Correlation Between Ecosystem Services And Human Well-Being
Watching the earth from space
I love nature, animals, and plants and my childhood dream was to be an astronaut who can see all the stars, moons and planets with bare eyes. One day I was looking at a beautiful picture of the earth taken from space and accepted it is almost impossible for me to become an astronaut. Instead, I decided I would keep this planet green and blue unless I can be an astronaut, for later generations. Since that day, nature has become the most important matter to me. Studying reasons and substantial methods to achieve the goal, I see conserving biodiversity as the fundamental key for the sustainable earth and human lives.
Human as a part of ecosystem is strongly connected to biodiversity. Biodiversity is described as “the diversity of life on Earth” and is essential for vital functions of ecosystems which ultimately affect human well-being. From 2001 to 2005, The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was carried out analyzing functioning of ecosystem and a schematic diagram of linkage between services provided by ecosystem and constituents of human well-being. We gain a variety of benefits from sound ecosystems underpinned by biodiversity which contributes to human security, resiliency against climate disasters, social relations, health, and even freedom of choices and actions. Especially, forests are taking the mantle of human livelihood. They give us foods, woods, fuels and shelters, even necessary medicinal elements. Also, more than 1. 6 billion people depend on forest for living and 75 percent of world’s poor are affected directly by land degradation.
The bad news is that biodiversity and ecosystem are being threatened directly and indirectly by human activities. The most important direct drivers of biodiversity loss and ecosystem service degradation are habitat changes, such as land use changes, physical modification of rivers, and direct contamination from toxic waste disposals. On the other hand, they can be slowly and extensively affected by climate change, overexploitation, and pollution.
Current conditions of lives on land and negative impacts
Although net forest loss has decreased by more than half since the 1990s, every year 5. 6 million hectares of forest covers are destroyed, and it is larger than the size of Costa Rica. The loss of forest contributes to climate change as they keep temperature low by evaporating water and the evaporated water forms clouds which work as a parasol that reflects radiation from the sun back into space.
The Southeast Asian islands of Borneo show a critical role of forests in regulating climate. Around 75 percent of Borneo was covered with tropical forest in the 1930s; but now remaining forest is less than half. Researchers found extremely localized changes in climate, with clear variation in temperature between forested and deforested parts of the island. On average, deforested areas were warmer by 1. 7 degrees Celsius than those with intact forests. The study also discovered a strong relationship of forest loss and rainfall reduction. Watersheds in which 15 percent forest loss occurred are experiencing rainfall reduction of more than 15 percent and it leads to reduction of water resources. Besides, biodiversity loss continues at an alarming rate. The IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List classifies animal, fungi and plant species by their global conservation status into nine groups from ‘Extinct’ to ‘Not Evaluated’ and the index graph demonstrates increasing extinction risks per species. Coral reefs are in the most serious decline due to climate change and local human activities impacts. Water pollution is decimating amphibian species by skin disease.
Wildlife poaching and trafficking also contribute to biodiversity loss and negative societal implications. According to UN SDG Research, since 1999 more than 7,000 species of animals and plants have been reported in illegal trade affecting 120 countries and all regions of the world whether as a source or transit location. Biodiversity loss is an urgent problem in developing countries because a considerably larger proportion of jobs are highly dependent on ecosystem services in developing countries (927 million, 35% of jobs) than in the EU countries (14. 6 million, 7%). Wildlife animals can be valuable sources for generating national wealth and local community based employment in tourism sector. However, sustainability has to be significantly considered when it comes to tourism business since it can stimulate further wildlife poaching and trafficking activities.
Efforts to conserve biodiversity
Every other human is a subject of negative consequences of biodiversity loss therefore, their every eco-friendly action is meaningful to conservation. For instance, as an individual I am trying to reduce wastes and use of disposables and buy products from companies with environmentally sustainable manufacturing system. Governments, private enterprises, non-profit organizations are establishing networks to handle this wicked problem. “Tree Planet” is a private company that aims to alleviate forest loss operating online game and crowd funding on tree planting. Users can plant and raise a tree in the game, send their baby trees to the real world where trees are required and get reports about the trees. Through close partnerships with other sectors and active participations of about 700,000 people, the company has planted more than 500,000 trees all over the world including Southern Sudan, China, India, and Mongolia. Recently they are raising money via crowd funding to plant trees in North Korea where deforestation has destroyed 37 percent of forests due to the intense hunger and cold.
