperatures rise by 1.5-2.5C, increasing to 40-70 per cent at 3.5C.

Q What parts of the planet are most affected by biodiversityloss? Any particular countries?

A It is relatively difcult to say which countries are at par-ticular risk of losing biodiversity, beyond saying that thegreater the rate of change, the more diverse the area, andthe poorer the current state of the environment, the greaterthe likelihood of a signicant loss of biodiversity. Experts

have, however, drawn up a list of some 25 biodiversityhotspots which contain especially rich wildlife and are alsoparticularly at risk. Many cover several countries, but mostare in the developing regions of the world.

Q Are plants more at risk from the effects of climate changethan animals?

A That depends from species to species. Generally speaking,animals are less vulnerable because they can move moreeasily. But some animals are conned by small niches,while those plants that can spread their seeds over a largearea are more likely to survive.

Q Plants and animals have adapted to changes in theirhabitats throughout history. Why cant they adapt againto climate change?

A In part this is a question of time. Evolution works overhundreds and thousands of years, yet we are talkingabout major shifts in global temperatures over just 50-100 years. And it is harder than ever for species to followa shift in habitats. Our farms, our towns and cities, ourroads and railways have fragmented natural areas almosteverywhere, and there are few corridors of suitable habitatfor the plants and animals to move along.

Q Are there any positive effects of climate change onbiodiversity?

A Climate change could benet some plant and animalspecies by increasing their ranges. By and large, however,pest species which are usually very opportunistic willdo best, while rare ones conned to particular areas willdo worst. And even those that do well initially may sufferas climate change continues to accelerate. At any rate, wehumans wont be able to choose the winners and losers.

18 TUNZA Vol 8 No 1

When we respect the environment,then nature will be good to us. Whenour hearts are good, then the sky will be good to us. Maha Ghosananda,Cambodian monk (Buddhism) When God created Adam, he showed him the Garden of Eden and said:

See my works, how lovely they are,how ne they are. All I have created,I created for you. Take care not tocorrupt and destroy my universe. Ecclesiastes, Rabbah 7 (Judaism)

I have Three Treasures, which I hold fast and watch over closely: the rst is kindness, the second is simpleliving and the third is not to presumeoneself to be the chief of the wholeworld. Sage Laozi (Daoism) There is no life that is inferior. All lives

enjoy the same importance in theuniverse and all play their xed roles.They are to function together and nolink in the chain is to be lost. FaithStatement, 2003 (Hinduism)

The world is sweet and verdant green, and Allah appoints you to beHis regents in it, and will see how you acquit yourselves. Sunnah of theProphet (Islam)

We afrm that the world, as Godshandiwork, has its own inherent

integrity; that land, waters, air,forests, mountains and all creatures,including humanity, are good inGods sight. World Council of Churches, 1990 (Christianity)

FAITH IN NATUREThe worlds major faiths agreewe must rediscover a rightrelationship with nature.

TUNZAanswers your questions


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Anita Eberl/PNUE

www.providencefarm-ohio.com

www.providencefarm-ohio.com

Katsuyuki Sugimoto/UNEP

More than 60 breeds of cattle, goats, pigs, horses andpoultry became extinct in just the rst six years ofthe 21st century, and a fth of the worlds known

livestock breeds are teetering on the brink. TUNZA talkedto Irene Hoffmann of the FAOs Animal Genetic ResourcesBranch about what is happening and why it matters.

People started domesticating animals some 10,000 yearsago, to provide food, clothing, transport, fertilizer and fuel,help them farm, herd, hunt and haul. They still do all this, andmore, but things are changing. Each domesti cated speciesdid many things: cattle, for example, provided milk, meat,leather, fat for candles and lamps, and dung for fertilizer, and

could also be harnessed. Now, intensive farming focuses onproducing single products say, just milk, eggs or meat from a small set of highly specialized breeds.

Just 11 species pigs, cattle, goats, sheep, buffalos,rabbits, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese and guinea fowl now provide more than 90 per cent of the worlds food

from animals. Of course, we also stillrely on many more species includingasses, camels, horses, deer, guinea pigs,ostriches, and partridges but thesearent as important for food on a globalscale.

