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Experts warn of possible extinction of up to one quarter European animal
species By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, May 16, 9:08 AM
BRUSSELS — The Iberian lynx that prowls the grasslands of southern Spain.
The Mediterranean monk seal swimming waters off Greece and Turkey. The
Bavarian pine vole that forages in the high meadows of the Alps.
These are among hundreds of European animal species — up to a quarter of the
total native to the continent — that are threatened with extinction
according to a warning issued this month by the European Union.
“Biodiversity is in crisis, with species extinctions running at unparalleled
rates,” said a statement from the European Union’s Environment Commissioner,
Janez Potocnik.
The threatened species include mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and
butterflies. Plant life is under threat as well. The crisis is due to
several factors, including loss of habitat, pollution, alien species
encroachment, climate change and overfishing.
Critics say the EU’s proposed solutions don’t go far enough and lack
funding.
“Life is possible because of biodiversity,” said Ana Nieto, with the
International Union for Conservation of Nature. “Everything comes from
biodiversity. Everything comes from having well-functioning ecosystems.”
The crisis threatens humans as well, potentially wreaking economic and
social havoc in Europe, said Potocnik spokesman Joe Hennon.
The continuing loss of birds can allow insects to breed at alarming rates,
harming crops, Hennon said. A reduced number of bees inhibits plant
pollination. Diminishing forests mean water is not cleaned naturally and the
soil is loosened, too, making floods and mud slides more likely.
All of that, Hennon said, means governments should spend money preserving
species from extinction.
“People say, ‘Yes, but we don’t have the money to spend on environmental
protection. Surely growth and jobs are more important,’” Hennon said. “You
have to say, ‘Well, look what happened in Pakistan last year. You can have
catastrophic flooding because forests have been cut down. So it ends up
costing you more in the long run.”
The strategy proposed this month by Potocnik sets a variety of targets —
among them, halting the loss of species in the European Union countries by
2020, putting management plans in place for all forests, restoring at least
15 percent of degraded ecosystems, controlling invasive species, and more.
Environmentalists have generally welcomed the targets but expressed
skepticism.
“There needs to be funding and there’s not really funding,” said Nieto.
Hennon, the EU spokesman, acknowledged Monday that funding so far is
insufficient to meet the EU’s goals. A paper explaining the new proposals
said the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, is “assessing the
funding needs” for implementing the 2020 goals. The EU failed to meet its
biodiversity targets for 2010.
The European Environmental Bureau, a confederation of grassroots
environmental organizations, said the EU strategy “appears to fall short of
delivering what is needed to protect Europe’s valuable natural resource
base.”
Nieto said the loss of biodiversity is more acute in Europe than in many
other parts of the world because of the scale of residential and industrial
development. With an average of nearly 70 people per square kilometer (180
people per square mile), Europe is the second most densely populated
continent, behind only Asia — and about three times as densely populated as
North America.
“Today, biodiversity doesn’t simply mean the protection of rare plants and
species,” said Sarolta Tripolzsky, with the European Environmental Bureau.
“It’s about protecting a system people rely on to live. The costs of
replacing nature’s free services would be devastating.”
Conservationists argue that ecosystems over time find a complex balance and
changing one seemingly small aspect can have significant consequences that
cannot always be foreseen. They say there’s also an obligation to preserve
species, regardless of the consequences.
“The species was here before we were even here, so there’s also a moral
issue,” Nieto said.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
--
Loretta Lohman, Ph.D.
Nonpoint Source Outreach Coordinator
Colorado State University
Colorado Water Institute
3375 W. Aqueduct Avenue
Littleton, CO 80123
lorettaloh...@gmail.com
303-549-3063
www.npscolorado.com
