This article was originally published on Thomson Reuters.
“…Biodiversity and nature are vitally important to everyone’s daily lives and its services are fundamental to our economic prosperity and development. But what are these services? At their simplest, they are things people often take for granted – clean air, drinking water and healthy food.
Oceans and coral reefs provide food and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of people. Forests clean the air, regulate the local climate and retain water for rivers, while healthy soils are essential to grow crops. Mountains and glaciers are key sources of water for major rivers. Increasingly, the fragility of ecosystems poses huge risks to societal and economic stability. Quite simply, nature is the foundation for a healthy society, fair economy for all, and global security.
These services provided by nature that people and businesses depend on, such as clean water, pollination or protection against floods, are estimated to be worth US$125 trillion per year – around two-thirds higher than global GDP. Too big to fail, you could say.
We understand the problems, we know the solutions
Our planet is in the red and the proof of destruction is overwhelming, but what is also evident is that current global efforts to end this crisis are failing. What we need is a new response, backed by concrete commitments from countries, businesses and individuals to tackle nature loss, climate change and development in an integrated way.
Only by connecting the dots between issues like climate, food production and nature loss do we stand a chance of reversing a downward spiral and restoring our precious natural world…”
Read on at: Thomson Reuters.