Highly productive breeds of the main species have dis-placed traditional ones in developed countries, and thesame is now happening in developing regions undergo-ing rapid economic growth. Typically subject to intensegenetic selection, these breeds need tightly regulatedconditions, feedstocks and drugs to thrive. Small-scale farmers of traditional, local, hardy animals, nding itdifcult to compete, may try these imported breeds, or cross

them with their own ones. While this has been successfulin increasing food production in some areas, it has also ledto the decline in local breeds. In other cases, keepers havebecome poorer because the exotic animals are expensive tomaintain and dont cope well in difcult conditions.

Hundreds of millions of the worlds poorest rely on livestockto survive, and with so many hungry people it is especiallyimportant not to lose our options. The animals convert forageand crop waste, inedible to humans, into nutritionally valuableproducts. This is important, as about 40 per cent of the totalland available in developing countries can only produceforage, and around 12 per cent of the worlds human population,mostly pastoralists, depend almost entirely on livestock for theirlivelihoods. In addition, a diverse diet has signicant advantagesin addressing malnutrition: animal pro tein intake improvesgrowth and cognitive development, and is particularly importantfor food-insecure children and mothers.

Well-managed livestock helps sustain wild biodiversity,shaping landscapes and creating mini-habitats, connectingecosystems by transporting seeds, improving the abilityof grassland to hold water by trampling and aerating thesoil, fertilizing with manure, and removing excess vege-tation, which reduces the risk of re. And in well-managedgrasslands, grazing animals

can even help to sequestercarbon in the soil.

But as breeds become extinct,the solutions they provide arelost forever. As our climatechanges and our animals are ex-posed to shifting temperatures,

droughts, diseases andparasites, or feed short-ages, tra ditional breedsmay carry traits thatmake them vital to ourfood security.

We can try to protectlivestock biodiversity

by keeping animals in government farms, re-search stations or zoos, or by freezing geneticmaterial. But its best to keep as many breeds

as possible in use. In Europe, forexample, declining breeds haverecovered through the marketingof specialty products and schemesthat pay farmers to keep them.The challenge now is to do this indeveloping countries, where small-scale farmers and pastoralists keepmuch of the worlds livestock geneticdiversity.

People involved in livestock keeping should stay wellinformed about genetic diversity and the characteristics

of different breeds. Rare breed societies dedicated to con-serving livestock diversity are open to young members. Andeveryone has power as a consumer. Asking about the breed,origin and environmental impact of animal products canpromote diversity.

Closer tohome



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-4 -2 0 2 4

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1985 1990 1995 2000 2002

Source: UNEP-WCMC

Source: UNEP-WCMC

20 TUNZA Vol 8 No 1

Everyone knows that the worlds biodiversity is decliningprecipitously, and that this must be halted. But whichspecies and ecosystems are under the most pressure? And onwhat basis could the worlds leaders agree to take action?

Answers lie in indicators, says Damon Stanwell-Smith of theUNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre. He is ProjectCoordinator for the 2010 Biodiversity Indicators Partnership(BIP 2010), which provides information on trends in support ofthe Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the internationaltreaty on the issue.

He describes the indicators as intuitively under standablegraphics drawn from available data to extrapolate usefulinformation about the state of the environment.

So if an indicator monitoring migrating birds shows acontinuing decline in the numbers visiting a particularwetland, it may reveal an underlying problem such aspollution or a fall in the sh that feed the birds and makepossible informed action to protect and restore the habitat.

But why are specic indicators necessary? Why not justmonitor everything: wetlands, birds, insects, sh, industryand so on? That is simply too great a task even for the specieswe know, and scientists think these make up only about 10per cent of the Earths biodiversity.

Gathering data is time-consuming and very expensive,and sometimes just impossible, says Stanwell-Smith. Forexample, weve barely even begun to come to terms with whatis in the worlds oceans.

Luckily, almost every species lives within complex ecosystemnetworks, so specic indicators are a reliable and efcient wayto get information about the general state of ecosystems.

More than 190 governments are party to the CBD, which in2002 set a target of achieving a signicant reduction in therate of biodiversity loss by 2010. In the interim, a set of 17 BIP2010 headline indicators has been developed for assessingbiodiversity and measuring progress.

