May 7 2019
In light of the lntergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services assessment report published today, campaign charity Population Matters has hit out at conservation groups which fail to address the human population. The report describes human population growth as an "indirect driver" of and calls for "lowering total consumption and waste, including by addressing both population growth and per capita consumption".
Population Matters director Robin Maynard said:
“For any organisation charged with protecting nature, failure to acknowledge human population growth as a driver of biodiversity loss is inexplicable. Failure to advocate for the positive and ethical solutions which reduce population growth, improve people’s lives and protect biodiversity is simply negligent.
“Multiple factors contribute to extinctions but the pressure caused by more people demanding more land, food and resources and producing more carbon and pollution clearly underlies a great many of them and especially habitat loss. Of course we must tackle unsustainable consumption, reckless exploitation and ineffective environmental regulations but adding two billion more human beings by 2050 will snatch many of those gains away. There’s no magic bullet to protect biodiversity but no rational and realistic plan to address it can ignore the impact of human numbers.
“The IPBES hasn’t shied away from that reality – nor should the other organisations which the public and policymakers look to for leadership on this issue, whether that’s WWF, regional conservation groups or intergovernmental bodies.”
Last month, Population Matters hosted a conference in London addressing the relationship between human population and the Sixth Mass Extinction (2). In a video message to the conference, Population Matters Patron Dame Jane Goodall said:
“I would encourage every single conservation organisation, every single government organisation, to consider the absurdity of unlimited economic development on a planet with finite natural resources… We can’t go on like this. We can’t push human population growth under the carpet.” (Video available, 3)
Responding to the IPBES report, one of the speakers at the conference, Dr Edu Effiom, Director of Biodiversity at Cross River State Forestry Commission, Nigeria, said:
“Many of my colleagues in the scientific and conservation community are deeply conscious of the effect of population pressure on biodiversity. To see such a major report addressing it so explicitly is very welcome. I hope it will lead to more open and constructive discussions about how measures like the sustainable harvest of natural resources, girls’ education and women’s empowerment can be used to benefit people and protect nature.”
Negotiations are currently taking place to set new targets and priorities under the principal international agreement for the protection of biodiversity, the Convention on Biodiversity (4). Population Matters is calling for the so-called “post-2020 framework” to address human population and encourage measures to address population size.