Some of the indicators are assessed in more than one way,making a total of 28 different measurements. They include

tracking how sustainably wild species are exploited; howmuch of the Earths surface is covered by protected areas;the extent of different habitats; river fragmentation; thebiodiversity we use for food and medicine; trends in thespread of invasive alien species; and even the status ofthe worlds indigenous languages, which are importantbecause they hold deep and complex ancient knowledge ofthe natural world.

Only a tiny proportion of species provide the data we needto track the status of threatened species, even thoughthe threat of extinction is the best-known issue. We have

the most complete data about birds because people areinterested in them, so it is more straightforward to getvolunteers to count them, says Stanwell-Smith. We alsolike tigers because they are powerful and fascinating. Butits harder to get people interested in the monitoring ofworms or fungi.

Focusing on charismatic groups like birds, large cats andbears increases public awareness of the natural world, headds, but the danger is that we may spend a disproportionateamount of resources on these agship species at the expenseof less popular species like insects, marine invertebratesand microorganisms, which are critical to human survival.Getting that story across to the public in a compelling way isone of the BIPs main goals.

Stanwell-Smith acknowledges that most of the 2010BIP indicators point to continuing loss, and that the CBD2010 target is not being met, but he says he is not at allpessimistic. The BIP is just the rst step, and its a big one.Right now its a global undertaking; our next focus will beto encourage indicator use at the national level, becauseit is usually the decision makers of individual countrieswho take the most signicant action. And of course wecontinue learning more about biodiversity, which will make

our indicators more robust and help us make ever-moreinformed decisions.

For more information about the 2010 Biodiversity IndicatorsPartnership, visit www.twentyten.net

Measured questions

Latin America and Caribbean

Tropical Africa

South and Southeast Asia

North Africa

Oceania

North America

West and Central Asia

Europe and RussiaEast Asia

Change in forest area by region

Net change 2000-2005

1990-2000

Net change (million hectares)

Dynamics and distribution of land resources in Ukraine

M i l l i o n h e c t a r e s

Total land

Agricultural land

Forests

Built-up land

Water bodies

Open swamp

Other land


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FightingbackBy Fred Pearce

What happens to wildlife after a nuclear disaster? Does thelandscape ll with two-headed mutants? Or does everythingdie from the radiation sickness? Well, in Chernobyl, wherethe worlds worst nuclear accident happened 24 years ago, theanswer looks very different.

Wildlife is having a eld day. When humans evacuated the exclusionzone for 30 kilometres round the stricken nuclear reactor, naturemoved in. Today, wolves prowl the empty streets of the ghost townof Pripyat, just down the road from the reactor. Trees grow tall in theradioactive soil. Bats roost in the rafters and roe deer run through thewoodlands and abandoned farms all around.

When one of the nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl plant in northernUkraine caught re in April 1986, huge amounts of radioactivematerial escaped. Some of it spread across Europe and fell in therain. As a result, some sheep raised on Welsh hillsides 2,000 kilo-metres away are still unsafe to eat. But most of the radiation felllocally, in Ukraine and across the border in Belarus.

In the months after the accident many animals died terrible deaths

because of the radiation. Plants suffered too. One forest turnedorange. But since then, radiation levels have fallen, and wildlife hastaken advantage of the absence of humans to recolonize in a big way.

With towns emptied and the countryside stripped of farmers, hunters,loggers and all trafc, nature has the run of the place, and wildlife istaking full advantage.

Many species unknown around Chernobyl before the disaster movedin, says Sergey Gaschak from the International Radioecology Lab inKiev, Ukraine. They included lynx, eagle owls and bears. The numbersof many other species are booming, including wolves, badgers, wild

boar, deer, foxes, hares and otters. Some birds are even nesting inthe burned-out remains of the reactor itself, he says.

Its not all good news, according to Tim Mousseau from the Universityof South Carolina. The radiation hasnt completely disappeared. Hehas found fewer birds in radioactive hotspots. The biggest declinesseem to be among birds that feed on worms and insects living in thesoil, which is still heavily contaminated.

Mousseau says birds around Chernobyl also have more geneticmutations. Most of the mutations are fairly minor, like unexpectedwhite tufts in the plumage of barn swallows. But generally it seemsthat birds, and probably other species, die younger and breed less.

And some trees are growing in a strange twisted way. Scientists thinktheir hormones are scrambled and they may literally not know whichway is up.

Despite ofcial bans on entering the exclusion zone, some humanshave crept back to their old homes. But they are running big risks.And even outside the zone, people are warned not to eat animals thatmight have strayed inside.

But wildlife itself is ignorant of such fears. Whatever harm theradiation is doing to their bodies, plants and animals mostly revel

in the sheer absence of humans. Their lives may be short, but theyare happy.

You want to know what the world would look like if humansdisappeared one day? Go to Chernobyl.


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Kike Calvo/Das Fotoarchiv/Still Pictures

Rusty Bug/www.ickr.com

Xopherlance/www.ickr.com

Koalas are fussy eaters: they will only consume the leavesof a few dozen of the more than 600 species of gum trees.Eucalyptus leaves are already poor in nutrients, and increasedlevels of CO 2 have been shown to reduce protein and increaselevels of tannin, a chemical which makes leaf proteins highlyindigestible. Eating more, to try to make up for reduced nutri-tional quality, would cause poorer digestion and a lower uptakeof nutrients. Alternatively, koalas may become even morechoosy about what gums they will eat and will have to travelfurther to nd them, increasing the risk of being killed by dogsand cars; 4,000 a year already die like this. Increased droughtsand forest res will reduce their food supplies even further.

Clownsh were made famous by the lm Finding Nemo , buttheir real lives are even stranger than ction. If the sole female

in a group dies, for example, the largest male of the groupchanges sex to allow breeding to continue. They are also ableto build immunity to a particular sea anemones poison, liveamong the anemones tentacles and lay their eggs beneaththem, so that they are protected from predators. When theeggs hatch, the larvae follow chemical signals in the water todetect a suitable anemone for a new home. But as the oceansgrow more acid as they absorb more and more CO 2 from theatmosphere, it is increasingly difcult for the clownsh todetect these signals.

Many forces including habitat destruction and overshing are already driving species to extinction, and for someclimate change is likely to prove the nal straw. Last December the International Union for Conservation of Nature(IUCN) published a study of the most at risk from global warming; seven of them are described below. Yet, as SimonStuart, Chair of IUCNs Species Survival Commission, says, Ordinary people are not powerless to stop these tragiclosses. They can cut down on their own CO 2 emissions and voice their support for strong action by their governments tochange the dire climate prognosis we are currently facing.

As the sands in which they lay their eggs warm up, leather-back turtles will become more and more endangered. For,strangely, their temperature determines the gender of thenewborn and, as global warming increases, the proportionof females to males will also grow, threatening the stabilityof their populations. Rising temperatures will also affecttheir staple food, jellysh, which are generally found in

cool, nutrient-laden, upward-owing waters. And the morefrequent and severe storms brought by global warming willerode and degrade beaches, causing turtle nests to be washedaway in the short term, and reducing the number of suitablenesting areas in the long run.

species on the climate change HIT LIST

7Koala

Clownsh

Leatherback turtle

22 TUNZA Vol 8 No 1


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Martin Heigan

Tersia Claasen

Pat Meyer/Flickr

Drjameslee/www.ickr.com

Emperor penguins depend on ice, both to live on as chicks beforethey edge and to use as they moult. So they are particularlyvulnerable to the rising thermometer. Air temperatures on thewest coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, one of their main habitats,have risen by nearly 3C over the past 50 years. If global temp-eratures rise by a further 2C all their colonies north of 70(almost 40 per cent of the total) would become unviable. Risingtemperatures and thinning ice are also likely to lead to morefrequent incidences of icebergs colliding with penguin colonies,as happened in 2001. And projected declines in pack ice are likelyto reduce populations of the krill they feed on, and that form thebase of much of the Antarctic food web.

The 160 species of antler-shaped staghorn corals make upover 20 per cent of the worlds coral. They depend on algae which give them their colour for oxygen and nutrients. Butas sea temperatures rise the algae produce too much oxygen,which can poison the corals. So they expel the colourful algaeand become bleached, also losing the algaes life-givingassistance. If the waters resume their normal temperature

within a few weeks, there is hope that the corals will recover,but the damage caused is not totally reversible and the coloniesnever return to their full state of health. Already a fth of coralreefs worldwide are damaged beyond repair.

The quiver tree so called because San Bushmen hunters

use it to make quivers for their arrows is Namibias nationalplant. Growing in the desert, the trees pulpy, water-retentivewood yields drinking water and makes dead trunks suitable forhollowing out to use as natural refrigerators. Their bark canbe used for building and their owers provide nectar to feed arange of insects, birds and even baboons. While animal speciescan adapt to climate change by moving, plants including treesare much less mobile and rely on animals to disperse theirseeds. But these are moving south, and so the northernmosttrees are increasingly vulnerable and large numbers havealready died.

One of the rst mammals to colonize Sweden and Finlandfollowing the last ice age, and now found as far west asAlaska and as far east as Russia, the arctic fox gives birth toits young in summer in complex underground dens that canhost several generations. The number of young born in eachlitter depends on how much food is available, but many of thefoxs prey animals including lemmings and voles which relyon the insulation provided by snow to get them through thewinter are suffering as a result of mild temperatures. Climatechange is also pushing the arctic foxs greatest competitor andpredator, the red fox, to encroach upon its territory.

Staghorn coral

Quiver tree

Arctic fox

Emperor penguin



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Anant Vijay Singh/UNEP

THE YEAR OF THE TIGERTyger! Tyger! burning bright. In the forests of the night. William Blakes poem encapsulates the worldwideawe and adulation felt for the biggest of the cat species. But now there are more tigers in zoos in the UnitedStates alone than in all the forests of the globe.

A century ago, there were 100,000 tigers in the wild; now there are estimated to be just 3,200. Three of itssubspecies the Bali, Javan and Caspian tigers are already extinct. A fourth the Amoy tiger has not beenseen in the wild for a quarter of a century. Tigers have disappeared from 93 per cent of their former territoryand most now live in isolated pockets spread across increasingly fragmented forests from India to southeasternChina and from the Russian Far East to Sumatra, Indonesia.

Yet the tiger is enshrined and venerated in many cultures and faiths. It is the national animal of India andfeatures in the Chinese zodiac and in Buddhist beliefs. Countless millions of people love and value them, eventhough few will have seen them in their natural habitat. And there is good reason for such respect.

Apart from anything else, as top predators, healthy tiger populations are vital to maintaining ecological balance,such as by keeping wild ungulates in check and thus conserving the vegetation upon which they feed. And astigers need a lot of space to survive, conserving them helps protect large areas, and thus many other species.

Yet both their habitat and natural prey continue to disappear, taking a heavy toll. And they are poisoned, shot,trapped and snared and hunted on a large scale for their body parts, mostly for use in traditional medicine.This is so serious that tigers have been wiped out in several areas set up to protect them.

If tigers are to survive into the next century, governments throughout the species range must show greaterresolve and lasting commitment to conserving them and their habitats, and to stop all trade in products fromboth wild and captive-bred tigers.

2010 is the Chinese Year of the Tiger, providing a critical opportunity to mobilize action at the scale required to stopthe loss of tigers and rebuild their numbers. This September a Global Tiger Summit in Vladivostok co-hosted byRussian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and World Bank President Robert Zoellick will lay out an ambitious agendafor reviving populations around the world. It will include doubling wild tiger numbers by 2022, a goal enshrined inthe Hua Hin declaration adopted at the rst Asia Ministerial Conference on Tiger Conservation in January 2010.

WWF, the global conservation organization, has been working to conserve tigers for over four decades. Its 2010Double or Nothing campaign aims to support the doubling of wild tiger numbers by raising emergency funds toend poaching, clamp down on the trade, support the summit and ramp up efforts to protect habitat at anunprece dented scale.

Ensuring a future for tigers in the wild is possible. The big cats are prolic breeders: given enough space,prey and protection, they can recover. And they have done so where national governments, supported by non-

governmental organizations, have made a consistent and substantial commitment to conservation. Without suchurgent and collective action, however, tigers will disappear from our forests, and we will lose not only an iconicsymbol of power and strength, but a protector of nature.

By Sarah Bladen

Avatar: Reaching The Heart

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